I have been reading for a while now and finally decided to join in.

Been wanting to emigrate to Canada since i was 18, now 35 (don't like to rush things). Not trying to get away from anything in particular just trying to fulfill a long term dream, unforunately my wife is not as keen as myself as she is a bit of a home girl, i want to head for Southern Vancouver (surrey, Richmond etc).

Does anyone have any ideas for convincing my wife that this is the place to be and if i manage to get there for a holiday this year, where would be good places to visit to convince her.

Dont know the area - but you could always take her for a visit that might change her mind

Book a holiday for two ASAP!!!! Explain it's JUST a holiday, Pretty confident a visit may change her mind,
I too have wanted to emigrate to Canada since I was 16, having been there 3 times already, now 32, Married, with 2 teenagers, its now or never!
We have toyed with the idea of emigrating previously, and again recently (myself being more keen), but you can't get enthusiastic about something you have never seen.
My kids and Hubby have never experienced the feeling of Canada...So hence a family/reccie trip is booked for the end of May. If experiencing Canada first hand still doesn't work, it wouldn't be fair to expect anyone to move there permanently anyway.
If the cold winters also put your wife off, look at Vancouver Island
Some parts of Vancouver Island never even get snow, and it is the closest climate to the UK. From what I hear it is Beautiful, and where we are heading in May, having changed our minds from Alberta or Ontario (have family there), nothing wrong with these areas, just VI has everything we are looking for.
Depending on your circumstances/work experience you could always try the temporary Work Visa route, without severing your UK ties,
If it really, really doesn't work out after giving it a decent go, you will still be able to have a home to come back to, without having to start all over again.
See other posts on this site, the people on here are full of brilliant info from all areas of Canada.
Finally research, research and more research, get her to read some of the threads on here, they are inspiring and answer practically every question you would need to ask, they have lots of info on Vancouver and surrounding areas, no doubt you will get quite a few informative and friendly responses to your post on here shortly.

Good Luck
Crazycat74 (Still in UK......for now)

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I also agree that probably your best bet is to get your OH on holiday to Vancouver! If she doesn't get any feeling for the place after the holiday I think you might be chasing a lost cause, especially if she is a home bird anyway.

Anyway, all the best trying to convince the fairer sex and I hope everything works out for you both. After all, it has to be a joint decision if it is going to work.

Only my 2p worth but Good Luck!

Hi,

Like you I have always wanted to go & live in Canada. I went last year for the first time, started at Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, travelled all through the Rockies up to Jasper, across to Edmonton, then back to Calgary.

We were knackered to say the least but Wow what a country We have now filed papers & cannot wait to go, My Wife to was a Homebird so to speak, but this trip soon changed her mind its soooooo nice, People are great, driving is a pleasure, everywhere is clean & people are soo friendly.

Both me & my wife & children decided to go to downtown Calgary for our last night which happened to be a Saturday night! It was full of families just having fun & no trouble whatsoever. There is no way I would even contemplate doing this on a Saturday night in Birmingham City centre, UK. If you didnt get mugged, or verbally abused, you would surely return to the carpark & find your car stolen, or at the very least jacked up & the wheels missing!

With all this! Why on earth would I want to go Canada I dont think!

Im sure your Wife will love it, the opportunities for children is endless.....

Best of luck

Gary

Thanks for the reply nice to know others are in a similar situation.

Hope you don't mind but i noticed from your site name that you were an electrician, i read your other posts and noticed you had info on the trade exams required, i am also an electrician and i was wondering if you were taking the Skilled worker route or you were going to apply for a temp work visa and apply for permanent once in the country.
I had read some threads in the past and noticed some sparks were going over prior to settlement to get the exams done so they could get working immediatley on landing.

Don't know whether it is any use to you but i get e-mailed salary details from payscale.com which lets you know the average earnings for tradesmen in the area you want to live.

Thanks again for the reply.

Don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but please consider that if your OH is truly the home bird you say she is, don't underestimate the pull of family when you get here, especially if your family are very close and you use grandparents for babysitting - think about what you will do without that support.

But then again I was a homebird and I made it over here by myself, been here 6 years now. Got my citizenship, but for family reasons will be going to the UK in September.

I think coming over for a holiday is a great idea, but as polarbearmum says, you have to consider why your OH doesn't want to move to Canada. What would she do if you got a job here? Would she be at home by herself all day?
Don't underestimate the strain it would put on your relationship. If you are so far away from friends and family and have no-one to talk to, it can get very hard. There is no easy solution to this problem, whatever you decide, one of you is probably going to end up feeling let down by the other.

Hi, I'm new here (to the forum) too, though been reading it for a few months. Spent last week in Richmond - very different to the holiday in the Rockies last year. Wow is it busy. At least 50% of the population are Chinese, a lot went there from Hong Kong. Great food.

