I WANT TO MOVE TO CANADA!!!!!!!

[Mystery Machine]

Hi Guys,

As some of you are probably VERY aware, I am insane with envy at you lot! The countryside, the scenery, the space, the way of life etc....that you have in Canada makes me want to just sell up here in the UK and ship my 'roast beef and yorkshire pudding' eating a$$ over to BC and live some of it for myself!! :lol: :lol:

I have asked questions in quite a few different posts/topics so far (sorry if it looked like I was hi-jacking the threads! ) and have always appreciated your resonses, but I thought it might be neater and easier to start a dedicated thread about it to if you guys don't mind giving me some time, answers and insight into everyday life in Canada (Canada in general, but BC more specifically! )

Before I go on, I would firstly like to mention that I am NOT an 'eco-terrorist' as one outspoken member has bluntly, unfairly and unjustifiably labelled me! I was really upset by that persons comments and would just like to explain that this has made me VERY conscious about how all of you over in Canada view me…and wary that some of you might think twice about giving advice to ‘someone like me’ moving into your country! :(

If, however, you don’t share the view of that person and believe that I AM a good, honest and caring person, I would REALLY appreciate your input… 8) 8)

I’ll probably be coming back here regularly to ask more questions, but for now will explain a bit about what I already know!

Green1 has kindly given me a link to a load of information and a test about the requirements needed to qualify emigrating to Canada. (Thanks Green1 )

I have done the test and luckily (for me anyway) I have passed, which means it looks like I am eligible to move to Canada! (I think 10yrs of secondary teaching as well as my IT, graphic design and engineering skills might have helped there! :lol: )

I guess what I am looking for at the moment is info, info, info about life in Canada! Photos of everyday things (not just scenic shots!) details of the cost of living, level of employment etc….

ANY info you feel willing to give would really help me out and be very grateful for! :D

I reckon I would have somewhere around Ca$500,000 to start me off once I’d sold the house and paid the mortgage off. Would this buy me a flat/small house to tide me over or am I way out of the game?? (garage for the Deli too! :lol: )

I’ve got MILLIONS more questions to ask , but I guess it fairer to you to get through them gradually!

Many thanks for any input you are able to give – I really appreciate it!

Regards for now,

Bruce.

[mitch]

$500,000 will get you a fixer-uper in Vancouver, but could buy you quite a nice spread in the country. Cost of living has gone up about 30% here in the last 3-4 years. im sure its nothing new though coming from the UK.

I dont think your an "eco-terrorist", I probably would have done the same thing while having a beer or two, but it does show what shit storm the wrong person with the wrong opinon could cause... the same reason posting all the ways to get around inspections is a bad idea.

My girlfriend has lived here for 17 years (from U.S.) and just got her citizenship last year. You'll have to do a little work for it and jump thru some hoops, but im sure you'll do fine.

Thanks for all your helpfull posts.

Mitch

[scott]

here's the real estate site - should give you an idea of the price ranges in BC.
http://www.mls.ca/PropertySearch.aspx
cheers

[Mystery Machine]

Thanks for the info guys... :D

Link is fantastic Scott, cheers for that!

Mitch, when you say "in the country" what sort of places do you mean? I didn't want to go TOO far from Vancouver and possibly as near as I can get.

I like places with lots of space - OPEN space rather than lots of small rooms! A pad in the country sounds cool, but would this mean lots of commuting??

Suggested areas welcome...

Thanks again,

Bruce.

P.S. Might have to make it over for a nosey around.... :lol:

[39Ronin]

Then you want to live in Squamish, 45 mins to Whistler and 1 hour to downtown Vancouver. List of activities: Rock Climbing, Mountaineering, Hiking, Windsurfing/Kitebooarding, Mountain Biking, Sea Kyaking, White Water Kyaking, Logging roads and off road potential is unlimited. Prices are still within grasp but not for long as 2010 Olympics are coming.
Check it out:
http://www.district.squamish.bc.ca/visi ... fault.aspx

[elbosque]

Ya missed the most important thing: salmon fishing!

[Phatburner]

500 bills will buy you a STYLIN shack anywhere east and give change enough to lose yourself in the majestic beauty of the west for many years! And own many delicas no doubt.

