Reghuraj

I have heard that Canada has a good lifestlye. I would like to visit some places and eventually immigrate. Where do i think of settling. Would like to choose a non-crowded town, preferably someplace which has lots of greenery. snow is ok but dont like to showel too much.

Can somebody help me choose?

Cowtown

Iqaluit ... not amazingly green, but I don't think they worry too much about shovelling the snow

Judy in Calgary

Since your time-line indicates you're applying as a skilled worker, I assume you won't be arriving as a retiree, and will need to find employment. I can't really think of any place in Canada that offers everything on your wish list and also has good employment prospects.

Vancouver is very green, and has a climate something like that of the UK (mild, rainy winters with little snow). I don't know if it would fit your definition of an uncrowded city. From what I've read on this forum, Vancouver's employment prospects might be a bit iffy (but that depends to some extent on what your field of expertise is). It does have stupendous scenery, though (gorgeous combination of ocean and mountains). Real estate there is very expensive by Canadian standards.

Victoria would give you everything you wanted, except for employment prospects. If the information on this forum is anything to go by, self-employment is common on Vancouver Island. The island is certainly a winner in the scenery department. From what I hear, Americans who want to escape from the Bush administration and what it stands for are driving up real estate prices.

Alberta's two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, offer employment prospects, especially for anyone who has skills that can be used by the oil industry or the oil services industry. Each of these cities has a population of just under 1 million. I don't find them to be crowded. If you find a city of 1 million to be crowded, you can escape the crowds by living in a small satellite town. My husband and I thought of doing that, but rejected the idea in favour of living in the suburbs. Tempting though some of the satellite towns are, we wanted to retain the relatively short commute that we enjoyed in Calgary, and we also wanted our kids to have access to public transportation. But there are pros and cons to each choice.

The western edge of Alberta has the beautiful Rocky Mountains, which are an asset. When we arrived in Calgary, the city struck us as fairly barren. It does have a somewhat arid climate. But these days Calgary looks green to us (at least in the summers). I think that's partly because the trees have matured during the years that we've lived in our neighbourhood. I think our frame of reference also has shifted over the decades. Our idea of what constitutes a green landscape has altered. The relatively dry climate means that, while we do get some brutally cold weather in winter, we get rather little snow.

If you go to Ontario and any point east of there, you'll get heaps and heaps of snow. That will be true also of the interior of British Columbia to the north and east of Vancouver. Our neighbours have friends in Smithers, BC, and we've heard sobering accounts about the amount of snow they get. Going back to Ontario for a moment, it has the best employment prospects, from what I can gather.

Anyway, based on your stated wish list and subject to your having a combination of qualifications and experience that would enable you to find work in these two provinces, I think you might consider doing an LSD (look, see and decide) trip to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.

iaink

Someone had to say it

Judy, you really are a saint for trying!

Its a question I long since gave up answering, just too hard and too personal a choice.

Canada is very diverse and without knowing a whole lot about a person its just impossible to give any meaningfull advice.

Dont get me started on snow. Everyone worries about snow, but its really no big deal. Not for the first three or four months of winter anyway I would say Non GTA Ontario also met the OPs requirements...and quite probably a whole bunch of other places. Its just all too relative.

Some people here bitch about the lifestlye and culture, so whos to say what canadas lifestyle is, or how good it is. Everyones idea of "good" and what they are looking for is different unfortunately, which is why Iqaluit is the stock answer.

willmore

Victoria would give you everything you wanted, except for employment prospects. If the information on this forum is anything to go by, self-employment is common on Vancouver Island. The island is certainly a winner in the scenery department. From what I hear, Americans who want to escape from the Bush administration and what it stands for are driving up real estate prices.

If I could possibly clarify one pooint (without sounding like a b**ch), it isn't just the americans pushing up the real estate prices, there are also lots of folks from Europe, Asia and eastern Canada....that are either moving here permanently or living here for part of the year, or renting out property........

Steve_P

Twas ever thus.

I think Parksville is actually Calgary west. I think half or more of the retirees from the Calgary Board of Education live in Parksville/Qualicum.

Cowtown

Ten out of ten for tolerance and helpfulness goes to Judy

Anyway, everybody know Igloolik is the place to head for nowadays, Iqaluit is getting too crowded with British expats

Reghuraj

Thanks to all of you for helping me, specially to Judy for giving a good discription.

I am looking through the maps for more details of the places you mentioned. I dont think i would go to Vancouver. I will be looking into Edmonton and Calgary and ofcourse Victoria.

Just a question:- is Victoria really bad with employent? I am designer for the print media and also do a lot of product photography.

I think my savings would hold on for a while without employment, but i wont be good enough for ... let's say when i get old.

regs

Lonestar

Iqaluit is getting too crowded with British expats ??????? sorry had to ask...you are taking the piss aren't you?????looked it up on google and had a laugh

iaink

If the search feature is working for this site again, you would be better to look it up here...then you will understand

Reghuraj

Iqaluit does not have a single british expat for sure. just pulling legs i suppose. anyway everybody knows nobody would go there to settle down.

regs

iaink

Actually you might be suprised. There is a huge diamond industy happening up there, but the general point of "Iqualuit" as an answer is that we cant really answer the "where should i live" question, you need to get a sort of shortlist, and then ask about peoples real live experiences living there, as opposed to the glossy recruitment picture you might get from government agencies and local business development websites and literature.

Just cos I love where I live doesnt mean for a minute it would suit everyone else here. Realistically, go where you can get a job that utilises your experience. No fullfilling job, it doesnt matter where you live, you wont be happy for long.

Cowtown

Seriously, there is actually a thriving immigrant community in Iqaluit - CBC did a show about it a few weeks ago. Because it has such a harsh environment, there's more of a sense of community than many other parts of Canada.

As Iain said, there's no non-subjective answer to a question about where to settle in Canada - Iqaluit evolved as a stock answer.

Unless you're independently wealthy, getting a job is critical. Hang around long enough and you'll read that some people think getting a decent job is impossible, others get them before they land in Canada.

Even opinions on the weather are subjective - how much snow you shovel depends on how long your driveway is and if you have a north or south facing house. The front of my house faces north, so I shovel more snow than my neighbours across the street, who just let the sun melt the snow. On the plus side, I have a deck that I can use for more of the year

Judy is a lot braver than I am to give that sort of direct advice

Reghuraj

Thanks,

Now I understand the point you were trying to make.

The thing that most of us new to the idea of immigrating is that we are(or atleast i am) looking for is a shortlist of places which could be used for futhure research and then selecting the best one.

Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal was all I had ever heard of as places in Canada before. now ofcourse, i know a lot more.

thanks again,

regs

Cowtown

My first comment about Calgary was something like: That's in Alberta? Where is that anyway and who would want to go and live there??

Incidently - Cowtown is Calgary's unofficial name, because we produced beef before we produced oil

Maybe now someone can explain why Toronto is called Hogtown?