Which is why they just bought Safeway Canada.

I thought they were ridiculously expensive, even more expensive than Sobey's in Calgary which is saying something.

Well I agree that southern Ontario is near a lot of other places but the Fraser Valley? Obviously there are more people there in a smaller area so maybe it doesn't feel as cut off, but the only other major city anywhere near is Seattle. In Calgary you've got Edmonton just a bit further to the north than Seattle is to the south.

Spokane is 35 miles closer to Vancouver in driving distance from the search I just did. Portland is over 300 miles from Vancouver and isn't that big.

BC has a population of 4.4 million and Alberta has a population of 3.6 million, so not an enormous difference.

I'm not saying Calgary isn't isolated, but on the other hand you don't have much in the way of traffic problems. (And there will be even less once the ring road is completed, try building one of those in Vancouver).

FI is a feature of the English systems. There's no need for French Immersion in a school where everything is already in French. French Catholic and French Other are two school systems entirely seperate from the English systems and from each other. The only common thread between the four systems is billing the taxpayer.

From the Fraser Valley your not really cut off, your actually less cut off then Vancouver since the major city's in the Valley are on the border, Abbotsford, Langley, Surrey are all less then 2 1/2 hours from Seattle, and only an hour to Vancouver area. You are within 1-3 hours of a major city depending what direction you go.

I don't think the Fraser Valley is cut off at all from anywhere.

Edmonton and Calgary are further from one another then Seattle is from the Lower Mainland city's.

Other then Edmonton is there is any major city to Calgary within a 2 1/2 hour drive?

+1

If you look at a topographical map, the Lower Mainland is actually quite a small area (about the size of Norfolk), and totally hemmed in by mountains. I actually find the sense of isolation and insularity is greater in Vancouver than Calgary. As you point out, the main US NW cities are similar distances, the exception being Seattle which is hardly worth going to if you live in Vancouver.

Carefully considered BC, absolutely loved Victoria and we will take a look at the Okanagan to, but our concern with BC is it's even further from Europe, so Ontario is still in the lead. Strangely enough it was Ontario we first visited and our application destination was Ontario, maybe Alberta came up in the interim so we could make some money lol. Firm believer of everything happens for a reason.

Anyhow back on topic, OH bought some block paving today, the seller had them advertised at $1 a piece, he pointed out you could get them cheaper at regular price in Home Depot so they dropped their price to 50c a piece. I am about to look for a side table, wish me luck lol

I have lived in Calgary, South Surrey and Fraser Valley and have not felt cut off in any of them. I can get to and from everywhere I want to easily, get what I want without difficulty.

It may be just the company I keep (my business partner drives a '64 MGB) but the vintage car enthusiasts here seem as interested in British cars as US muscle ones

I see, so there are two wholly French school systems in Ontario (in addition to the FI offerings within the two English systems). You wouldn't happen to have a good link to the "non-Catholic" one, would you?

Just wanted to say....hubby is in Saskatoon and myself and my girls are still in uk.. and the FB pages have been amazing.. second hand stuff seemed pretty expensive.. but when I put an ad up saying we were moving over and because of container fee's were only bringing 5 suitcases with us etc.. we had a fantastic response and ended up filling our new home for less than $300... every thing was pretty much given...that's just something that wouldn't happen where we are from in uk lol

Thats good , my sister has managed to get stuff off her friends and people she knows so we are only shipping a few things via groupage.

School boards are run regionally so effort is duplicated not just four times but enough times to provide work for umpteen cradles. This is a general list:

http://www.ofa.gov.on.ca/en/franco-schoolboards.html

That, my airborne friend, is what I have been alluding to all along!

Cheers,
Jim

I think your definition of "major city" is different to mine, to me that means 1 million plus people. Surrey etc. are just suburbs of Vancouver. I'm talking about stuff outside the Fraser Valley. The only real place of consequence is greater Seattle. Victoria isn't that big and takes two and a half hours to get to from Vancouver because of the ferry.

Says the aircraft pilot.