Joe

[Green1]

in Calgary the "average home" is currently $396,000 (not sure what "average" is... but you can certainly get houses for under the 500k mark) we're 45 mins to the rocky mountains, but unlike BC we actually get winter ;) (ok... ok... I know it snowed out there this year, but they haven't had -30c like we have!)

In the lower mainland (ie Vancouver and area) you can still find houses in the same range as long as you get out of Vancouver proper, a lot of the suburbs have properties listed at about the same cost as around Calgary, the Vancouver climate will also be closer to what you're used to (ie, the winter temperatures rarely drop much below freezing, and it never stops raining...)

A lot of it will depend on what you plan to do for employment when you get here, some jobs are usually downtown and require you to get yourself there as well, but other jobs you're just as well off in a small town somewhere with no commute and lots of wilderness to explore.

And I don't think the majority oppinion of you on here is "eco-terrorist" it was the opinion of one poster who jumped to conclusions without all the necessary background information, which you later provided quite nicely. (however it should be noted that you might want to avoid running rivers in Canada...)
In my books you're quite welcome in Canada, especially if it means we get easier access to Metal Monkeys parts ;) (of course you'll have to convince your girlfriend that she can tollerate being this far from her parents...)

[Adrock]

It makes me so happy to live hear hearing your enthusiasm for the place. I have grown up in the city of vancouver, and in Richmond, which is 10 minutes from the city and 30 to the downtown core. Although new transit is being implemented for light rail from Richmond to downtown. $500 000 will get you a decent 2 bedroom apartment, and can almost guarantee you won't have a spot to park the mystery machine. This is downtown, depending on your job you don't really even need a car. If I had that kind of money right now, I would buy in east van, as far north as I can afford. Anywhere betweem Cambie and commercial drive, the lower the cross street the better. If you look at a Map of the city these streets should be big ones, and the cross streets are numbers that decrease as you go north. There, your money will be able to grab something that needs quite a bit of fixing, but if you look hard enough will have a garage, and a small yard. This suggestions is stretching your cash a little thin though, it is hard to find houses for that price. If that amount is not your limit, and getting a mortgage over here is an option then I would definitely go for a house in the are I just talked about. it is my favorite, you will meet likeminded outdoor enthusiasts, be surrounded by some of the best restaurants and be a 10 minute bicycle ride from the downtown core.

Other options are Burnaby, with a good transit system to downtown, and your $500 000 will most likely get you started pretty well out there. The rest of the suburbs either getm ore expensive or don't actually border the real city.

here is a map of my dream area to live. The top left corner leads to downtown vancouver


Here is the view from my sister's apartment in Gastown. Basically the heart of downtown, just a bit of a walk from the shopping center.


a view of the city from grouse mountain, 20 minute drive from downtown.

east vancouver from grouse. I believe burnaby and surrey are in teh background, the wonderful view of mount baker is just out of frame. its coming next


me rock climbing in squamish, an hour from the city an amazing world of the outdoors opens up.

We even recycle after our camping trips. Don't worry it wasn't eco terrorism, we were in a controlled designated campground.

wlking the dog a 2 minute walk from my house in Richmond. It is surrounded by a dyke that you can walk on almost all the way around. Or cycle. Just nothing with a motor

here is t he city of osoyoos, about 5 hours from vancouver, great lake to water ski, wakeboard or just swim. It is between where I live and Kimberley where I took all the snowy pictures, and in summer it is our own little desert.


I figure that is enough for now. I don't know what else to show you.

I love this city very very much, and I don't think I would ever want to call anywhere else home, although I would like to leave it to explore other places regularly.

Hope this has helped a bit.

[Mystery Machine]

Blimey guys - what an overwhelming response! 8)

I'm going to print out your comments and have a good read through - spend some quality time on Google earth and dream of what I hope will one day be a reality! :D

I'm sure I'll have some more questions for you real soon! :lol:

Thanks again guys....

Bruce.

[Mystery Machine]

Ya missed the most important thing: salmon fishing!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Might have to get you to teach me though!

I've done the whole sea fishing thing (fresh Mackeral on buttered bread is my FAVE food in the world! :D ) but I've never done the freshwater scene!

Regards,

Bruce.

[Green1]

I'm sure I'll have some more questions for you real soon!

