Re: Unsure where to go
 

Bejesus, A bigger house aint worth getting clinically depressed for?
50 minutes to Vancouver? What bleedin' mode of transport are you using? or you are leaving house at 2am.
I would strongly recommend people visit these places out of the summer holiday mode. As even Chilliwack is bearable on a one off visit when its sunny. (apart from diabolical smell).
You got to think of what it may be like 6/7 months of the year when its pissing down all day.

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Actually, if we go into more details, if anybody drives in Lower Mainland's rush hour (doesn't matter from where you are driving) you''ll be stuck in traffic. Yes it smells occasionally but your $$$ goes a lot more here. I do not drive in rush hour to Van or Coq.(since I am emloyed locally), but it does take me 45-50 minutes to Coq. Center mall each time I drive so do not fool anyone.

Regarding peesing: tell me where in BC does not pee? I want to see that place in Vancouver area. Abbotsford and Chilliwack (see Environment Canada stats) are the dryest in winter months (although could be the cloudiest too) with much higher daily temps, just check during this winter and you'll be amazed. When Vancouver has +4 in January we, very often, balming at +12+16 degrees during day hours. Oh, and I just love when it's +30 degrees in Fraser Valley, it's a beauty.

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The HK money are moving away that's true but the real estate is left behind (Westwood Plateau i.e.). Vancouver is still highly atractive, as a real estate investment, from asia including the same HKers and mainland China. Just look who are the major (and in some cases the only) buyers of all highscrapers flats in Coal Harbor for the last 5 years and next 2 years (yes there is a waiting list to anyone's surprise).
There is forestry in BC economy, mining and so forth...
But if you go back to see my point which is: the only two (may be ) three provinces that have some disent future in Canada are BC, Ab, and ON. But, to repeat myself, the only normal, livable climate in Canada is in BC.

AB climate has potential problems for the people who are sensitive to a quick changes in athmospheric preasure and temps: Calgary has one of the highest stroke and heart attack incidents in elderly, BC has the lowest in N.America; (since the body does not have enough time to adjust to fast changing pressure or temperatures: and I mean changes in 8 hours from -35 to +15 degrees and then plungin down to -27 in the next 12 hours) ; the city's stroke stats are still not too high on average compared to N.American cities only for one reason: Calgary has the youngest population, but just wait 2-3 decades since stats are rapidly rising due to the aging population. And, I completely agree it does have "cowtown mentality" (please, agree, since it is the opinion of the majority of the people who come to the city as tourists). The city has "the craziest drivers in Canada; way too many huge leisure pick-up tracks on the roads; etc..

However, I know many people who like this city a lot, so it is a voice of choice and where you feel at home and most comfortable.

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Oh, yah, just an idea came to my mind: WE ARE ALL SCREWED UP, WE SHOULD OF CHOSEN ... AUSTRALIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I really have never seen any reason to complain about the weather here. Compared to Britain, its sunnier year round, though it rains more in winter. Summers are much drier than in Britain, and very sunny.

I looked up the stats to back myself up.

VANCOUVER: about 1900 hours of sunshine per year
VICTORIA: about 2100 hours per year
LONDON: about 1500 hours per year

Hmm...

So, Victoria gets 600 more hours of sunshine than London, Vancouver 400 more. And Victoria is drier than London, too.

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I'm from Victoria and now live in England. Generally, I find it sunnier and drier here - with the additional bonus of fantastic thunder and lightening storms and freakingly, amazingly, jaw-droppingly, beautiful sunrises/sets (all very, very rare in Victoria). I do live in the sunniest and dryest part of the UK though - according to the locals. I've never actually checked but it does seem to be sunny here when it's pissing rats elsewhere on the map. Not that I really care one way or the other - I'm just as happy (or depressed!) in the sun as getting soaked in the rain.

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I was not trying to discuss the merits of rainfall/ sunshine but saying there was a trade off for getting a bigger house i.e living in a craphole like Chilliwack, which is very pleasant to visit on a sunny day...but at least 5 months of the year it aint sunny.
Personally I'd rather have the higher rainfall of Van or N.Van than sunshine in some of these places.

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I'm going by climate statistics (and personal experience).This map shows annual hours of sunshine for the UK. As you can see the sunniest area is the south coast, which recieves only 1541 hours to 1844 hours per year, much less than either Vancouver or Victoria, which get between 1900 and 2200 hours.

