What part of Canada is best for me?

Rover

2010-02-19 14:58:06 UTC

If you become a GP you can get a job pretty much anywhere you want in Canada. We need doctors! If you specialize you will still have amazing job prospects. If you become any kind of doctor, don't even worry about finding a job. People will be fighting for you.

As for your view on hunting, if you are that opposed to it I'd say stick to a very large city. A lot of people hunt all across the country, so at least in large cities you won't cross paths with hunters.

So, you want mountains and oceans. That pretty much limits you to BC. However, BC ggets a LOT of rain. That said, the it isn't very cold there compared to the rest of the country. If you can stand the rain, it is great. Vancouver is expensive to live in, though. But there are, of course, lots of places to live outside Van.

The province of Quebec is also a great place to ski. There are some mountains there, but they're not like the Rocky's. I wouldn't move to Quebec unless you are fluent in French, unless you move to Montreal. But, Montrealers can be quite rude to anglophones. There is a huge french vs english mentality in Montreal. So beware!

You said you don't like cold weather, so do NOT move to any of the territories, northern parts of any provinces, or Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. If you move to the praries (AB, SK, MB) you will surely freeze. It gets sooo cold in the praries in the winter, even in the southern parts of those provinces. Just to give you an idea of how cold it gets in the praries. If you were to move to Winnipeg, a city in southern Manitoba (and so warmer than other parts of the praries simply because it is a city), in one day in February one year it was --48 degrees celcius. That is --54 degrees ferenheit, I believe. That is before accounting for the windchill, so it would have felt like a hell of a lot colder. One day in 1996 it went down --57.1 degrees celcius with the windchill. So long story short, stay out of the prairies.

Southern Ontario is warm, relatively dry, cheap to live in (except Toronto), not hectic (except Toronto), and beautiful (except Toronto). However, Southern Ontario doesn't have mountains or an ocean view. We do, however, have the great lakes. Central Ontario has a TON of hunters, tho. There are some towns where the men don't seem to take off their hunting gear even when it isn't hunting season. (btw, you won't find a ten year old shooting a deer. you have to be 16 to get a gun licence.. you might find a kid with a cross bow though haha.)

So where should you move?

If you can bear the rain, go to BC...but stay out of Vancouver.

Or, if you speak French or are willing to pick it up and can sacrifice an ocean view, go to Quebec (Quebec city).

Or, if you can sacrifice the mountains and live with a million lakes rather than the ocean, move to southern Ontario. Guelph, Waterloo, Barrie, Stratford, St. Catherines, and Peterborough are all great places to live in southern ontario.

Or, if you can

Karen L

2010-02-19 18:28:05 UTC

If you want real mountains, BC is your only choice. Quite a few communities have skiing quite nearby. Quebec and Ontario have skiing too, but not on what anyone from BC would call mountains. Vancouver area, the Okanagan Valley, the Kootenays, all those have ski areas. But it does rain a lot in Vancouver in winter, along the entire coastal area of BC in fact, though it's a bit drier on the east coast of Vancouver Island including Victoria. Hard to believe that when it rains for 3 days straight, but true.

I wouldn't worry a whole lot about living expenses. You'll be a doctor, which means you probably aren't going to have trouble paying for a place to live. BC tends to be expensive for housing, but in many places where it's cheaper, you pay a lot more to heat your house so it sort of evens out. Cross that bridge when you come to it. I live in coastal BC. My total winter months electricity bill, including heating, for my small house is $125 a month on average. In a colder part of the country, my winter heat bill could easily be $400 a month. I wouldn't worry about finding work either. There will be some, but when you immigrate, that choice might be out of your hands at first. You may just have to go where a job is offered, to start with.

Contrary to popular belief, not all of Canada is always cold. It gets quite hot in all parts at some time in the year. It's merely a question of how long that hot weather lasts and how cold it gets when winter gets going. Some places get really cold, others not so much.

As for the hunting, I wouldn't worry about that too much either. With the exception, possibly, of some of the more remote northern communities, you are not going to see people tramping around with guns anywhere near houses. You may never see any hunters at all. People are not supposed to be firing rifles anywhere near houses, and anyone who is an actual hunter and not just a yahoo will do their hunting away from people, partly for safety and for the "wilderness experience", and partly because that's where the animals are. I have lived in Canada my whole 57 years, not always in cities, and last year for the first time I saw some hunters, going for duck at a place I walk. There are hunting seasons, too, generally in the fall, so you can avoid some areas if you like during the season.

