My husband and I would eventually like to emigrate, I have always fancied Canada as i have friends who have been out there, but my husband would prefer the more sunnier of climes of Austrialia/New Zealand, Please can someone let us know what Canada has to offer in terms of the lifesyle out there??

Welcome Samsuth

For the benefit of those in canada, of course the smart ass answer to the question is "Tim Hortons"


Here is the serious answer!

Canada is unimaginably huge and diverse. It offers pretty much anything you are looking for somewhere, with the exception of the old history and culture of the UK, as its a relatively new country.

What does it have that Oz and NZ dont? Well its not as parochial as NZ from what I have heard, and its not full of Australians, and not as oppresively hot all the time which from some of the comments on "returning to UK" is a bit hard to take after a while. Canada also has a world class economy, and is a member of the G8 group, it offers a North American quality of life, but with a UK style social concience to some extent, so maybe the best of both worlds?

In short Canada has something for everyone, from great 24 hour a day cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, to the magnificent rockies, the fantasticaly friendly and picturesque maritime provinces, boom towns like Calgary, the beautiful lakes and rivers of rural Ontario or the pristine northern wilderness. Downside is it can be hard to get a great job at first (like moving anywhere I guess), and you need to accept the winter and embrace the 4 season nature of this country, unless you go to BC, where it is just wet on the coast (To be fair to BC there are some parts of the interior where the climate is drier, but there is no big source of jobs there.).

Really you have to ask yourself why you want to emmigrate. Its better to pick a country for what it offers, rather than because it seems better than where you are now. It takes a lot of patience, and money to get through, so you will need to be well motivated, and once you get a visa, it is not the end of the process, just the beginning.

Its a rocky road, but most of those who have travelled it are happy to be in canada.


Good Luck

Iain

That's a really great answer Iain - with an answer like that, someone would have thought you were born and raised here!!

Just to add - BC especially the island is a rainforest - but the climate is very mild all year round. All you need is a good gortex jacket and off you go. We can pick spinach and swiss chard from our green house all year round. My strawberries are still going strong and so are my raspberries. However living in paradise does have it drawbacks - its expensive to live here (although from what I understand not like the UK).

And to add to the "smart ass" answer of course, Gordon Lightfoot, Stompin Tom Connors (especially if you live in the Maritimes).

We have problems like any country in the world.....but as Iain said, Canada has so much to offer everyone.

Good luck to you.

Hi

Interestingly.....I wanted to go to OZ having lived there for a year but the other half wanted to come to Canada as he had previous been here. Somehow he won but we comprised........we live in the Okanagan that has Australias hot summers, lakes, beaches etc and then the bonus is the winter when we can drive just 30 mins. to a ski resort and enjoy all the winter activities.

Big plus over Oz, the distance and cost back to the UK.

JJ

There is also all these

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=252938


A good standard of living, less of all the fluff ( class conscious ), more bang for your money when you go out for a meal, openess in terms of roads and space.

But lets not get carried away, there are also many problems similar to the ones we have in the UK, but not of the same scale. Yobs, violence, paedophilia, gang wars et al.

Well to be exact we don't hve Yobs in Canada yet - I thought they were exclusive to the UK - but yes, as I mentioned every country has problems like this - some countries are worse than others.

Have you ever visited the Netherlands (lately)? Then you would know that the yob-culture-thing didn't mind about country borders....

Are you speaking for BC or canada as a whole? May be they are not called yobs here, but we can think of another moniker to call them. Oh...How about the asian kids gangs in vancouver then, what is that all about?

No, I haven't but Jim is going to Germany hopefully next summer/fall on a consulting project and if everything works out (we have a little guy in school part-time) we plan to do some travelling and he Netherlands was one of the places!!!!!, as well as Switzerland, Austria, etc......but sometimes the best laid plans........

I'm talking about Canada as a whole.....my understanding is that yobs are different from Asian gangs....and asian gangs aren't just relative to BC....

So....I'm still waiting patiently.....about the bus drivers in London??????

Just like am waiting for the explanation about the name calling What is your understanding of yobs then? Apart from the asian gangs, what about the kids that spray stuff on building and trash jewish synagogues, to name just a few, what are those then?

Let me know when you're in Holland. If I'm still here by that time it would be nice to have drink with you and your family

What about safety? The driver will need all his attention driving the bus safely through London and cannot be distracted by stupid questions from passengers.
Just a guess from a (former) dutch coach driver.......

I thought I explained about the bus drivers already, THEY ARE VICIOUS!!! you could lose a finger..... OR WORSE!!!!!

Iain

Am surprised she is still going on about that, she has even resulted to calling me names now She should go on the london transport website and find out:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/

Or the museum in convent garden, if she is that desparate !

Getting a bit sensitive now? I though I was the nut case when I read it first time, so it must have struck a raw nerve Move on eh!