Canada..........advice from Canadians or expats in Canada

[inthepink]

We live in the Middle East at the moment but we have been thinking of moving on and we thought we might like Canada as a place to live and work, my dh is a chef and we have 1 ds who is 4. Would appreciate some advice from Canadians or expats who have moved to Canada, where is the best place to live (bearing in mind we don't speak French!), education, housing, cost of living,etc, the good and not so good of Canadian life.

TIA

That's great Zoom are supposed to be good because we've booked with them (direct Belfast-Halifax.) Even if the service is crap I'm delighted not to have to change in Toronto or London!

Air Transat

Thanks cadmum, with the dates ive got they are the cheapest so far and they are direct!

here's a few more very useful websites just in case you're looking at ontario

www.mls.ca - great canada wide real estate listings.

www.workopolis.com - seems to be the main jobs site in canada and has thousands of listing for toronto and vancouver.

by reading the threads and having previous contact with NQC... it seems me and her are expats who are a little wary of canada.

DW and I going back just for a change due to extreme boredom for a year or two maybe but no other real reason than that.

I'm looking forward to the snowy winters and cheap living but that's about it. I would much rather go to Australia but I can't convince DW.

Do your homework on canada. There are many pitfalls. as mentioned and a few more:

1. Employment - Like I said, unemployment if high and the jobs pay alot less in general. I would be looking at earning as little as half what I do in the UK.

2. non-recognition of qualifications - close mindedness and the possibility of the horrible situation of re-training just to get the Can qualification on paper even though half the monkeys you work with are less skilled than you (not bitterness there eh!)

3. Long commutes

4. Government controlled liquer and beer stores (not sold in grocery stores or shops - each town has at least one liquer store and beer store and sods law says there both on opposite sides of the town!) and... no sales or offers! just a set price all the time!

5. rednecks (lol)

6. that extremely annoying thing with the sales tax where its not included in the price.

7. extremely happy smiley people who are actually not happy at all they are just putting on a face.

8. really long drives everywhere you want to go.

DC, I miss:

1. The food! Montreal has the best, cheapest, general restaurants in the world. Ok, not the world, Tokyo's probably better, but still.

2. I love the multilingual thing in Montreal.

3. Not having really dark winters.

4. A culture which is sensible about booze.

I don't miss:

1. Car culture

2. Consumer culture

3. People being rude to servers etc

4. People being really open in their disapproval and opinions. Women you don't know will tell you about their periods! I am not kidding! (Ok, they won't tell DC, but you see what I mean.)

5. As DC says, the sales tax thing is irritating in the extreme. My DH regularly gets angry about this.

(The booze thing isn't quite true in Quebec: You can buy beer and wine in corner stores. Ok, not hard liquor, but still.)

I'm sure there's more ...

Daddy Ghoul you are so negative! Sure the salaries are lower, but then so are house prices and general costs, food, utilities, petrol etc. Maybe you Ontarians just don't have it as good as the Maritimers

i am a little negative, yes

sorry, i was in a bad mood yesterday. i've had surgery on my nose and i'm at home with a swollen blocked up nose and feeling sorry for myself.

at least i don't have to be a work! yaaaaaaaayyyy!

i do like:

-the snowy winters and plenty of skiing

-going out for cheap dinners.

-the general convenience of the country

-nice hot summers and affordable swimming pools for your back yard

-basements and the cosiness of sitting in them watching telly or sitting by the fire in the winter.

-huge malls and days out in and around toronto.

lucy - try also canadian affair, their prices are v similiar to zoom - their seat pitch is a lot more generous as well!

I'd also vote for any of the maritime cities - Halifax, Fredericton, St John - lovely lovey lovely. Halifax is a v multicultural city with lots to offer young families, excelllent parks and outdoorsy things to do ( if you're into that) But no Sunday shopping, think it's the only place left in Canada without it. As someone said salaries are lower, but so is pretty much everything else, you wouldn't have to earn the same money to enjoy a nicer quality of life
I"ve not had the directness or the rudeness that people have spoken about here from Canadians - maybe it's a big city thing , if anything I've had the opposite. Canada is a vast country and I know that stereotypes exist for a reason but these aren't my experinces ( am feeling little protective of it I think!)
with regards to qualifications, my own were not recognised here in the UK ( a teaching degree ffs!) and I had to retrain with lots of courses and classes. This this is common in a lot of countries, not fair but common.
skerriesmum - was surprised to hear that you still had to go through an immigration application process, is that the case for all people moving back despite being Cdn? Am v envious, hope your move goes smoothly
hana

I grew up in Canada from age 8 till 20,all my family are still there.

I agree with daddycool ,when I go back annually I really enjoy it but also love britain when I come home.We did think of moving to the west coast years ago but alas there were no jobs for dh at the time.

I grew up in a lovely town called Dundas about an hour west of Toronto.

When I see mu friends kids ,they seem less sophisticated than kids here,by that I mean I think kids are kids slightly longer.That may be my personal experience only though.

Thanks hana for your good wishes. I should be packing instead of mumsnetting!
Yes, because my husband's not Canadian, I had to sponsor him so he could become a landed immigrant (I think he could have entered the country with me, but he wouldn't have been allowed to work until he got landed immigrant status, so we applied from here while we were still working. Also the process is apparently quicker when done from abroad.) We had no problems, it only took 3 months (much shorter than the time we needed to fill in the forms!) Also a large fee, 1500 dollars!
We are so looking forward to Halifax. I'll have to change my name as I'll no longer be a Skerries mum!

I am glad that there is a good reason for your negativity DC... Hope you feel better soon.

I spent the whole time we were in the UK longing to get back to Canadian prices. Things here cost the same in dollars and they did in pounds so even if our income were lower (which it certainly is NOT!) we are still much further ahead here. (We were in Central London though.)