Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

....About 4 hours away actually - like driving from London to Leeds. Edmonton is flat and boring.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

I'm not a Brit but as an outsider that's lived in Edmonton for nearly 21 yrs, I'll chime in. I moved to Edmonton from Nova Scotia in 1988 and found it to be quite different than Halifax, and it took a bit of getting used to. I've had the opportunity over the years to visit Calgary quite often, but I've never lived there so I can't speak to the difference between the two from THAT perspective. I like the feel of Edmonton a bit better than Calgary. It seems just a bit more relaxed and down-to-earth. Chalk that up the fact that it's more of a "blue collar" town than a "white collar" town. Both cities have a night life, but in Edmonton you'll find it across the river from the downtown. And BOTH cities will be different from what I understand Britain to be like in that respect. And from what I knew in Nova Scotia, for that matter.

Edmonton is much greener...when it's not white. lol There are noticeably more trees in Edmonton than Calgary. And when in Edmonton's river valley park, you'd almost never know you're in the city. Of course Calgary has that spectacular backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. And if you're into doing mountain-y things they're much closer at hand. Personally, I prefer Jasper to Banff because it still has the feel of a mountain town rather than a tourist trap. But I expect that has a lot to do with it being a 4-hr drive from a major center.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

I live half way between the two cities, if I had to choose one to live in, then Calgary would win hands down. I prefer the look and feel of the city over Edmonton. I am not a city person at all, which could be why I prefer Calgary as it doesn't feel as cityish. This is of course only my personal opinion, I have not experienced living in either city and don't really want too. Calgary is closer to the moutains and the winters are a bit kinder than Edmontons' thanks to the chinooks.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

We chose Calgary because it was a smaller city. It has lots of parks & green space for the kids & a low crime rate (certainly in comparison to London)

It's such an amazingly short trip into the mountains (the nearest ski resort takes less than an hour) plus you have the Olympic Park for those all important lessons & practice within the city limits!

In the summer there are great campsites within the national parks & the city seems so green & open compared to where we were in the UK. Not to mention the larger houses, mostly detatched.

I have friends in Edmonton & they all think Calgary is a nicer place to be but in the end you have to go where your job is & where you feel most comfortable.

I do hope you will at least visit before you make any kind of decision because it's not really something that you should decide on the basis of internet research.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

Which is roughly the time it would take to travel from Calgary to the locations shown in the other poster's pictures:rofl::p

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

OK pedants hat on now

Calgary is LARGER than Edmonton

Nakiska is a ski hill NOT a resort

The same would apply to Edmonton

Wont argue there

MANY MANY MANY people emmigrated to Canada (and other countries) WITHOUT the benefit of any real research well before the advent of the interwebby (and when airtravel was not available to the masses). Were they all wrong to have done that? (bear in mind that MY family emmigrated to Oz without the benefit of a recci and were VERY happy there for 5 years)

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

Or you can "cheat" and drive out to K country - one of the reasons we live in SW Calgary is that it only takes 40 minutes to get out there :D

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

I'm a network techie nerd, so I won't go into the history of the web, let's just say I remember dialing into bulletin boards ... back in the Y2K days I used what was available and took my best bet ... had a couple of flights over, got some horrendously inaccurate impressions and screwed up royally in many respects ... but we still managed to survive the experience :thumbup:

This forum is useful, but you won't have a clue how well you'll cope with the coming to Canada until you try it :unsure:

I've travelled a lot for work and I've spent weeks and sometimes months living in towns and cities around Canada - all I can say is every city is different.

I can also guarantee you'll get a different impression of each city depending where you stay and that's the value of this forum - you can ask people who live there what it's like.

Feel free to disagree, but I doubt anybody can seriously hope to compare two cities until they've lived in both for a reasonable amount of time :(

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

Absolutely no disagreement from me.

Spent my first 9 years in Canada in Edmonton really liked it married an Edmonton girl.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

We were transferred to Calgary in 1974 through my work and initially we were horrified at the thought but after six weeks in Calgary it "Edmonton where?" ;)

Would we move back voluntarily? No.

But had we been transferred back we would have been happy to make our lives there again.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

I'd say the same about any major city in Canada, provided:
1) I could get a steady job there.
2) That job would pay my living costs.

I'd be cautious about smaller towns simply because there may only be one opportunity there that's available to you - if the employer, the job or your own business vanishes up the Swannee, you have to make sure you have a damn good chance of getting something else that pays the bills.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

In my line of work there is only one employer in Canada.;)

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

Not even the option of provincial or municipal differences?

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

Nope.

Initially it was the Federal Government then in 1996 we were spun off into private corp.

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

That's a different concept ... I've been a few different shades of consultant or freelancer for 15 years now .... the plus side is variety, the downside in Canada seems to be frequent layoffs :(

Re: Where's better Calgary or Edmonton
 

...don't know about the rest of Canada so much, but from what I can make out that's Alberta in a nut-shell - boom and bust.