do u mind telling us what price range you're family is willing to spend? a nice place comes with a big price - and thats an understatement. the avg detached house price in the westside of vancouver is 1.3 million, with ubc at the western tip. the eastside is half as expensive at the mid 600's, but some areas are lacking in character as a lot of houses are being torn down to make way for bland mass-produced houses(think suburbs, except the houses are smaller). the surrounding cities that are still convienient to commute to ubc, such as richmond, burnaby, and even north vancouver, are within the 700's to 800's range. but i think new westminster fits into ur criteria the best: the area has not (yet) lost its character and old-time charm by mass-produced suburban-type houses, close to your father, avg price(mid 500's) is close to that of calgary's, and the whole city is well connected to the skytrain.
i figure posting a map may be helpful
here's the list of all the avg house prices:
http://www.realtylink.org/hpi/rebgvh...07&TYPE=buyers
and envitably, you're gonna end up using this site:
http://www.realtylink.org/