EPTMoving to Canada - Thoughts? - Page 2
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Feartheguru
Canada1334 Posts
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lolmlg
619 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:04 skipgamer wrote: Just wondering, where would either of you suggest? I think I'll just travel around on a holiday before even thinking about moving by the direction this thread is going. Well, you should also be aware that Canada is enormous and it's very expensive to travel. We don't have budget airlines. Inter-city bus travel isn't cheap. And you'd basically need to travel the maximum distance possible to go from Vancouver to Montreal. If you want to live somewhere interesting, you should probably go to Montreal. It's not particularly far from Toronto so you could always visit, but it's got a lot more character and the music scene has three times as much life. | ||
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Tamburlaine
Canada288 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:04 skipgamer wrote: Just wondering, where would either of you suggest? I think I'll just travel around before even thinking about moving by the direction this thread is going. Heh. Well, I don't exactly know you well, but... BC would be your best choice climate-wise, being "the warm province". Vancouver's expensive, but often considered the best city in Canada. The Queen Charlotte Islands have some of the most beautiful forests in the world, provided you find a part of them that haven't been logged yet. Lots of Australians in the mountains, too. You guys fucking love snowboarding, apparently. Moving east you get Alberta, or "Canada's America". I've no love for Calgary, but Edmonton ain't bad. More crime than Calgary, but it's a far more interesting city. There's a restaurant there that makes the best god damn bison burger ever, too. Then you hit Saskatchewan, my province. Population one million, with two "major" cities. The capitol, Regina, has a bit of a reputation for crime. I live in Saskatoon, which is kinda divided between "the poor side" west of the river and the yuppie/university side on the east. Saskatchewan's a good choice if you're in to hunting or kayaking or... y'know, nature stuff, but otherwise, probably not much for you. The Ness Creek Music Festival's alright if you're in to that sort of thing. Manitoba is like Saskatchewan if Regina and Saskatoon were combined in to one mosquito-ridden city. They have the Red River Rampage, though. And Propagandhi and The Weakerthans are way better bands than The Sheepdogs. And they just got their hockey team back, which is pretty baller. Farther east still gets you Ontario. Big province, lots of wilderness and what-not. Most people live in the Great Lake area. There's Toronto, of course. Ottawa's nicer, though. But who cares about Ottawa when you could go for... Quebec. Or more specifically, Montreal, the English-est city in the province. Very cool city. Not knowing French makes things harder on you the farther you get from that city. And then there are the maritime provinces and Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories, which... well, I've never been to any of them. Other people could talk about them better than I. | ||
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SK.Testie
Canada11084 Posts
What the fuck are you doing in Australia? | ||
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skipgamer
Australia701 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:03 mintiefresh wrote: depends on what you're looking for. big city? outdoors? cold? coast/ocean? There's a wide range in Canada. I suggest just looking up each major city in each province to get yourself a feel. Vancouver/Toronto/Calgary/Edmonton/Ottawa would be a decent start. I suggest Vancouver, though it's rated the most expensive place to live in all of NA... yikes :S Yeah, I've been looking around online at different places, I still think Toronto (how can anybody not like the maple leafs) seems like the best bet, possibly Ottawa. Definitely Ontario, sure montreal is interesting, but it seems more like the place I'd like to travel to every now and again, not actually live in. Either way, thanks for keeping the head level TL. Knew I could count on you guys for good advice. | ||
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cmen15
United States1519 Posts
LOL saw that vid on your stream <3 edit: ok i added the protoss sign by mistake gg | ||
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Tamburlaine
Canada288 Posts
Oh, go anywhere in Canada outside of Toronto and we'll fill you in. | ||
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lolmlg
619 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:19 skipgamer wrote: Yeah, I've been looking around online at different places, I still think Toronto (how can anybody not like the maple leafs) seems like the best bet, possibly Ottawa. Definitely Ontario, sure montreal is interesting, but it seems more like the place I'd like to travel to every now and again, not actually live in. Either way, thanks for keeping the head level TL. Knew I could count on you guys for good advice. Ottawa is less expensive and less interesting. You will need a car, no exceptions. The bus system is slow and inadequate. If you want to see a good band you'll need to go to Toronto or Montreal, no exceptions. But it's a clean, safe place to live, with many high tech opportunities. Edit: And Montreal is like, one hour away by train. Edit again: Well, possible exception for the car thing if you don't mind commuting for two hours every day, or if you both live and work downtown. The latter is your best bet for actually enjoying life, although most of the tech jobs are in the west end. | ||
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TheKwas
Iceland372 Posts
Live a bit, do it, but keep some money stored away if you ever have to/want to jump ship back to Australia. Sterotypes in-coming: Canada obviously has a very wide spectrum of personality types, but my general impression from interacting with both nations is that Australia is more party-friendly and fun-loving (hence previous comments about Australians loving our mountains for snowboarding), but Canadians are more culturally accepting and culturally integrated. At any rate, get involved in the right social circles and I'm sure you'll meet people who share the same interests and disposition. | ||
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Taku
Canada2036 Posts
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Hidden_MotiveS
Canada2562 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:12 lolmlg wrote: Well, you should also be aware that Canada is enormous and it's very expensive to travel. We don't have budget airlines. Inter-city bus travel isn't cheap. And you'd basically need to travel the maximum distance possible to go from Vancouver to Montreal. If you want to live somewhere interesting, you should probably go to Montreal. It's not particularly far from Toronto so you could always visit, but it's got a lot more character and the music scene has three times as much life. This could just be a locational thing but I thought bus travel was pretty cheap. What's your idea of expensive? | ||
