Dear All,
I became addicted to this web site and I'm spending a lot of time reading all the old threads which is taking most of my spare time (my wife is not complaining yet). I'm not a british citizen and I never been in th UK but I can't stop wondering why there is many expats immigrated or immigrating to Canada.

What Canada can offer which UK can't offer? Please share your thoughts....

Oh boy- this will be fun.

<grabs popcorn>

save some for me

Hi Khiran,

I will start this off

Hopefully be able to gain more time as a family due to less month to month outgoings when you take into account the mortgage.

My children will hopefully have the opportunity to just be children

I would like to learn to ski at some point

I did a similar answer on another thread......

Now, why did I emigrate to Canada?

Do you want the sensible answer or the REAL answer?

Sensible one goes like this, less overcrowding, the mountains, snow, cheaper house prices (they were at the time we moved anyway), etc etc.

The real answer? I suggested it to my husband as a joke one night when we were both drunk..... and he took me up on it!

It was just after that that we looked into it and decided to really go for it - we fancied the adventure, and realized that if we didn't we would always have been wondering "what if...."

There are no 'neds'

I think key factors that I have considered are (1) that crime is a hell of alot lower in Canada. (2) There is the opportunity to do snow sports and more water sports. (3) Steak is alot cheaper.

The UK is a good place, I like living here although I am looking forward to living in Canada too. But I can understand why people, especially families, move to Canada I think because of crime being so much lower it is a much safer environment to raise children.

I am not in Canada YET, but my reasons for wanting to move include, more space, affordability of poperty ie cost of 1bed flat vs 3 bed house in canada, generally a higher level of respect i feel as someone looking in, you dont find all the rubbish on the highway like in uk i feel, SNOW(not that i enjoy falling over on the snowboard but it's entertaining for a while!) Oh and the major one, my oh is canadian and we thought we should spend some time with his family.

Well yesterday it was 25 degs at 4pm! i was sunbathing in the backyard! enough said!

I was reading the muchmor canada October edition magazine yesterday that gives a good insight to what canada has to offer!

www.muchmormagazine.com it also has the top 10 places to live in Canada this issue! interesting read!

It can offer me a live with the woman I love in a country which I believe is still growing up and thus a very exciting place to be.

Excellent question.

I think many people are lulled by benefits which are unquantifiable (better standard of living being one). The reality is that salaries are much lower and house prices when i move out higher than where I moved from in England.

Work ethics are pretty bad. I've been appalled at the way some employers treat their people, including myself I might add. I was totally shafted by my first employer. However now as a recruiting agent I have black listed those involved so feel a sense of karma. I digress....

One thing that is true is that Canada is not UK. It's very different in many ways. While skiing and outside life is very accessible here more so than, for example, in Manchester, I'm not sure how different it would be to places in Scotland. Ok so the mountains are nearer and you can be sunbathing one minute and skiing the next. However with salaries much lower and half the time off from work, I don't think you'll be able to afford the time or the loss of earnings to do so.

The truth, my friend, is that people are really fed up with what's going on in UK. I think what people are looking for is ESCAPE, and I have to say that this is one good thing about leaving.

Unfortunately Canada plays poor relation to the US. I always said the UK did but I'm now eating my words. Sometimes it's more expensive having stuff shipped to Canada from US than US-UK!!!! Oh and take a look at amazon's site in each of the countries. Amazon.ca is practically just books still, like amazon.co.uk was in the mid 90s.

TimmyHo
Redneckery
Gasoline powered toys
Snow/ski-ing/boarding
Loads of wide open space
Real mountains (no dirty old piano's at the top of ours)
No chavs - rednecks instead - different animal
Big trucks - big fun
The ability to blow big holes in the earth's surface without anyone giving a toss
Ameri-lite convenience and lifestyle
Iqaluit (singular)
Marmots (numerous)
Eskimo (numerous)
Chinatowns (numerous)
Tazers (few)
Beaver (mweh)



R.

Canada has an internet ? wowzers.

R.

That must be an exception, surely.
In Canada one can buy perfectly decent three bedroom detached houses for less than the price of a garage in the UK.

In Iqaluit maybe, but prices in BC and AB are equal to the higher priced areas in the UK, if not far off.

R.

Well my 4 bed house on a double lot, airconditioned, big drive, garage, shed, huge garden, patio and deck, in Moncton cost $118k in 2005.

I've been looking at many desirable houses in New Glasgow, NS for the same sort of cost and less and out of curiosity I ljust looked at Ottawa area on MLS and I see detached houses there for as little as $90k; the exception, no doubt, but 'the rule' needn't be so much more.

Dollars....not Pounds.