I think this is generally fair. I have been outside in Canada and have found that the activities open to us have differed from those in the UK only due to funding; sailing and horse keeping have featured heavily and neither would have been feasibly affordable in the UK. Skiing and diving are about equally available here as in London but are cheaper there due to the lower cost of flights. Hiking has the same cost here as there but the UK has a fabulous network of footpaths and bridleways which are not matched here (Bruce Trail notwithstanding).

I question the idea that the weather is better suited to outdoor activities here. Even walking the dogs is a challenge in a couple of feet of wet snow.

I don't think people should move just for the outdoors, the cost of moving would keep you in cheap flights to mountains and oceans for decades.

Mmmm skiing in Europe is still expensive, especially with the whole let's fine you if you take your child on holiday outside of half term. Plus it's just a week. We live 40mins away from a few average hills- fine for us newbies, and the plan next year is snow school for the kids every weekend during the season.

On a different note, the amount of people who ask us oh did you boat, waterski etc back in the uk? Err no, it was super exepnsive

I liked the snow, and we had a fraction of the rain that we would have got had we stayed. Plus the kids will happen ski and tobaggan while it's throwing down snow.

Of course this may be the case in ON but not elsewhere. Here one has access to many km's (or miles for the imperially minded) of trails & logging roads for hiking plus motorised recreation.

As an example, one can, in the summer hike to the spot in the picture. It takes a couple of days & is not, I imagine, for the faint of heart or unfit. In the winter you can get there by snowmobile. Which is a lot easier.

I'm rather different - I had a boat in the UK and have no possible way of affording one here. However that's primarily because I now have two kids rather than where I live.

I take it that's a picture taken in August.

The problem, as discussed often, is that where the jobs are is where the wilderness aint. Etobicoke, for example, is as convenient for the outdoors as Harringey.

If I moved back to the UK I'd have a much nicer boat as I wouldn't be paying $600 CND for moorage a month.

We couldn't have afforded it- not completely sure we will here either. Probably. You can live on waterfront here, although some areas of water are more expensive than others, or use a marina, or lots of public boat launch around...

We have a dock but no substantial boat. We had a bowrider but it was mostly boring going up and down the same bit of water. When it wasn't boring that was because it was dangerous, a busy lake with plenty of citiots who cause huge wakes. Husband now has a row boat and a little motor so he can potter around fishing.

Snowmobiling = expensive, $3-400 to rent, plus the 2-4 hour road trip to get to rental place, anywhere local you need to own your own and you get to drive up and down the ditches. ATVing is the same.

Skiing, slightly cheaper than snowmobiling.

Kayaking, closest kessons I could find were 2 hours away, they also rent boats, we can rent boats locally too but we need to have a vehicle to transport them.

Hiking, loads of trails around the city or a few hours away.

What I was trying to get the OP to think about was why they think the outdoor lifestyle is more attainable, aside from snowsports the outdoor lifestyle is just as attainable in the UK as in Canada and in some cases it's easier to try new things in the UK imo.

It's very much dependent on where you live, surely?

I'm located at a ski resort, so snow/ice based activities, hiking, ATVing, dirt/mountain biking etc are all on the doorstep. There's 1000kms+ of lakeshore within a 40 minute drive, where I moor a boat. I couldn't possibly have had all that anywhere in the UK.

I found it that using a public launch wasn't cost effective compared to keeping a boat at a club. This was based on living in Toronto, it might be different in the country. The public launch entails having a truck and a trailer and somewhere to store all of them. At the club you use a cradle made of old packing crates to support the craft through the winter, it gets stored either by marine railway or crane, the cost of either being shared with many other people. You can go to the marina on the bus.

Spot on! I like to describe Canada as having "the best backyard in the world", don't get me wrong the UK does have a good playground, when I lived there I did a lot of outdoor stuff, hiking, mountain climbing, mountain biking and I enjoyed it all....but there is so much more on offer in Canada winter and summer.

Even "civilised camping' is far better here....in the UK it was mown green field and no camp fires allowed at most of them, at least here in Canada...well Ontario, they are set in forest parks with a fire pit, and an overall rustic feel, and many with a lake nearby that is actually warm enough to swim in.

Even though I love the UK countryside and I have spent a lot of time in it, for the choice of outdoors stuff to do all year round, (dont forget Canada actually gets a winter, there hasn't been a winter in the UK for years) the UK it doesn't compare to Canada for the outdoors, just wish I could get someone interested in it! All my Canadian friends I have made here so far seem very blaze about how amazing the outdoor playground is of the country they live in.

However as for taking in the country pub on your outdoor pursuits......(very important!) that's where Canada just cannot compete with the UK.....that part of it is sorely missed, but I suppose you cant have everything.

Yes, it is dependant on where you move to, of course it is and as the OP hasn't said it's a rhetorical quedtion isn't it? All I'm trying to say most outdoor except snow sports are also on the doorstep in the UK and the outdoor lifestyle isn't necessarily any more accessible in either country.

I challenge you to find a mountain on the door step of anyone in South East England

There are many excellent campgrounds in Ontario Parks, some rustic, some like Butlitz, most inbetween, Long Point and Pancake Bay are a couple I especially like, but I'd be very cautious about visiting one in a National Park again. The National Park campgrounds in Cape Breton are just fields into which as many tents as is physically possible are crammed. There are many dogs and there are people who drink domestic beer. It's something better than a Bangui refugee camp and worse than one of those Gyspy encampments the UK government moves along.

The Alps. The Alps are a range of tall mountains as near to South East England as the Rockies are to people in those bits of Canada that have lots of wheat. And there are trains, some of them cheap trains, to the Alps.