jam85

That's a very good idea. Is it the 'done thing' in Canada to phone a recruitment agent and interview them about expectations?

Yeah doesn't sound too bad.

How much has this impacted your quality of life, given the trade-offs?
I didn't realize it was so white and conservative (sounds a bit like where I live at the moment!). That's very interesting. Are other areas of Okanagan a bit more diverse/less conservative?

I didn't realize this, but it makes sense. I don't mind driving so much but my wife likes being able to walk 5 mins to the shops, or 30 mins into town. I suppose it all depends on where exactly you live.

Vulcanoid

I very rarely had multi-week vacations once I stopped going on the ones organized by parents. If I lived in Britain I'd be in BC a few weeks of the year. Living in BC, I get to be in BC 52 weeks a year (minus any time spent elsewhere). It is what it is. I'd rather have more time - going from six weeks available to take off to two is a shock to the system - but the ability to walk out of the building and be in the place where I'd otherwise spend a ten hour flight getting to is a nice shock in the other direction.

I've never actually run the numbers on that. A first check says no. You can only put two 'geographies' up against each other in Statistics Canada's profile. Here's Kelowna up against Vernon (Okanagan's second city, an hour to the north): https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-r...TABID=1&type=0. While Kelowna is 7.9% visible minority, Vernon is 5%. I also checked Penticton, which is 5.7%.

In many ways Kelowna is like Nice - a hot, waterfront city that everyone wants to retire to, which has a disproportionately elderly, already-wealthy population voting their values. Very surprisingly it did swing Liberal in the last Federal election (the only one to do so in the Interior), will be interesting to see if that holds up. When Christy Clark, leader of the conservative 'BC Liberals' (not to be confused with Liberal Party of Canada) lost her seat on the coast while keeping her government in 2013, it was the Kelowna-West MLA who stepped aside to give her a safe conservative seat to run in to get back into the leg.

Moses2013

Every life will be different. While some people get to live in vacation-land for others it's probably just normal life and depends what you are used to and where you come from. It's the same when Americans or other Europeans visit the area we live and because it's vacation, they think we also live in vacation-land. I suppose the big difference is that if you are in Kelowna you are in Kelowna and you really have to love the place, as there is not much else around you and property costs vs. income seem to be high. Especially when it comes to holiday destinations, you won't get the cheap options to Italy like you have now. If you are also into beaches and Mediterranean culture during a longer winter, the next nearest option would be California and to get the same type of standard as Spain, you'd need to compare with places like Santa Barbara or Malibu and are paying 4x more.

dbd33

Car insurance is markedly more expensive in Canada than in the UK. Expensive enough to matter in a monthly budget (few people have the funds to buy a whole year's worth at once).

I think it's nonsense to suggest that one might need less holiday in Canada, one needs more as much of it is taken up with going home for domestic matters. The idea that there's more outdoors and that somehow substitutes also strikes me as being silly. One the weekend, you're at B&Q/Home Depot or Costco or cleaning the gutters so it doesn't matter that there's a vast expanse of tundra to the north. Some people do go outside in Canada (six months of the year) but they do in Brighton too (year round); I see very many people bicycling along the south coast. The outdoors in Canada is only better if you want to kill things or indulge in destructive motorized pastimes. If you want to walk or ride a horse you can do that in the UK (subject to funding but that's a different advantage of Canada). More holiday is also needed as it's a bloody long way to anywhere.

otoh, cheap housing, high pay, lots of stuff. (In Canada generally, BC seems different.)

Moses2013

Good points and I suppose the thing with the outdoors is a common thing to say and will depend on where you end up and where you're from. I know people who moved to Canada and never go to lakes and live in apartments and others now have a house, ride a mountain bike and go to the lake vice versa. These days It's only small things that make the difference and people still end up with the same mobile phones, you have internet and watch Netflix. Earlier or later you get the same awful coffee, the same fashion brands and when it comes to sport the only difference is that some people throw the ball and others kick it. If we don't moan about food prices, it might be the bad drivers and higher insurance etc. Then it comes down to things like do you prefer winter sports or want more winter beach breaks.

Vulcanoid

Very much depends where you're coming from and where you're going to. My car insurance in BC is half what I paid in Britain, for similar coverage levels (despite now insuring a much larger vehicle) - it's the first time in my life I can pay the annual bill in one go.

christmasoompa

That's the first time I've ever heard that! There must be other factors surely, were you a young driver in the UK, or had little no claims?

dbd33

I suppose one's mileage may vary. I'm sure you know that that's not a common circumstance.

BristolUK

And don't forget the mosquitoes.

Vulcanoid

Young men in Britain pay an absolute fortune for insurance - although fascinatingly a graph does show the average coming down in recent years (https://www.moneysupermarket.com/car...ce/young-male/). Any which way, a Corsa (good) living in central Bristol (badbadbad) driven by a young guy (badbadbadbadbadbadbadbadbadbad) was.... above the 'average' on that graph. Which average line is itself well above the cost for a truck in Kelowna & Victoria (and when I first moved over I was the same age).

That said, I did read on news that ICBC's new rate structure now looks more like a private sector one for people with less driving history, so that advantage may have diminished.

I've only ever seen my bills, and some of the sticker-shock numbers around here (a week or so back someone was giving quotes from Ontario which were eye-watering). I've heard that Vancouver's more expensive, but that's only one part of the province.

christmasoompa

Ah, yes, I thought that might be the case. My car insurance is only £200 a year, and it seems most pay more than that a month in Canada! But I'm a middle aged woman.

Vulcanoid

OK, yes, that would be delightful bill that I doubt I will ever see

CanadaJimmy

To be fair there's lower fuel tax, no road tax and no MOT required here, but still doesn't completely make up for the difference with ICBC's insanely high insurance rates.

dbd33

<sigh>

I see comparisons all the time. ICBC is reasonable enough. Go to the territories and $10,000/yr is not uncommon, more if the plates are from outside the territory. Ontario is typically more expensive than BC Canada is just an expensive place to insure a vehicle (the one exception noted). Canadian insurers, which are often the same insurers as operate in the UK, are not making a fortune on cars here. You're right that the overall cost of operation of a car might be lower though, cheap petrol, no congestion charges, parking for $800/month even in cities.

Danny B

No worries. I'll share my experience for a large bar of Cadbury's dairy milk!