Good stuff, welcome to NB folks.

Wow. That's probably the most erudite thing I've read on here for some time.

To answer the original question, I'm starting to doubt it.

I think it's just shi-ite...to be clear I am not talking about religion.

Feel the

are you trying to make crazy fonts and colours your 'thing'?

Would I do it again? No way. I feel like I've gone back in time by moving to Canada. I've lived in US and was far far happier there. Yet I can now really understand why the yanks and Canadians loathe each other. They are universes apart. Canada seems to have all the worst features of the US with none of the advantages. A country of passive-aggressives, people who do **** all about anything, so every ludicrous law and tax just lures its way in, making life even more difficult. Top that off with some of the most judgemental and unfriendly ****ers I've ever met.

I have never ever (not even as a student) been so broke as I have in Canada. People talk about taking a bit of a pay cut. Well how about career destruction. I have never had such few prospects. As soon as I can I shall be returning back to Britain. I now cringe when anyone mentions coming out here. I can't help but to say Don't DO IT! There may be nice parts and perhaps my experience isn't well rounded but unless you're extremely wealthy and have NOTHING in Britain, you have to ask yourself the question is the risk worth it?

I was categorically told by some on this forum that although salaries are a bit lower, cost of living is way cheaper so standard of living is better. Well it most certainly is NOT. Not in BC anyway. It's a ****ing nightmare in almost every respect.

People go on about the grass being greener when people talk about moving back to UK. However that expression doesn't apply with moving back to a place you know. When the time happens I will be moving back wiser and may put the worst of my Canadian experience out of my mind.

I really find it difficult to find positive things to say about what I've seen and experienced here. But thank god I can return and regain my self respect.

Wow. Sounds like you've not had a good time of it.

What do you do for a job?

You haven't even started the honeymoon period. The lifestyle change you talk about you could have had by moving somewhere else in Britain. Quit your job in the city and get a paper round at the local corner shop. Hey presto commute problem solved.

It can take time to really know if you made the right decision. A few weeks is more a holiday. My advice to you is to really open your eyes to your experiences here. Try to assess whether this place is right for you, with as open a mind as possible. But don't try doing that now. You're probably at a stage where everything seems amazing compared with Britain.

Assuming that was meant for me, yep that pretty well sums it up. I'm currently not working. Trying to work out whether I'm unemployable here, whether my field just isn't in demand here despite a successful first few years, and 15 years of immense success outside Canada, or whether one of the many malicious morons who I've worked with in the past, has blacklisted me and I have no alternative but to leave.

Given that no employer I've approached in canada has yet acknowledge an application or even provided feedback, makes me wonder whether they just hire someone they know and if they're shite they fire them just before Christmas so as to not pay them, then hire another person through their network. Either that or hire someone off craigslist in exchange for hot coffee instead of pay.

What do you do for a job?

Just because your experience is negative please dont try to pull down other people. I'm not in any kind of honeymoon period, I'm very aweary of the negatives of this country and the province we have chosen and no not everything seems amazing. However the lifestyle we have begun to build for ourselves is what we have been dreaming of and no it could not have been achieved elsewhere in the UK.

Maybe if you had wanted a better standard of living you shouldn't have chosen BC. Maybe you should have done some better research, its not hard to find out. There are a number of people that say very regularly that the cost of living in BC is comparable to London, if you chose to ignore them well thats your problem.

Do you think it might be due to your sparkling personality?

Been here 2 years and would definitely do it again. Was looking at the USA but got caught up in retrogression and ended up here in NS and no regrets, cancelled the USA (I had a job offer etc) and decided to stay here. Both hubby and myself love it over here and we have no plans on returning back to the UK. He is fortunate to work from home and I am busy sorting my nursing out so that once we get PR I can look for a part time job because that is all I want to do.

"All in all, we plug along doing the best we can but without very much control over where our lives are going."

You've just summed up my whole life and the move to Canada in particular.

That's a little insensitive.