Where in Canada is a good place to live?

[Doctor_J]

I have thus far restricted my job search to Vancouver, which I hear is the most beautiful city in NA. I should probably branch out to TO, Calgary, Montreal, and Hamilton, I guess, but I want to be careful. What can you tell me about the cultural aspects of second-level (population-wise) cities. I am speaking of Regina, Lethbridge, PQ City, Waterloo, London, Sudbury, and the like. DO people there drive to work or take the public transportation? Do they a symphony? Decent live theatre? Minor league hockey? Minor league baseball? Is there work in the maritimes (I am looking for work as a math professor)?

[stupid grin]

1. Halifax, NS is my favorite spot.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. I love Cape Breton, being a country gal and all. :^)

[MrScorpio]

2. Toronto is my favorite place

I love Canada

[madison2000]

4. Another vote for Toronto

Great city and still close to the US

[SnowBack]

26. Toronto beats all other cities hands down

Lived there for 10 years, and will retire there part time some day...

[Cadence]

3. I have been wondering about Vancouver too.

But I heard that the job market is really, really tight.

[dreamcollector]

5. Vancouver has the fairest climate

Toronto is the most multi-cultural city in the world. Forget about Sudbury or Hamilton etc. Montreal is wonderful, but c-c-c-c-c-o-o-l-ld! You will love it here. We welcome you.

[Doctor_J]

10. i've lived in chicago most of my life,

so the cold is tolerable. At least the cold in the provinces. I skipped over the web sites for the University of the Yukon and University Of The Arctic. Even Edmonton and Winnipeg are probably more than my old body wants to put up with.

[warrens]

6. Montreal

Toronto and Vancouver are nice too, but Montreal has it all.

[gula]

9. Another vote for Montreal

It really does have it all AND in two languages to boot. Well, except maybe baseball.

It is also compact and easy to get around in. Definitely no need for a car if you live in town.

[MrScorpio]

13. Montreal - Best lap dances in Canada

Definitely a plus!

[Maple]

7. Jobs are plentiful

in most places, but if you're a math professor interested in a smaller city, I'd recommend London or Waterloo Ontario.

University of Western Ontario is in London. Parks, theatre, baseball. Highest number of millionaires in Canada actually. Even with the oil business in Calgary. I grew up in London.

Waterloo is connected to a city called Kitchener...twin cities now. There are two universities there, Wilfred Laurier, and Waterloo.

Waterloo universisty is famous for its maths and computer depts, and a huge new physics foundation was sponsored for the city by the head of Blackberry.

The twin city of Kitchener has an Oktoberfest, and there is a colony of old style mennonites nearby in St Jacobs who have a farmers market and hand made furniture.

[MorningMist]

11. Definitely Ottawa...

Not much work in the Maritimes and the weather is awful! Beautiful scenery though.

Ottawa has about a million people, two universities, Algonquin College, and a great elementary and secondary school system. The theatre is second-to-none with Broadway shows, Shakespeare, Chamber Music, everything you could want. The public transportation is really accessible but you can drive to work if you like. Most people just buy a monthly bus pass though. Can't tell you too much about the sports scene except that there is a pro hockey team, football, and lots of minor league teams. Rent isn't too bad and the green spaces for walking and biking are everywhere.

How can you tell I love Ottawa? :)

[democracy eh]

16. all those things about Ottawa are true

I have been trying to get there myself,

the bilingualism thing (which is awesome and provides the spice for Ottawa) is a somewhat barrier to employment, not an anti French rant, just a fact, half your customer, students and colleagues will speak French as a first language, you need to be bilingual.

my French is bad, but I am buying a course for myself for Christmas

[yvr girl]

12. You'll be able to find hockey everywhere

no need to worry about that.

[democracy eh]

18. yep on hockey, anywhere

finding a city that is really into their minor league ball team may be a bigger challenge.

we canucks are just not passionate about the sport. it is alright, just not hockey

[democracy eh]

14. Halifax has like

5 universities, and a few others an hour away

wonderful small city

although I hate to admit it, best chance of work in either Alberta or Ontario

do not go to Sudbury

I know a surprising number of people who have moved to London, it used to be a black hole of culture, but seems to have its own center of gravity in SW Ontario

Hamilton is not that bad
big enough to have big city cultures, ethnic communities, pubs, etc...
small enough not to be swamped and overwhelmed and get around easy on public transit

Guelph is a WONDERFUL place (20 minutes from Waterloo)

for some indicators check out Canadian cities on
http://www.greenmap.org/

[Doctor_J]

15. Actually the U of Guelph has a job or two.

About all I know of the town is that legendary NHL ref Andy Van Hellemond was born there. I will give it a look.

