el_richo

Hi there,

After reading through many posts within this forum one thing that makes me curious is why people choose to locate where they do.

Had you been there before you moved? If not why did you choose it?

Had you actually been to Canada before you applied to re-locate? I'm suprised at how many people do this. In fact, close friends of mine decided to leave UK and chose NZ over CAD even though never having been to either country.

Did you visit other provinces / areas of Canada before choosing?

Just a bit of curiosity from myself really. For me, my wife's originally from Vancouver and although we've visited many areas of Canada as a whole my personal feel was that BC was the place for us. I guess the bias is there due to having friends and family-in-law in Vancouver but that's where we'll be moving after a successful PR (cup half full and all that). For me, Vancouver offers just beautiful scenery, quality of life, beaches, skiing, boating, great food etc. It's a nice transition from the hectic city life in London as we'll be living in Downtown Vancouver for a while before we look to move onto acreage. It's also within driving distance of very good friends in Kelowna. We also have a love for Cranbrook, BC area too.

Rich

tioram

Hi Rich

I'm one of those people who applied to emigrate before ever actually going to Canada. Knowing it was likely to take a few years and that I'd have an opportunity to withdraw without any consequences made that decision easier.

Having applied, my wife and I had a fairly clear idea what we wanted to get out of the move and so researched just about every bit of Canada to find what we were looking for. We've decided to move to the suburbs of Toronto. Some might say that's a little boring but for us it's a huge adventure and for our kids it gives them an opportunity to grow up in a family friendly community where they'll have both the great outdoors and a modern, cosmopolitan city on their doorstep.

Another factor for us was the distance / time difference / travel cost etc. from the UK. BC and Alberta were just too far for us. The time difference between Ontario and the UK means I can still keep in touch with family in the UK during the week and it's cheaper for family to visit us and for us to pop over the water whenever we feel the need. My father recently had a health scare and the whole episode re-enforced our desire not to be too far away.

So we're ultimately looking at Oakville, Burlington, Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket and King City around Toronto. We're expecting to have to go where the jobs are to begin with but those are the areas we're ultimately looking towards (King City would be my preferred choice if money was no object).

We're ultimately looking for the right balance (for us) between the outdoor lifestyle and the convenience of city life.

Cheers
Paul

Sleeping_Beauty45

We chose the 'burbs Toronto too because we have family there. When we went out to visit we felt that it held the most potential to us as a family and that is where we are concentrating our efforts on trying to get out to. We are applying for jobs and looking at transferring our family business over.

If we didn't have family in Toronto then we would be looking at Vancouver or Calgary for no other reason than lurking on here it seems both have quite good reviews (Vancouver and Vancouver Island especially). When we went to the emmigration show in Leeds we liked the presentation by the Calgary people and it looked fabulous with the mountains in the background - oh I am such an advertisers dream.

Kaye.

We've never been to Canada either, but will be going at some point this year. We chose Alberta as my hubby is a welder and Alberta has the most opportunities. Not sure on exact location yet but will probably be a bedroom community outside Calgary.

Atlantic Xpat

St John's, Newfoundland and environs because the Mrs is a Newfoundlander and wanted to come home!

dbd33

Toronto for work. Nearest place within budget of not-very-much with space for a horse by whim of OH. We could been 75 miles from the CNN Tower in any direction; at least until the Rochester/Toronto ferry line went bust.

mclauchlan35

Were not 100% on where we are going as yet, I had always thought that most people go to Ontario, although recently on the forum many more seem to going to Alberta and towards Calgary in particular.

There was a poll a while back to who was there if I remember rightly, I wonder how it would shape up now percentage wise for the forum, to who is going/ already in which province.

iaink

No, well, two days here for the interview, it was where the job was. I got lucky and landed on my feet in a really nice area of the world.

I had no expectations, so was not set up for dissapointment. I think a lot of people have way too high an expectation and hopes for the future, in part due to the months/ years spent waiting to get here, thinking about how great its all going to be, researching everything to the tiniest detail.

Maybe Im just not fussy?

chumley

polished off a bottle of wine on a Sunday afternoon in June of 2007 and was idly surfing the net
typed in property for sale canada and a wild west area of nova scotia popped up it was the first in the google page

sale board went up within 48 hours plus had another property to sell otherwise we would have been here within a week!!

arrived april 2008 with 2 bags and 2 dogs

hated the place for the first 48 hours then had a rethink so bought the first home we viewed and never looked back perfect decsion sometimes you know it pays to just go for it and not analyse too much

just got med request this week
been here as vsitors since april last year and also got a years visitor extension

so for the place picked us all fate!! never set foot in NS before although have been to other parts of canada

mclauchlan35

Here's the poll, gives a good indication of where people are although not why they are there.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=poll

Grah

Coz it had the 4-5 bedroom houses at a reasonable rate and availability
it had the Education choices and opportunities for the kids
It had social adventures for the kids
It didn't have earthquakes, poisonous or dangerous creatures, weather wasn't extremely dangerous - no massive Storms -
Had job opportunities - wasn't a boom and bust economy like Alberta. Folks helped each other during the "flood of the century" - The city had information galore on what they would do in snow storms floods fire...
had direct flights to the UK.

OK so since being here 11yrs had F5 tornado 20 minutes away - Mosquitoes have got West Nile and 7 months of non-gardening weather is now boring. (kids have grown-up). The world's economy has gone down the tube and the direct flights have stopped.

Oh well, wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Madmac

We actually looked at NZ seriously before deciding on Canada.

The plus factors for here were the reasonable flight times to the UK, the similarity of the culture (superficially though) and that some of my relatives were close by in Michigan (relatively speaking of course).

Specifically Guelph because I worked as a College lecturer before we came out and Guelph looked centrally placed for job opportunities at some of the major Colleges and Universities in the KW-Guelph corridor. In addition, we developed a contact with a young Scots couple who came over a few years before us and were very good at giving us local information and help.

We did have a couple of recce trips before we came over (although one was a wooden-spoon, second-prize honeymoon - Cancun, hurricanes 'nuf said) and liked what we saw. We still do.

ExKiwilass

OH was from Vancouver, most of his friends and family are here. There was no question of moving anywhere else.

I've since been to Ottawa and Toronto and *shudders* the weather would be a big no-no for me moving east. So I'm glad it's worked out the way it did.

BristolUK

Met and married a woman who happened to be Canadian and living in Quebec.

I had already been planning early retirement on a reduced pension and capital from inflated UK house prices available to buy somewhere suitable. (Had thought Spain.)

Once it became Canada by virtue of the fluke meeting, it was a case of looking for somewhere that I could do the same. Atlantic Canada became 'that somewhere' with capital buying a great home and a duplex to rent out for additional income.

It became NB as it's a bilingual province and that was important for the step kids' continuing (French) education. Within NB it became Moncton as we don't drive and prices of homes 'central' here were cheaper than the eqivalent elsewhere in NB.

Tangram

Job and in the same Province as First Nation cousins.