Canada or Majorca

[countydurhamlass]

We have the possibility of moving to either of these countries at the beginning of next year but i am torn between the two. they both have their positives and negatives. every time i think one place would be better than the other something crops up that changes my mind.

the main negative for moving to canada is the cold weather but surely it can't be any more unbearable than in England...can it??

if you were me what do you think you would choose?

anyone living in either country ..can you tell me what it is really like?

Canada 100% :)

I grew up in canada, all my family still live in southern Ontario and Vancouver
Weather totally depends on where in the country you are.
I am not up to date on living expenses etc there as haven't lived there since the 80's.

Well, I live in Canada.

Um, when you say the cold wouldn't be any different from living in the UK, what do you actually mean? And where in Canada?... Only, I've spent four years where temperatures of -28/30 are common, and you do get odd days of -40. The schools where we were living had outdoor play until -20, but below -40 they usually closed, as it was considered too dangerous for children to be walking there and back.

We didn't ever experience that in the Uk, although I do recall a couple of snow days. If schools closed for snow where we live, they would pretty much be closed for 7 months of the year. It snowed last Saturday, for example. I'm pretty certain that was the last of it, but it will be snowing again in town by October. Sometimes earlier, in September.

Not possible to give you a 'what is it really like living in Canada' answer I'm afraid. You would need to be more specific. It's a fecking big place. Which province? City, small town, or rural? (some places are v niche - is he an oil worker, for example? It would make an enormous difference whether you were moving to Quebec, for example.)

And I know feck all about Majorca.

Weather, you will adjust. People from countries far warmer than the UK come here and do just fine.

Remember, Spain is almost bankrupt and Canada is considered one of the best financially sound countries in the world. My choice would be Canada. It is rich, safe good health care and education and more jobs than elsewhere. The people are nice too.

mad where are you again, it SNOWED you say?! Crikey!

We're in Quebec. It is expensive, taxes are high (which is why Canada has been protected to some extent in the recession, they made some big changes last time they were affected), it is so, so big, expensive to travel from and within, Quebec schools are very poor education wise. They have a lot of work in certain fields, Alberta is booming for example in construction, mining, although thy went through a slow down recently. And it is v.v. Cold in winter here with the alternative of baking hot, humid summers.

Hugs to Mad - it was hot, hot, hot here on the West Coast in Vancouver yesterday. House prices are crazy high here. Don't know much about Majorca, although the proximity to home would certainly appeal to me! Sounds like you have a tough decision to make County! Do you speak French then HRN, or do a lot of people speak English in Quebec?

Alberta Rockies. we had two days of flooding with heavy rain, followed by a full day of snow. it definitely snows well into May usually (including the long weekend), but the June snowfall was a bit of a surprise... Dh sent photos to the weather network.

All good though. We wouldn't have six months of skiing on our doorstep without it . Dh commutes to the city an hour away for work, so similar to UK commute in many ways, but the nature of it completely different! He heads home towards the mountains watching the sun set...

We have been to both. Majorca is just an island -you can do it in a couple of days but it is nearer home Canada is much further away maj in the EU so if the job does not work you can stay/look for something else etc without needing a visa whereas Canada may be stricter. THe distances between places in Canada are huge but you get used to it You can also travel to other countries from Canada which would normally be expensive If it is Vancouver grab it: it has been voted the no 1 place to live and it is lovely i would opt for Canada

Where in Canada exactly? It's a bit too big to compare generally with Mallorca. Also do you have children and how old are they? Is there something they particularly like which would be better served in one of these 2 choices? Also it might depend on whether you can both work, no problem in Mallorca if you're an EU national, but what about your status in Canada? Then the language - in some parts of Canada, namely Québec province, immigrants are obliged to send their children to school in French, in Mallorca there are 2 languages, Castillian Spanish and Catalan (Mallorqui).

thanks for all your replies

if we went to canada we would be moving to a place called Regina in saskatchewen, canada. we have one boy aged eight. my husband would be working and for the first few years i would not. his wage would be about 6000 to 6500 dollars a month and i dont know if this is a wage we can realistically live on. we would be wanting to rent a three bed property (nothing big and flash but nothing in a rough area)

if we went to mallorca we would be buying a business (Risky i know)

Hmmm have you ever been to Regina?
Well just on location, for me no competition and I absolutely love Canada, but wouldn't live everywhere in Canada!

Hmmm Regina is fucking extreme for weather from what I recall. Not a place I would choose to live tbh. Big expanse of nothing.
But I'm sure someone who lives there will come along and correct me.

Why don't you log onto britishexpats forum? Head for the Canada forum and ask lots of questions. There are some posters who have made the move to Regina v successfully, but, um, Saskatchewan has a certain reputation that it would be worth considering before you make a decision.

If you are very outdoorsy, rural people, then it would probably be fine. I would say about 80% of expats posters currently living in Canada would go to Majorca. but if it's just for a couple of years - why not?