I only point this out because some people thinking of moving here are dissuaded by Canadians saying how wet and rainy the west coast is -- not so, by British standards! I can say this from personal experience. Even in terms of Canadian sunshine averages, the west coast is not as gloomy as it's made out to be -- Toronto gets around 2000 hours of sunshine, and 30 inches of rain..roughly the same as Victoria (a bit less sun, actually!), but Toronto is much, much colder in the winter.

Toronto's precipitation and sunshine are much more evenly spread throughout the year, however, like weather in the UK. In Victoria and Vancouver the precipitation is much more seasonal. Quite wet in the winter but very dry and sunny throughout the summer.

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More things to worry about than the weather to be honest. You might want to worry about jobs, housing, and good schools for your kid/kids. Also you might want to ask yourself, is the place you have in mind, central and accessible to everything you will/might need?

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Calgary: about 2400 hours per year

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Dear Grendel

I would avoid avoid avoid Prince George, there's a large amount of individuals who used to live there that now live in Vancouver - it's a rough place by all accounts! It's also the arse end of nowhere. You only mention that you'll use your equity to invest in a 3-4 bedroom house here with some land. It all depends on how much of a mortgage you want, unless you're planning not have one, in which case don't come to BC - which stands for BRING CASH!

There are other areas in the lower mainlaind maybe worth a look. Fort Langley, Abbotsford, White Rock ,South Surrey, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Port Moody. On looking at MLS BC is split into the following areas:

BC Northern
Dawson Creek/Chetwynd
Kamloops/Okanagan
Kootenays
Lower Mainland (includes all the places above and more)
Powell River
Vancouver island and smaller islands.

It all depends on how you want to live your life and what kind of work that a) you are qualified for, experienced in and b) what work you can actually get in the local area - flexibility is the key.

The lower mainland is more popular obviously because of the vicinity to Vancouver and close by municipalities for better work opportunities. If you work in paper mills or logging then Northern BC or Powell River might just be your mecca, unless you can become a remote worker. Don't underestimate the distance between places here. Powell River is only really accessible by car and several ferries (6 hours from Van) or a 45 minute flight in a small twin-prop from Van.

Start having a look at www.mls.ca and getting to know what's available to you for the cash you want to spend. BC and Canada ain't as cheap for land as it was 100 years ago! There has been some development since then!

:)

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Blimey................ I love living in the 'arse end of nowhere' ..............

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That depends on your point of view - I would much rather have snow than rain. I hate the rain. There are two kinds of people - those who like rain and those who will take snow to stay away from rain. The former go to BC, the rest of us somewhere east of BC.

Dont you know that Calgarians need those pickup trucks to drive the kids to school? :rolleyes:

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Yeah, but the precipication numbers are probably only counting the precipication that falls directly from the sky not the wet winter 'ice fog' that perpetually hangs in the air like dewy spider webs and chills people to the core of their bones or the wetness that wafts up out of the ground or the moisture that oozes from the vegetation and drops down the back of your neck as you walk by. Victoria's like a saturated sponge in winter.... never mind the disappearance of the sun. I don't mind that so much - I actually like the foggy closed in feeling (for a while). And fantastic winter storms! I miss going walking along the sea walls or along the breakwater and getting absolutely soaked by crashing waves or out to Long Beach and seeing the ocean going crazy.

Yeah, that's true. People mistake the wet winters on the coast as 'the weather' on the coast and assume it's like that all year when in fact it hardly ever rains at all in the late spring/summer/early autumn - most summers are there are water shortages, no camping because of tinder dry forests, people burnt like lobsters, zero clouds, etc... but thankfully without the humidity or intense heat of other places - it always cools off at night. Still... boring sunsets most of the time and no thunder and lightening... earthquakes can make up for that... but they're too infrequent. :D

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Oops apple ogies Mr Mike, if I offended you! Yes of course many people live in the a.e.o.n and love it. It's not for me but it's all about choices. I'm a city kid so Maple Ridge is the a.e.o.n for me! Although I do have to say that sometimes the idea of living on Quadra Island with a small holding growing potatoes and making my own beer looks very, very attractive to me! :beer: