Ok, just a wee bit of help needed here..

We are presently living in a smallish town in NZ here of approx 80,000 well small for Canada.
We are moving to Canada next March and as much as I like Toronto city I dont want to live there. We are hoping to move to a town just outside
the city with about the same population, if a little more then thats fine.
We want to be able to work and live in a nice town without too much hussle and bussle but close enough to be near my family who do live in the city. Maybe 45 - 1hr away.
Any suggestions of nice areas with the possibilities of work as well.
Ive looked at places like Guelph, London so on but it would be nice if someone actually lives in these areas with success stories.
Also anyone live in Collingwood and what is it like?

Thanks in advance

Collingwood is lovely! My cousin lives just outside of town and loves it there. Beaches, biking and sailing in the summer and skiing and snowshoeing in the winter.
I believe per head of population it has more fitness rooms and yoga studios than anywhere else in Canada.
I think you are just over an hour to Toronto although you can drive to Barrie and take the go train from there.
I'd say certainly worth considering.
http://www.town.collingwood.on.ca/

Thanks
Im really liking Collingwood the more I see of it..

More like two hours to Toronto at a low traffic time. It's about an hour to Barrie which is itself at the limit of commutabilty. You'd need a job somewhere up there.

Ya unfortunately Collingwood would be very far and impractical to commute to Toronto and get there very easily for that matter. Also the population is under 20,000 the last time I checked so that may be a little too small if your looking for something more around the size of where you live now. It is a pretty cool place to do some outdoor stuff though. There are so many small-medium sized cities surrounding Toronto proper and they all have their similarities and differences. There are some nice cities along the water, which is nice (Oakville, Burlington, Whitby, etc.) Are you looking to commute into the city everyday to work or what kind of lifestyle are you thinking?

O I dont particularly want to commute to Toronto for work. I would like to live in a somewhat large town of a community of around 80-120k of people that would assure me work and to live in a community.
I love Toronto but not to live, its too busy for me.
I live in a town that is close to the beach and trekking so I suppose I would want to live somewhere like I have here.
I have friends that live in Collingwood and they love it and they said that they visit friends in Toronto and it takes them about 1hr 15 mins approx that would still be too far to travel.
I guess I just want to live in a nice town with not so much comuting to work and with nice people. Amenities and some sort of activity going on.
Thanks for the replies Guys

They must have a plane. Commuting from just north of Shelburne I can get to the CN Tower in an hour if I leave at 4:30am and ignore the speed limit. Collingwood is 45 minutes the other way driving at 110-120 clicks. Even if when they say "Toronto" they mean Brampton and they're talking about the middle of a clear summer night an hour fifteen is optimistic.

Ya I actually have to agree with dbd on this one, there is no way they make it close to Toronto central in that amount of time, but I know thats not the central issue regardless. As to cities around 120K + around Toronto and partially on the water - Oakville, Burlington. Ajax, Pickering and Oshawa are all on the other side of Toronto along the lake. Oshawa isnt the nicest place to live in so I would ignor there but you can make your own decisions when looking at it if you do.

Just north of the city there is Markham, Richmond Hill, Newmarket and Aurora. Aurora only has 45K + but growing and a very nice area with one of the highest incomes per families in Ontario atleast. Lots of open green space with golf courses and such, but also civilization with everything you need in terms of shopping. Markham is developing is currently developing its own downtown core that im assuming they want to be somewhat self substainable to live and work. Unfortunately none of these communities are on the water, but also obviously a closer to drive to go up north to ski and such.

There are other larger cities around, but for the most part the cities above are between 80-150K population. Totally depends what else your looking for.

Any mention of Markham deserves the qualifier that it has a mainly Chinese population. I don't drive there anymore. Orangeville and Guelph are other possibities, each has a smallish lake, enough for a dinghy but not a yacht.