What is the next Canadian city/village where you would like to move ?

[theman23]

Originally Posted by lio45

I've been in a relationship for a few months with a girl who's currently in Burlington VT (she's not originally from there, but that would be a decent place for us to live together without being too far from the other places I have to be once in a while, Sherbrooke/Bécancour/Colebrook) so I'm almost certainly going to be relocating to that area pretty soon.

Burlington is about just as close, or even closer, to some of my customers (especially on the Montreal South Shore) as Sherbrooke is... and mom and dad would still see me certainly a lot more than they saw my sis while she was living in Vancouver.

And it's a beautiful town.

Relocating somewhere else in Canada... St. John's or Halifax, I'd say.

You're moving countries for a relationship that has only lasted "for a few months"? You would be wise to think this through a bit more.

As for me, Vancouver seems nice. Maybe Calgary. Some place with nice skiiing nearby, but with a built up core that isn't too run down.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

If you had no familly, friends, language, or job issues. Just totally free.

I bet some of us will choose a big city, but it can be villages aswell.

A little nitpick: "no job issues", no money issues as well? Because one can slightly prefer Vancouver over Montreal, but, apples-to-apples, and all things considered, much prefer to live in a huge Victorian mansion in Montreal instead of a ridiculously tiny studio in a bland Vancouver building.

[ue]

Originally Posted by lio45

You remind me of those Americans who visit Niagara Falls but limit themselves to the U.S. side because they don't speak French.

Ha. I know visiting Montreal, I can get by with a few token phrases here and there. Living, on the other hand, I think French would be incredibly useful as I'd be more likely to encounter people who have limited knowledge of English. I also know my employment opportunities would be significantly reduced in Montreal without any conversational knowledge of French. Plus, for me, it's a respectful thing to do. I expect people here to know at least basic English, and Quebecois should be able to expect the same with French. For visiting Montreal for a week, I'd learn some phrases but living, I'd want to take it one step further.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

If you could, what would be the next Canadian city where you would like to move after your current city ?

If you had no familly, friends, language, or job issues. Just totally free.

I bet some of us will choose a big city, but it can be villages aswell.


----------------------------------------

I take Ottawa-Gatineau.
It has the perfect size to me, I love the density and the nature near the city.
I like the architecture there. I simply feel comfortable in that region !

Limiting my decision to Canada is a bit problematic because it knocks almost all of my top choices off the list. That said, Montreal would still be in the Top 5, even globally. Of course, I'm thinking of only spending a year or two in each given city before returning home.

1. Montreal, Quebec
2. Vancouver, British Columbia
3. Calgary, Alberta
4. Quebec City, Quebec
5. Saint John, New Brunswick

[ue]

^ Curious about why you chose the other St. John's for #5.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by theman23

You're moving countries for a relationship that has only lasted "for a few months"? You would be wise to think this through a bit more.

Thanks for the advice, but it's really no big deal. All my office work can be done from there, and I can come back to Quebec easily whenever we have bigger contracts. I also have a bunch of buildings in downtown Sherbrooke on which I need to keep an eye, so I'll be there once in a while too.

Burlington is not far away... it's really not a big move. Your avatar reminds me though that it's Bruins territory, like basically all of New England. I sometimes see caps and clothes with the yellow/black B...

FWIW she's Texan, but us moving there is off the table for now, precisely for the reason that it's too far away for me to be able to continue business-nearly-as-usual in Quebec. One of the elements of the deal is that for the foreseeable future, we must be within reasonable distance of southern Quebec...

Sorry for hijacking That was quite off-topic. But hey, people ask, I answer...

[Razor]

If $$ was no object, then a condo in DT Toronto..One deciding factor for me was that aside from Ottawa,I know more people there than any other major Canadian city.

[MonctonRad]

Retired, no commitments and no family ties.

If this were the case then I think I would try something completely different. Most likely eastern Ontario (Ottawa, Kingston) or interior BC (probably the Okanagan).

[trofirhen]

Were it feasible, I'd move to Montreal. I'll take it over any other Canadian city, despite the Russian-style climate.
Over and above the French language and culture, it just has "something" that other Canadian cities don't have.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by ue

Ha. I know visiting Montreal, I can get by with a few token phrases here and there. Living, on the other hand, I think French would be incredibly useful as I'd be more likely to encounter people who have limited knowledge of English. I also know my employment opportunities would be significantly reduced in Montreal without any conversational knowledge of French. Plus, for me, it's a respectful thing to do. I expect people here to know at least basic English, and Quebecois should be able to expect the same with French. For visiting Montreal for a week, I'd learn some phrases but living, I'd want to take it one step further.

That's very respectful of you... I was just pointing out that it's very, very, very possible to live in English only in Montreal. (Unlike, say, Quebec City, or basically anywhere in rural Quebec except for a few villages.)

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Limiting my decision to Canada...

FWIW, I'd be even more drawn by St. John's if Newfoundland was out of it.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by ue

^ Curious about why you chose the other St. John's for #5.

Well... I have only spent about two days, total, in Saint John in my life. And, honestly, I found it depressing. Compared to Moncton, it was depopulated, empty... and the fact it was so impressive, and so beautiful, only made the emptiness feel even more hurtful.