[democracy eh]

19. Guelph is a wicked small city

(just over 100,000) I was born there and did grad work there.

funky town, really strong activist, cultural, urban heart that runs from the university until the downtown. it has its share of suburban hell and is becoming a bit of a commuter bedroom for Toronto, but has a great pub and environmental scene.

deep clean well water = Sleeman Beer

I think the battle has been finally lost, but Guelph held off getting a Walmart for almost 10 years. it was a hell of a good fight

need to go eat dinner, but happy to share Guelph info with you at a later date if you end up considering Guelph

[achtung_circus]

21. I'm considering Guelph

If the job with the ministry of Agriculture comes through. I love Guelph, cost of living lower than Toronto, real estate about 1/2 price, close enough to TO to drive in for theatre, concerts, etc.

[democracy eh]

22. I have spent the last 6 years of my life

trying to find what Guelph had

wonderful place

[Doctor_J]

17. what about southern AB?

lethbridge a good place to live? I have a cyberfriend from a hockey board that lives there, but don't know anything about the town.

[achtung_circus]

20. In Lethbridge

the wind blows ALL the time. Mostly it blows dust or the odour of Feedlot Alley. Some say the wind doesn't blow, Saskatchewan sucks.

[u4ic]

24. Oh yes, I forgot

that there are new feedlots. When I was there, once in a while you'd smell it, but not very often. It may be worse now.

[u4ic]

23. I lived in Lethbridge for a year

It can get very windy. Also quite hot in the summer, and in the winter the Chinooks will come and within hours it will go from -20c to +5. It is also very dry, little humidity. One thing...due to the low humidity, there are hardly any trees. So if you like lots of flora and fauna, or lots of green, it may not be your place.

There are some beautiful trails...going down the coulees by the river. You're only a little better than an hour from the mountains and from the badlands as well. I was pretty preoccupied with school when I was there, but there's not a huge nightlife...after all, the city is only about 60-70,000. There is a couple of theatres - one is downtown (not much of), the other is at the University.

Rent was pretty cheap (I left in 98) and I don't see why it would be any different now.

There's a couple of malls, and Calgary is 1.5 hours away, so if you want to do some really decent shopping, it's not too far. A couple of tourist attractions, like the Japanese Gardens and Fort Whoop Up; they also have a racetrack (a small one, weekends on in the summer) and a rodeo every year.

There's a university and a college, so if you want to take some night courses (whether for improvement or just something to do), it is possible.

I only rode public transportation a few times. It's a small city, so not too hard to get around.

Overall, I liked it. I met some great people there. It's not too rural or too urban, you're in the middle of the bible belt (lots of Mormons) but I never felt a minority, or that I was harrassed for being fairly liberal; most I knew were. (you'd have to ask your friend what the climate is like now with the Christian resurgence)But if you want excitement, go elsewhere.

Here are some pics of the coulees:





You're about an hour away from Waterton Lakes: (love it there!!)
The American border is a little better than an hour away as well.

About 1.5 hours to Calgary, population of almost a million. http://www.calgaryplus.ca/portal/index.jsp

Only two hours from the Badlands:
there's always dinosaur digs happening there, and a huge internationally renowned dinosaur museum

If you're familiar with Tom Cochrane's Life Is A Highway video, it's shot in Southern Alberta.

Here's some more pics from the general area: http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/1109/photogallery/alberta3.html

[chaska]

25. About Montreal...

Cities are nice places to visit, but I want to live in the boonies. Is Montreal easy to access if you live in outlying areas. Is that even a possible scenario? It's not in Los Angeles.

Is Montreal a good place for musicians? Good paying gigs and plenty of them, put another way.

[chaska]

27. Kicking in hopes of getting my questions answered.

[SmileyBoy]

28. Winnipeg. It's relatively cheap, and is a very cultured city.

Most artsy-fartsy city In Canada behind Toronto.

[Sanity Claws]

29. Vancouver, Victoria

I live in Seattle and travel to both Vancouver and Victoria a few times a year. The climate is very mild in both cities. Vancouver definitely has theatre and is quite fashion conscious. Both cities are close Seattle so if you ever missed being in a blue state, you could visit very easily.