I'm sure you will too... big thing to remember is that Canada is big... REALLY big... so it's hard to answer what things are like "in Canada" because it varies from region to region. even one province will have huge extremes, BC alone is 925,186 km² compared to 244,101 km² for all of Great Britain (yes, you can fit Great Britain in to the province of British Columbia almost 4 times, and all of Canada is 9,984,670 km² (more than 40 times the size of Great Britain)
As a result we have almost every type of geography imaginable, from glaciers to deserts to rainforests, and the weather to go with them. even the culture changes from one part of Canada to the other.

The pictures you see of the deep snow in northern BC are not what "all of Canada" is seeing, in Vancouver they have snow this year, but that's not really the norm, and in eastern Canada the amount of snow in those pictures would be considered laughably small... the coasts get high humidity, while the prairies stay very dry, and what is considered cold or hot in one part of Canada will be completely different for another part. Vancouver generally stays around 0c in the winter, but gets 35c or more in the summer, meanwhile in Calgary we get down as low as -40c in the winter (though average is more like -10c) and tend not to get much above 25c in the summer...

We've quoted house prices in BC and Alberta as being in the 400k-700k ranges, however if you head to the east coast, or in to saskatchewan, you can get mansions for less than that...

Lots of variety, but that's (to me anyway) one of the things I like about Canada, I love driving accross this great country and seeing all the sights, but keep in mind that a comfortable coast to coast drive is at a minimum 7 days (at 100-120km/hr), and that doesn't account for any sight-seeing...

If you do decide to move out here I'm sure you'll love it, and hopefully you'll find lots of time to explore, it's a great place for a road trip! (you can drive in one direction for literally DAYS and still not get to the end...)

[elbosque]

I'd recommend the Fraser Valley. Ya its the burbs but if you want the great outdoors without having an hour or more of city traffic to push through, then this is the place to be. We have pretty close to the best salmon river fishing for any semi urban area in the world. That is not even talking about the Steelhead, Trout, Dolly, and Sturgeon fishing. If skiing is your thing and you want to get to some dry powder, not that sticky heavy stuff that they call powder at Whistler or the Vancouver hills, then Manning is only an hourand a half away and in another hour and a half you can be up at APEX for some real dry powder. If you want to frolick in the snow, then you can be up on top of Hemlock in less than an hour. Also, in less than an hour you can wheel up to sub alpine lakes for an evening supper picnic after work and look at the glaciers in the background. Some of the best fruit and veggies come out of the Fraser Valley. The average house price in Abbotsford is somewhere around $430,000, which is far below anything close in to Vancouver. If you really want to get into Vancouver, it is only 67 kms to downtown from Abby. You can be at the US border in less than 10 minutes and I have had trips into downtown Bellingham in less than 30 minutes. SEATAC airport in Seattle is only a little more than 2 hours away. If you want to talk about great views, well Mount Baker and all the other mountains are right up front and personal. You can't get any closer to Mt Baker in Canada than Abby. The great thing about the mountain views from here are you don't have to cut through city smog to see them. So there you have it, your un-biased plug for the Valley. Cheers, John

[Pete and Jackie]

I'd recommend the east coast of Vancouver Island for the outdoor life and overall beauty. Less rain than the west coast. Temperate year round, usually great summers, lakes and mountains everywhere. If you are used to a faster paced lifestyle, it may not be for you. You can always visit us if you enjoy ferry lineups!
The problem I have with the Fraser Valley is the sometimes dubious air quality. Maybe I made a "blanket" statement. But Vancouver is a smog producer and the summer Westerlies pile that air into the Fraser Valley which lies to the East.
The interior is nice, but there is no ocean. I hear Newfoundland is nice, they imported a Delica once, but it sits where it landed. (they can't find the steering wheel!)
Listen, just come over for a visit, rent a motorcycle and cover some ground. Be sure to take in Nelson, Williams Lake, Pemberton and the Island. Call some of us up and take us out for dinner ha ha just kidding. You might not like us though, we enjoy beer, the outdoors, we love our lifestyle and enjoy teasing one another. There is nowhere in Canada I did not enjoy except for the inside of a cop car. Or puking in everyones shoes at that party. Oh right, there was also that time I crapped the rug. Whoops, did I go too far? P

[Kuan]

I second the island. I lived in London (England) for 5 years and Vancouver for 10 years prior. When I moved back to Canada, I skipped Vancouver and came over here. Haven't left the rock since....(just joking but when ever we go away its always more of a holiday when you get home.)

Once here, you can always move around too. Just rent for a while until you find the place that feels the best.

Good luck.