You would have absolutely no problem at all living on 6k a month for a family of three in Regina. That I can promise you.

Another Canadian here....There are lots of differences between the UK and Canada. For alot of Brits it is hard to make the transition to Canadian life. The weather in the winter can be very depressing. Although in most places the sun shines throughout the winter it can be cold like you have never experienced before.

In Regina you will get that kind of cold -20 to -40 with wind chill in the winters. Lots of snow that you may not be used to living with and driving in. It is also very dry, so your skin may flake off and many people experience nosebleeds because of the contrasts of cold and forced air heating in the winters. Think you will need to clear your walks, sometimes even the snow off of your roof, regularly.

Saskatchewan is very quiet. Good if you like the outdoors as there are lots of lakes in Sask, however a long way from good skiing. You will not have any of the culture or history that you have in living in Europe and I find this is a common complaint of Europeans moving over. Canada is a very young country, people seem to forget that. Although it is not that long of a drive over the border for a spot of shopping or 'excitement'.

The cost of living is actually quite high in Canada in comparison to the UK. Wages tend to be quite good, but food and clothes are expensive. It is also very expensive to travel and distances are long as the country is vast. Be prepared to be shocked at the price of car insurance and dental compared to the UK. A percentage of dental is usually covered by an employer plan (but even the small percent you have to pay has often been more than what I pay on the NHS).

Property in Regina is still reasonably priced so you should have no problem finding somewhere decent to live.

However if you do not plan to work if you don't really put yourself out there you may find it very, very lonely and isolated. Work is a great way to build a network of friends. Ensure that if you are not working you are either volunteering, active in community activities or get involved with children's activities to meet other people.

thanks 4goingon. i am not planning to work straight away but do intend to do some volunteering a couple of hours a day in a way to make friends and network etc. where i live now is very quiet, a pretty small town surrounded by fields with not much in the way of excitement!

i dont think the snow will bother me that much, as i quite like it and the fact you say its "dry" is even better. i hate weather that is damp and miserable but if the summer is nice then i will be happy.

have you been to Saskatchewan in Winter and also travelled the huge distances between major cities in that area of Canada?

I've only experienced a Winter in Québec province, it's is NOTHING like snow in the UK. I could live with a Québec Winter that I experienced, but I was in a city and plenty of smaller towns around, skiing just 30 minutes away, lots to occupy children in the snow in the Winter there. I think my experience would be less extreme than a Saskatchewan Winter.

I'd pick Canada but then I like cold weather anyway. Now is definitely not the right time to buy a business in Majorca. I really think they have not reached the bottom of their recession (by quite a long way). I know nothing of Regina although I have been to Canada in a couple of trips. Have you ever been?

i have never been to canada so it will be all new. keep thinking the worst will be we dont like it and have to come back to UK. we will have our house here to move back into if we do come back.

I have lived in Ontario since my pre-teens. It would take one million dollars for me to move my family to Regina . Winters are horrible on the prairies and Saskatchewan is the most boring province in Canada. FACT.

I live in Canada (the BC Rockies) and I absolutely love it, but I think BetterChoicesChair is being kind with her asking price of what it would take to persuade her to move to Regina. It'd take considerably more than that for me, I'm afraid. We have harsh, snowy winters where I live, too, but at least it's gorgeous here to compensate

madwoman - "I would say about 80% of expats posters currently living in Canada would go to Majorca." Possibly probably but then I do think a lot of the BE Canada posters would be equally miserable wherever they ended up!

For what it's worth, it'd be no contest for me if you feel that you would be likely to be able to move elsewhere in Canada once you got your feet under the table, so to speak. I would rather live in the part of Canada that I do, right now, than anywhere else in the world, but Canada really isn't so special that I'd live somewhere grotty, just to be "in Canada"...

.

If Countydurhamlass had said she was off to Vancouver or Calgary or Toronto or Montréal, there might have been many replies saying YES. But it's Regina.....a 1 million is definitely not enough for me either, I'd do it on a temporary basis, but never as a permanent move absolutely never. If Mallorca is too risky for you, stay where you are.

Lazydog, you are not wrong. did you get that snow last week? It was crazy here. Are you all thawed?

I live in Mallorca and my husband owns a business here. Obviously it depends on what sort of business you are buying for me to comment on if it's a good idea in the current climate!

I have lived here for 6 years, my son schools here at a state school but he attended a private international school for 3 years so I also have knowledge of that.

I love Mallorca but I warn you, nothing is easy in Spain! There's a real mañana mañana attitude here, nothing is urgent. It's very easy to get frustrated when trying to do anything we would consider to be easy in the UK! The weather is mild in winter (except this year it snowed even at sea level and we had one day of white!) and by April is warm enough for tourists to sunbathe.

Feel free to ask any questions you'd like and I'll try to answer them!