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TheKwas
Iceland372 Posts
Try living in Regina or any of the prairie cities for truly horrible public transpo. Ottawa is a pretty well 'sized' city where you have the better aspects of a big city and the better aspects of a small city. If I were to move back to Canada, Ottawa would be my top choice. | ||
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Torte de Lini
Germany38463 Posts
I had an old TLer by the name of Fireblast! come and stay at my place for a good while, he can tell how great this city is! | ||
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lolmlg
619 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:55 Hidden_MotiveS wrote: This could just be a locational thing but I thought bus travel was pretty cheap. What's your idea of expensive? If you've ever taken a bus between cities in Spain you'll know what a reasonably priced bus ticket costs. They have competition. Ontario has a government-sponsored monopoly. | ||
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lolmlg
619 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:57 TheKwas wrote: Also, Ottawa has a pretty good bus system, not sure what lolmlg is talking about. As long as you don't live in like Kanata or suburbia, you shouldn't take more than 40 minutes to get basically anywhere in the city. The fact it's cornered into a river makes bus routes only half as complicated compared to a normal city. Try living in Regina or any of the prairie cities for truly horrible public transpo. Ottawa is a pretty well 'sized' city where you have the better aspects of a big city and the better aspects of a small city. If I were to move back to Canada, Ottawa would be my top choice. Regina isn't a national capital. If you live in Kanata, or Barrhaven, or Orleans (i.e. you live anywhere in Ottawa where people live in a house, especially one that costs less than a million dollars) then you will be subjected to long trips on the bus. If you plan to work in Kanata then you'd better either live in Kanata or live downtown within a five minute walk of the transitway, otherwise you will spend more than an hour on the bus each way, guaranteed. That is, if the bus drivers don't go on strike, which they tend to do. | ||
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danson
United States689 Posts
i live in texas and have family in calgary, and i have to say that outside of 5 months of the year, its just too fucking cold to function as a normal human being | ||
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Wafflelisk
Canada1061 Posts
On April 15 2012 15:50 Taku wrote: If you want a place with warm and outgoing people who aren't afraid to randomly start conversations, STAY AWAY FROM VANCOUVER. REPEAT, DO NOT COME TO VANCOUVER. Also don't go to Toronto because it's Toronto and no one likes them. Dear Lord, this. I have lived here my entire life and the ONLY stranger I have ever had randomly strike up a conversation with me was a guy from (friendly?) Manitoba. I'm not saying it's impossible to make friends, I'm sure part of the reason I've never made a friend that I didn't meet through other friends/school/sports teams is that I'm a shy/cold-at-first type as well, but I'm sure the first few weeks in this city would suck for someone who knows no one here. I *do* love living here, but seeing as you put "But you never really get to know anybody unless you have a reason to" as one of your reasons as wanting to explore somewhere else, I probably wouldn't come here unless you do an absurd amount of research and decide that second place isn't even close. It's also way more expensive than every other/most other places in Canada. (some people say Toronto is the most expensive city in Canada, I suppose it depends on what/how you measure it) If it counts for anything, I'd love to move to Quebec and learn French/pick up some of the Quebecois culture if only I had the chance. Maybe I'll try to go to an English university there for grad school? I'd also consider the Maritimes. It's rarely the first place brought up when someone mentions Canada, but it looks absolutely gorgeous. Definitely on my bucket list. | ||
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lolmlg
619 Posts
On April 15 2012 16:23 danson wrote: i live in texas Mystery solved. Wear a coat next time bro. On April 15 2012 16:26 Wafflelisk wrote: (some people say Toronto is the most expensive city in Canada, I suppose it depends on what/how you measure it) Vancouver was recently named the second-most expensive housing market in the entire English-speaking world. (Sydney was #1.) | ||
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ElMeanYo
United States1032 Posts
That being said... If you can accept this reality then Canada does have a lot going for it. Clean in most places, the great outdoors, mostly friendly people and a low crime rate. I would recommend Calgary as it has a lot of high tech industry, lively nightlife scene and a booming economy with no PST. If you can handle the weather and like winter sports theres some great skiing not far in Banff. The Canadian Rockies are some of the most beautiful things you will ever see. | ||
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Yoshi Kirishima
United States10383 Posts
It depends where you live though. In Toronto, Ontario, there is such great diversity. There are "towns" for many many different cultures. The "chinatown" there is huge, it is like a full city. If you live in a place like Toronto (or rather, metro toronto), it may be a good experience, since you can go/move to whatever part of it you want. Anyways I do not know australian culture that much. As long as you have other reasons (like better game industry importunity) than just thinking/hoping that the social side of Canada will suit you more than Australia, I think it's ok. But before moving, have you considered simply vacationing there first? Btw like others have said, the tax is huge. But things are so nice there. In Michigan, USA there are so many holes/cracks in the roads. In Canada it is a rare sight to see a crack (maybe really thin ones, but no cracks like 1 cm or more, at least in the parts of toronto i've been in) Also things like free health care and insurance and such. I live in USA and you could say Canada is more "socialist" than USA. You pay higher tax but they use it to help the general people. It could help or hurt you. If you happen to get some rare disease or something or need surgery, the high tax could pay off easily. If your needs don't make the tax pay off for the amount you pay, I think it is important to examine what kind of person you are. On one hand it's like you wasted a lot of money, but on another you know the money is being used for "good" things or to help other people. Maybe if you are a generous person who would rather pay less tax and use your own money to help others in the ways you prefer to and/or feel are best, you will not prefer the higher tax in Canada. | ||
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