CalgaryAMC

I think the UK is unique the sheer amount of centralization - of business and government - in and around London. Doesn't London account for half of the UK economy or something ridiculous like that?

squarepants

Yes...but how many/ percentage of those businesses are govt owned, are we forgetting about foreign investment companies? Some actuarial scientist will come along soon and give us stats, just hope they are up to date

ray1968

The US has New York / Los Angeles / Chicago as centres of power/wealth/major events etc

Germany has Berlin / Frankfurt / Hamburg
France has Paris / the South of France
Italy has Rome / Turin (and the Noth of Italy)
Most of the tourism /finance / Major events / Transport / Money etc etc is centred round London, without a toss given for the rest of the country.

We may not be the only country so centralised but we are and I hated it.!

squarepants

You sure know your geography Ray, am impressed What you are forgetting though Guv, is that the U.S is 4 times the size of the UK population wise, and Germany is twice as big population wise ( I think ), and the south of france, the event ( film festival ) is only held there once a year.

Be honest, if you were a multinational firm, you can hardly go and set up business in Yorkshire, most people round the worl would think you are talking about pudding

CalgaryAMC

lol

squarepants

Population wise ! Is there something am missing here?

ray1968

Well you compared Washington with London.

South of France is where a lot of the money resides in France and also is a big tourist draw all year round.

Germany has a population of around 80m - UK is 60m -not too different

squarepants

Not to be pandantic about it, Germany is actually 82.5 approx, and has a land mass of 357.021 sq km, the UK is about 244. The money in the south of france though, is coming from outside, not from the country itself.

CalgaryAMC

My guess is that most UK emigrants are not pulled to Canada. Instead, they are pushed from the UK. They get so wound up by life in Britain that they decide to hell with it and start looking for a way out. So, having decided to leave, they look at their options.

They quickly find out that the US is a non-starter, so they move on down the list of English-speaking countries, at some point settling on Canada as a destination of convenience.

For the fourteen Britons that did grow up lusting after Rocky Mountain hiking trails, my apologies for the generalization.

wcitizen

My reason (one of them actually) was providing better education for my kids. It's now three days that the school has started here, and we found the school in chaos: nobody knows what's going on, and when we tell them how organized the nursery back in London was, they tell us: They are old fashioned!

perkinsgap

I've been to Canada a couple of times first when I was 16 just after my GCSE's and had been very ill for 6 mths, my dad had always wanted to take me there as he had been on exercise with the british army for 6 mths when I was younger. I thought the country was wonderful I never forgot the scenerie mountains Lake Louise, Jasper, Montreal. We spent 8 weeks there driving around from one coast to the other, my health improved I met some wonderful people and said one day I would live there and keep my fingers crossed my husband and I will be there in January. My husband is looking forward to decent driving instead of the bloody M6 which incidently we have just finished a 12 hours night shift on and it then had 3 sections closed. I have also been told the schooling and oportunities for the kids are great and as my GP said the other day the fresh air will be wonderful and the out door activities. I know there is good and bad about all countries but at the present time living in Blackpool doesn't hold much oportunities for my kids or our career's. My fingers and toes are crossed firmly and keep making wishes!!

CalgaryAMC

Good luck. Did you say you sent PR application already?

Glaswegian

That would only be said by someone from London .....

In Canada we accept that Toronto, not Ottawa, is the centre of the universe - we then ignore it completely and get on with life.

I think some of it is down to distance - Alberta is so far away from Ontario that it gets pretty much left alone to do it's own thing - eg.unlike most provinces, we don't have PST.

The UK is so small and cramped that everything seems to be dragged down towards London - personally I've never understood why anybody would want to live and work there.

squarepants

Is that right Glas? 6 million people in that city called london, three quater of those, not londoners originally, there must be a good reason why they wanted to be there, am sure its pretty obvious

Toronto is the centre of canada you say? I wouldn't live there for free :scared:

CalgaryAMC

That is where the jobs are.