But... there are no words for the beauty of Saint John. The old part of the city, the downtown, which they call Uptown, is taller and more immaculate than either St. John's or Halifax. The heritage buildings in Saint John are 5-6 floors high. They're 4-5 in Halifax, and almost universally 3 in St. John's.

It is a perfect <200,000 city. You cannot build a city of less than 200,000 that is, in any way, better than Saint John. It's probably the only city in Canada that, if we could turn it around and give it the focus it deserves, and economic booms, etc... that I could feel as proud of as my own, and as... part of, as connected to... as my own. Saint John, right now, is St. John's of the 1980s. But it is going to turn around, and people are going to say... how the **** was this place not on our radar? Their old buildings are Montreal in scale! I can't believe THIS is here in the Maritimes. I promise you.

[MTLskyline]

Lio, what's the story behind Colebrook, NH as your (secondary?) location?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Their old buildings are Montreal in scale!

Really? I just had a look at ErickMontreal's superb Saint John photo thread and did not see anything in the same leagues as Montreal's late 1800s commercial stock.

If there's actually stuff like this in Saint John then wow, I'm really impressed.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

1. Vancouver - predictable and boring but hey...

Then in no particular order, one of the following small Ontario cities:

2. Cobourg
3. Port Hope
4. Stratford
5. Fergus

[SignalHillHiker]

Well, might have exaggerated a bit... but I was referring to areas like this:

http://goo.gl/maps/TEr18

Clearly beyond the scale of Halifax or St. John's.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Well... I have only spent about two days, total, in Saint John in my life. And, honestly, I found it depressing. Compared to Moncton, it was depopulated, empty... and the fact it was so impressive, and so beautiful, only made the emptiness feel even more hurtful.

But... there are no words for the beauty of Saint John. The old part of the city, the downtown, which they call Uptown, is taller and more immaculate than either St. John's or Halifax. The heritage buildings in Saint John are 5-6 floors high. They're 4-5 in Halifax, and almost universally 3 in St. John's.

The uptown area (with the exception of the Fundy Quay area, when there's a cruise ship in town) does have that sort of depopulated rust belt feel, and the fact that the city was clearly built to be a grand capital only makes it feel more unfortunate. The crumbling sidewalks and withered street trees, etc, don't help, nor does the fact that of New Brunswick's urban areas, it's the poorest, and all the middle-class and well-off people tend to have moved out of the city for the burbs (partially, frankly, because the weather in the old city can be miserable. In summer, it can be 20 degrees and foggy in town, and nearly 30 degrees and sunny just 20 minutes away in Quispamsis.) It's also got an older population compared to Fredericton and Moncton.

BUT: As you say, the bones of the city are astonishing, even if it is small. It probably has nearly as many great 19th-century buildings in Uptown as, say, Toronto has in total. I was completely unprepared the first time I saw it. I don't know what's up with the heritage regulations, but the buildings are mostly well-kept, too, right down to details like heritage-appropriate doors and window fittings, yet it still doesn't feel like a museum. Here are some pics (which seem to feature a lot of closeups of lintels, but hey, those are nice.)

It's probably the Canadian city that's most ripe for an urban renaissance, and that's already happening, very slowly, as some new stuff opens up and there's been a slow creep of people back into Uptown, but at the current pace it's still a long ways off from feeling very vital and vibrant. I simply can't believe, however, that there won't, one day, be a resurgence. It just seems too fundamentally well-built to not come back at some point.

Originally Posted by lio45

Really? I just had a look at ErickMontreal's superb Saint John photo thread and did not see anything in the same leagues as Montreal's late 1800s commercial stock.

It's not quite to that scale, but it's close, and the architectural quality is just as good.

[goodthings]

If I would be totally free to live on anything without any form of restriction, then...

1. Banff or Lake Louise
2. Jasper
3. Whistler
4. Quebec City
5. Whitehorse

[flar]

The only cities I would willingly move to are: Hamilton, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria and London/Windsor.

London/Windsor, not because of the cities, but because I have many good friends and family in that part of the country.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

Lio, what's the story behind Colebrook, NH as your (secondary?) location?

Indeed a secondary location. I have a property there and I've been spending time there mostly on weekends during the time I'm in Sherbrooke. The little company I share with my dad also has a house in Bécancour because we have a couple huge customers in the industrial park there (which IIRC is the largest in Canada... at least that's what they're claiming, probably using surface as a metric, and they likely include Gentilly 2 in the calculation) so I'm there occasionally as well, and would be listing that as another secondary location if there was enough room for that. Currently (this winter) I'm mostly in Sherbrooke. At the moment I'd certainly consider it my primary location.

Colebrook was chosen because it's nearly within reasonable commuting distance of Sherbrooke (I don't even need to be in Sherbrooke that often) and is in one of the most pro-freedom jurisdictions on the continent. If you look up the FSP, I've been a pledging member of that for years, but have only recently been able to begin relocating there. (And even then, I'm still way more often in Sherbrooke these days than Colebrook.)

It's a beautiful little village, FYI. I love it. I'm pretty sure no one here has ever been there... except maybe the Sherbrooke guys on their way to the Atlantic in Maine...


And now please, no one blame me for venturing off-topic... I didn't decide to do it on my own

[ue]

^^ What about Toronto? I recall you saying you really liked the place (though I could be thinking of someone else). Considering your feelings toward the place, I'm surprised you haven't moved back to Hamilton already! I'm also surprised you didn't list Winnipeg.