Originally Posted by tableland

However, it remains a fact that Canada's tax burden is 14% higher tan the US's.

Originally Posted by tableland

The thing is that most of these international comparisons are quite pointless because of exchange rate fluctuations and domestic prices. For example, if you get 2.1 dollars to the pound, then Canada looks great in comparison, make that 2.4 and suddenly the UK starts to look better. These rates change constantly! Secondly, factor in British petrol prices and suddenly the Canadians are doing better, and so on. Standards of living can only be quantified to a certain degree, after that we must accept an individual's subjective assessment.

However, it remains a fact that Canada's tax burden is 14% higher tan the US's. It also a fact that Canadians pay a top marginal income tax rate of about 52% on a relatively low income of around 60K. According to a recent Gallup Canada survey, the majority of Canadians feel the present tax burden is way too high.

We are so far off my point now anyway. I was trying to say that Canada, while being a great place to live and somewhere which I fully intend to apply to live and raise a family, has problems like the UK.

This is all I am saying. The posts round here make Britain look like a banana republic, when in fact it is the nation that has raised most of these posters in a safe environment and educated them to a standard where they can qualify (easily in many cases) for immigration into countries like Canada and Australia and New Zealand. Despite a lot of contemporary propaganda to the contrary, it was British values that established what we now find in the USA, Canada and Australia, and British political philosophies that made them all so safe and efficient.

Britain is overcrowded, overpriced very damp and suffering, thanks to New Labour, a severe identity crisis, but it soldiers on the way it always has done.

Originally Posted by Happydayz

but it would at least seem that in Canada if you want to get away from it all....live in a quieter place with a bit of land to enjoy...it is at least affordable...here in the UK if you want to live away from all the CR*P you have to have won the Lotto or work so hard to keep up the bills for the Good life, you end up with no life!!! we cant wait to leave, I have lived all over the world in many places and I have to say good luck to those who stay in the UK..

Originally Posted by tableland

No one should make the decision to leave a country like Britain permanently based on the kind of stuff they read in the Daily Mail. This paper must be responsible for more Brits moving abroad than anything else.

It is a mistake to turn a country into Utopia while dreaming in your home nation, because when you get there it seems so much dirtier than it should be.

If you think tax is high in the UK, wait till you get to Canada, where, incidentally, you are more likely to be robbed than in the UK. Also jobs are not as easy to find there and are not as well paid.

I'm not certain too many of the Brits heading out to Canada realise how much bigger the government is there compared with Britain, and how much higher the tax is. Compared with Britain, Canada is well into large bureaucratic government and regulations. It is my honest belief that many Brits just think Canada is a kind of America Lite that's easier to get into than the real thing. This is a big mistake to make, because Canada is very different from the US and differs in important matters from the UK as well. It's more like a kind of enormous Sweden.

As for crime, I recently read of someone getting killed with a chainsaw in their house in NS. And then there's the increase of drive-by shootings in Toronto. When I was in Canada last I woke up to the news that the torched body of a woman had been found in Edmonton. Crime is everywhere.

It's so important to be objective when thinking about moving abroad. I think the majority of those that come back to the UK with their tails between their legs are those that saw Britain as all-evil and Canada (or Australia or wherever) as Utopia.

So, even though I intend to leavethe UK, I am leaving with an open mind, and here is my list of 5 reasons for those of you who might want to stay in the UK:

1. Lots and lots of jobs.
2. Lower tax and higher wages.
3. Easy access to places like Paris, Rome, Amstersdam, etc., for weekend breaks.
4. Good quality of goods in the shops.
5. Access to huge cultural variety and places of historical importance.

Originally Posted by crooked_spire

There is also a very good 6th reason for staying in the UK. Annual holidays in Canada are minimal - standard 2 weeks per year, whilst in the UK many companies give 5 weeks holiday per year. Also, you will find working hours shorter in the UK.

Originally Posted by rossandvi

1.............The Yob Culture.
2.............Listening to the attractive language ( Swearing)
3.............Paying high taxes.to support teenage mothers.
4.............Being scared to go out at night alone.
5.............Old people being attacked in their own homes.
6.............Suicide bombers.
7.............Increasing crime rates throughout UK
8.............The Labour Party.

Originally Posted by g_is_for_canada

That's it - Britain's so crap and everywhere else is so great! Open your eyes.

I now live in Canada and delighted by it, but there's lots here that sucks like car insurance pricing, having to do your frigging driving test again, cost of food, bloody stealth tax added to everything you buy. When the honeymoon period is over things aren't that great

Originally Posted by crooked_spire

There is also a very good 6th reason for staying in the UK. Annual holidays in Canada are minimal - standard 2 weeks per year, whilst in the UK many companies give 5 weeks holiday per year. Also, you will find working hours shorter in the UK.

Originally Posted by CaliforniaBride

OK I'll play:

1. Soggy Bacon
2. Bad Service
3. Erm? Can't think of anymore.

Originally Posted by Madmac

Some more:

1. Opinionated internet forums
2. Opinionated internet forum participants
3. Opinionated internet forum participants who flame others
4. Opinionated internet forum participants who flame others to feel good about themselves
5. Opinionated internet forum participants who flame others to feel good about themselves instead of getting on with thier new life

....ad infinitum

Originally Posted by CaliforniaBride

That's a full time occupation that be can be held legally while enduring the wait for EAD.