I think that the interior of BC might suit you, or Ontario or Quebec outside the big cities, though I expect that if you want to be a doctor in Quebec, it would be very useful to have some French in some parts. No ocean views in those parts but lovely scenery anyway. There's also the Maritime provinces--Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. They are cheap for housing(relatively), have nice scenery, friendly people, ocean all over the place. Not much skiing, winters can be demanding at times, summer is lovely.

And someone else mentioned the Great Lakes. Good point. They're lakes but they're big. You can't see to the other side of any of them except if you're up high or it's an exceptionally clear night, so they have a bit of ocean feel to them and they can be just as dangerous in bad weather.

2010-02-19 22:58:18 UTC

You made a good choice. Canada is a great country. I live in Vancouver. You've probably heard of it. The Olympics are happening here right now. Anyway. There isn't really any hunting here unless you go up north. And obviously you have to be licensed. There are quite a few vegetarians here, including people inclined with nature etc. The mountains are great in the winter. We have Grouse, Cypress, Hollyburn, Seymour and Whistler mountains. All with great runs. And yes you've heard correctly. Unless you're moving to Toronto or Ottawa. The cities here are not huge. But Vancouver is perfect.

These pictures are of Vancouver by night. Gorgeous aren't they?

http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/vancouver-at-night-dale-stillman.jpg

http://www.joelatwater.ca/images/Vancouver-at-Night.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2244/2194584807_1c74b3343d.jpg

You should take a short 5-7 day trip to Vancouver just to sample it. You know, see if you like it and what not. Best of luck :D

2016-04-12 10:03:58 UTC

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Altrissa

2010-02-19 14:53:42 UTC

I live in Calgary, Alberta. Let's start with places you SHOULDN'T live, according to your list.

First off, you have to choose. You either get to pick a good job market or inexpensive living. Unfortunately, there's not both here, unless you're willing to be a doctor in a small town. (We're talking really small towns, like 2000 people small.)

Let's start with weather. If you cut Canada in half from coast to coast, everything north of that line is cold. That's not to say that everything south is warm all the time, but it's more temperate. For example, Calgary gets about 2 weeks of brutally cold weather (we're talking -30C) in the winter. Edmonton, only 3 hours to the north, is usually socked in for about 2 straight months.

If you want to avoid hunting, don't live in any small town anywhere. Stick to the urban locations. Your main choices would be Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Toronto. (I'm excluding all of the French speaking places and the Maritimes, since there are no jobs there.)

Out of those places, Winnipeg is freaking cold, so scratch that. Toronto and Vancouver are crazy expensive unless you are willing to live outside the city and commute. However, Vancouver gets a ton of rain. Victoria (on the island) is gorgeous and pretty temperate, but during the summer it fills with tourists. Ottawa is also very expensive since it is the capital of Canada and all of the politicians live there.

Edmonton and Calgary are all right, but you have to drive at least an hour west to get decent scenery. However, if you're a vegetarian, I will warn you that Alberta is the meat capital of Canada. If you want skiing and vegetarians, your best bet is BC. If you looked at places like Kelowna or Salmon Arm, you'd be pretty close to ski hills but not far enough into nature to witness hunting.

The downside to that part of BC, however, are the forest fires in the summer.

I've lived in Northern BC, Northern Alberta, and Southern Alberta, and I love Calgary. The city is great and it's a short drive to Banff, one of the most beautiful places in Canada (but only to visit...It's the AIDS capital of Canada, seriously.)

Good luck!

old lady

2010-02-19 19:22:13 UTC

Sounds like somewhere in the Kootenays would be perfect for you. There are mountains, lakes, lots of skiing and most of the smaller towns in the Kootenays have a shortage of doctors.

sellatieeat

2010-02-19 20:16:52 UTC

vancouver sounds like your kinda place.

not too cold. lovely views of the pacific ocean. more of a city life than a rural life. I dont know what their employment there is like. Hopefully good.

CM

2010-02-19 15:55:34 UTC

Vancouver, BC.

It is perfect for you, except it has some rain. But it is close to the ocean, so maybe you won`t mind.