Ok, if you're trying to show your wife all the good things about moving to BC, think about what she likes and plan your trip around that. If it's being in a city, then Vancouver and areas around it would be good... although they're currently building a skyrail linking Richmond to Vancouver, so there's a fair bit of disruption on the roads. If she likes the mountains, well that's easy. There they are! If it's lush valleys, try the Okanagan. If it's English style, then try Victoria on VI (English with a twist of Canadian).

Of the many beautiful places to see, there's one trip I'd recommend to anyone and that's the ferry from Tsawwasssen to Swartz Bay on VI. The route it takes through the islands is spectacular. If you like water and islands that is.

Anyway, I hope I haven't posted too much, I know this is an intro area. In which case I'd like to introduce myself as someone who last year visited the places above and fell in love with Canada. My application went in last month.

Hi Just wishing,

Yes I am an Electrician (For my Sins) I jusy received some info last night, which is apparently notes based from Ontario.... If you have read the messages you will have no doubt seen a thread from a guy called Jerry. I have asked him for the details on a cd & training papers etc... which is what he used to gain his Red seal. We have gone down the skilled worker route, filed papers in Oct 23rd 2006 got the acknowledgement letter Feb 14th 2007! We are going over in August so I shall try find out as much as possible before hand ie. books training etc etc & collect this when Im there. We are also hoping to get job interviews or a job offer which I could then train in the 90 days then take the Red seal. Our Agent says he can have a job offer waiting no problem! But without Red seal you wont get anywhere! its either that or wait the full 3 years plus for the process to take its course Im also Corgi registered as well so maybe able to go down that route too.. Yeah that would be great if you could mail me the pay scales & i'll sort these papers for you no problem.

More importantly have you managed to convince your Wife yet? We are under no illusion this is going to be easy by any means, we have a good life here in the UK, Business etc based over 20 years of Blood, Sweat, & Tears. But like so many on here we are fed up with the UK and the way its going so for us we are trying to secure a better future for the kids...
We are also looking at this as an adventure into a new life, seeing all the positive things that can come from it..

E-mail me and I'll sort the papaers and return them to you ok

Cheers

Gary

Ditto the above

Also be wary about trying to convince or persuade another person into to doing something they are not sure about.
Working through the reasons why she is not as keen as you are would probably be beneficial, making sure that you let her feel that you are truly listening and not dismissing them because you don't give them any weighting.

I've been in a similar position in that I was the ultra enthusiastic one aswell and my husband was not as keen. He was probably 50/50 about the idea when we first talked about it. Once I have done loads (and loads) of research he went up to 60/40 in favour of going. The biggest thing for him was the thought of leaving his family and having our children grow up in a country without any extended family.

He just got back last Thursday from 5 days in Vancouver and on the island. He went to try and get his head around everything and to see if he felt the same about Canada (we last went in 2000). We decided to plan a trip for him because having to make any kind of decision was really stressing him out and as much as I tried not to put any pressure on him he knew how I felt about things.

Anyway for us it's worked out; he decided yesterday that we are going to go for it.
He fell in love with Vancouver Island and that was my favourite so it looks like that's where we will end up depending on jobs.

I definitely agree with everyone else. Your OH needs to visit. With any luck she will see what it is that's driving you to want to emigrate.

Good Luck
Kabel

I'd find somewhere other than those two horrible places if you want to convince her to come over here (having to convince anybody is a bad idea in itself). Vancouver Island perhaps...?

Just have a fun time together, rent a car and explore BC .
Don't try too hard or it will backfire, just let her decide and hopefully
the trip will be positive for you both whatever the outcome would be.
Yoong

Hi and welcome to the forum.

My wife and I visited Canada on our honeymoon and were fortunate enough to be able to spend time travelling and discovering the people and places. Without exception, we found (and on subsequent visits, have continued to find) Canadians friendly and welcoming.

A trip is time well spent, particularly if you research beforehand and can sample as much as you can when you are there. The important thing is getting to a point where you both want to go/apply.

In successive trips we have visited Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. On our honeymoon we were fortunate enough to travel by rail from Toronto to Banff - an amazing journey, taking over three days! For us, Canada has so much to offer: opportunities for our kids, for us, for leisure, for quality of living.

It's not that we simply think life will be better (although we expect it will) but that it will be different, and that's the greatest and most exciting part of it. Before we applied, we sought the views of both our children. Our daughter (11 at the time) was very excited and still is. Our son (15 at the time) took two days to think about it and finally told us: "We could sit around and not do it, then wonder what might have been. Life's too short not to try." So much wisdom in one so young.

Whatever you decide, good luck. You will find bucket-loads of advice and support here. Book that trip and see what's out there. Let Canada do the convincing!

Keep smiling.

Simon

"Let Canada do the convincing!"

Well said!!!!