# cant decide what city to live! grrrr



## rory_jenkins (May 3, 2011)

hi all!
so iv got my visa come through and need to decide what city to lad in and to try and work ect..i have a IEC visa so got a year with a year extention if i need to.

100% dont want to go to toronto,im from LONDON in the UK and hate it..so what do you all recon?
edmonton?calgary?vancouver?

cheaper city the better..my resume is full of sales,customer service and lots of travel industry stuff.

ideas,suggestions welcome


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## Jennianne (Feb 8, 2010)

I would rule out vancouver if your wanting cheap lol


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## derrickdavies (Oct 31, 2008)

I moved to Manitoba,its nice but cold.I would go to Calgary because it gets less rain than vancouver,if you like rain move to Vancouver,or better still settle in the Okanagan valley in the BC interior


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## kimo (Feb 12, 2011)

derrickdavies said:


> I moved to Manitoba,its nice but cold.I would go to Calgary because it gets less rain than vancouver,if you like rain move to Vancouver,or better still settle in the Okanagan valley in the BC interior


Vancouver may get more rain than Calgary, but it doesn't have the long COLD winters, and usually gets little if any snow, even better would be Victoria. 
One has to remember when talking about places to move, just like in England, there are more places to live than just London, Canada is the same, there are more places to live in a province than just its biggest city, ie: an hour outside Vancouver, housing cost can be up to half as much. But theres more to deciding where to live than just the weather. A persons budget and lifestyle needs to be considered.


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## amszephyr (May 1, 2011)

Have you thought about Kingston, Ontario? Quite 'English' in many respects but I've always thought it has a wonderfully friendly, small-town feel to it. I lived in Montreal for a couple of years while at grad school and adored it - so varied with its many districts that pretty much everybody could find an area to suit them.


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## ClaytonP (Apr 15, 2011)

Montreal is a wonderful city, but very hard to get work if you don't speak french. Calgary is a little boring, conservative and awash with money. Vancouver is a great city, but very expensive. I would definitely consider moving to Victoria on Vancouver island, though to warn you, there are lots of hippies and retirees and it's not cheap. If you like the outdoors, you'll be in heaven. Plus Vancouver is only a 2.5 hour ferry ride away.

The east coast is very inexpensive and if you want to really experience some Canadian culture, you could move to St. John's Newfoundland. Very small city, _very_ nice people, but it moves a little slowly.

Finally, you might want to give Toronto a second thought. It's a great city with lots going on and you can make it work on $2000 a month if you get a roommate.


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## dcraig (May 14, 2011)

*Hippies?*



ClaytonP said:


> Montreal is a wonderful city, but very hard to get work if you don't speak french. Calgary is a little boring, conservative and awash with money. Vancouver is a great city, but very expensive. I would definitely consider moving to Victoria on Vancouver island, though to warn you, there are lots of hippies and retirees and it's not cheap. If you like the outdoors, you'll be in heaven. Plus Vancouver is only a 2.5 hour ferry ride away.
> 
> The east coast is very inexpensive and if you want to really experience some Canadian culture, you could move to St. John's Newfoundland. Very small city, _very_ nice people, but it moves a little slowly.
> 
> Finally, you might want to give Toronto a second thought. It's a great city with lots going on and you can make it work on $2000 a month if you get a roommate.


Hippies in Victoria? 100's of homeless street people ya, but hippies?, and the ferry ride to Vancouver is only 95 minutes, not 2.5 hours, if you don't believe me, just refer to BCFerries website.


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## kimo (Feb 12, 2011)

ClaytonP said:


> Plus Vancouver is only a 2.5 hour ferry ride away.
> .


2.5 hour ferry ride to Vancouver? was it a rowboat?, like dcraig said, it is only 95 minutes, maybe 100 if theres a headwind, this is why people using this forum for info shouldn't believe everything they read on here.


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## NewCanuck (May 29, 2011)

There are lots of nice cities in Canada -- it depends on what you're looking for.

Google "top cities to live in Canada 2011" for a useful list.


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## crockett (Feb 4, 2009)

The Cowichan valley you can`t go wrong..around Maple Bay area.Even waterfront proprty is affordable!


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## NewCanuck (May 29, 2011)

crockett said:


> The Cowichan valley you can`t go wrong..around Maple Bay area.Even waterfront proprty is affordable!


I'd echo that -- the Cowichan Valley is beautiful and bucolic, with excellent locally produced food.

If you're looking for a major urban centre though, you should look elsewhere.


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## ClaytonP (Apr 15, 2011)

kimo said:


> 2.5 hour ferry ride to Vancouver? was it a rowboat?, like dcraig said, it is only 95 minutes, maybe 100 if theres a headwind, this is why people using this forum for info shouldn't believe everything they read on here.


You're probably right, it's been a couple years since I've taken that ferry. Plus, I have a habit of referencing my own door-to-door travel time, which isn't useful for forums.


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## kimo (Feb 12, 2011)

crockett said:


> The Cowichan valley you can`t go wrong..around Maple Bay area.Even waterfront proprty is affordable!


Affordable is a state of mind, if its just property, with no house then maybe, but our friends just sold their Maple Bay waterfont home for $1.3 million and the house was an older, (about 40-50 years) fixer upper, and there was no actual beach, just rocks, and no boat dock. Affordable? Water view maybe, but not waterfront, at least not for the average person. But ya, you can't go wrong with the Cowichan Valley, and Duncan has everything, (almost) you would need, if not Victoria or Nanaimo are less than an hour away in either direction.


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## RGS (Jan 24, 2011)

Vancouver - Most expensive of the 3 options you noted. Mild winters... usually above melting the entire winter. Rarily gets snow... and if it does, it doesn't stick around long. Has the mountains close by.

Calgary - Less expensive than Vancouver. Has the mountains close by. Can have winter weather extremes where one day it can be -30c, then the next day it can be +10c. These are known as Alberta clippers, or chinooks. Calgary is known as a white collar city with lots of corporate jobs.

Edmonton - Least expensive of the 3 cities. Its the blue collar city of Alberta because of its workforce connected to the oil and gas industry. Mountains are about a 2½ hour drive away.


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