Calling BC residents! Vancouver - what's it like?

[Scrobbs]

Well, I'm thinking very seriously about emigrating to Canada from the UK, and BC is my favourite area so far.

Going to come over to Vancouver begining of next year for a week or so to check it out, see if it's nice etc - what is there to do there? Are jobs plentiful in hi-tech industry? (I'm a security professional (pen-testing/forensics)) Is vancouver a nice place to live? What about BC in general? Vancouver island?

I know there are few other canadian folk here, so what are other areas of canada like?

[ThunderPeel2001]

It's quite difficult to emigrate to Canada, isn't it? Good luck if you try, though!

[Scrobbs]

I think it just takes time. I hit the points total easily, but visas can still take up to two years, depending.

[n0wak]

It's quite difficult to emigrate to Canada, isn't it? Good luck if you try, though!

I'm an immigrant.

I've never been on the west-coast of Canada (sue me, it's a huge country), but Vancouver is a nice place to live. As long as you stay out of east downtown. Tech jobs are fairly plentiful in Canada though I honestly can't speak for your field or where to find stuff like that. The rest of BC is nice too but, outside of the general Vancouver-area, everything tends to get a lot smaller and rural and, no doubt, not as job-filled. Still nice places to go, with all the mountains and everything, but not if you're looking for work.

And since you're from the UK you shouldn't mind the frequent rains in the area.

[miffy495]

Well, I don't live in BC, but I'm right next door and head over there quite often. Vancouver is a frequent destination as I like to keep in touch with my Grandfather. It's a beautiful city, with (as n0wak said) a lot of rain. Still, as Canadian cities go it's one of the warmest, which is a plus. Can't really speak for the jobs, but every time I go to the city I start to want to live there.

To me, one of the main appeals of living in Vancouver would be cutting the drive to the Okanagan from 8 hours down to about 3. The entire valley is one of the most beautiful places in Canada, lots of good beaches, really warm, still in the shadow of the rockies. Stunning. I go there for the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival every year, and having a music fest in that kind of setting makes it my favorite weekend of the year.

Of course, a lot of this may be because my own city's main attraction is the Stampede, where a bunch of rednecks put on hats and hurt animals for tourists. I don't like my hometown much. Like, at all. What's keeping me here is that this is where I'm going to school. My own plan is to get to BC when that's done. So would I recommend BC? If you're coming to Canada, that and Montreal are your best choices.

[Roderick]

I am always amazed at the enormous distances that are common for Americans and Canadians to traverse. Here in the Netherlands, 2 hours gets you from the eastern border to the sea.

[n0wak]

I am always amazed at the enormous distances that are common for Americans and Canadians to traverse. Here in the Netherlands, 2 hours gets you from the eastern border to the sea.

It took me a solid day of driving, including sleeping in the car, to drive out of the province. Traversing the country is like four times that.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I'm an immigrant.

Um. Jolly good!

[Nachimir]

I am always amazed at the enormous distances that are common for Americans and Canadians to traverse. Here in the Netherlands, 2 hours gets you from the eastern border to the sea.

Do people travel much in the Netherlands? I have a friend studying in Utrecht, who says most people don't bother to make the short journey between there and Amsterdam.

[Erkki]

I am always amazed at the enormous distances that are common for Americans and Canadians to traverse. Here in the Netherlands, 2 hours gets you from the eastern border to the sea.

Heh... you made me realize for the first time that Netherlands is actually smaller than Estonia (your population is 10 times ours though).

[Roderick]

Nachimir: I guess that may be true, though I frequently visit other cities. I think not travelling a lot isn't dependent on distance, more on the mental effort of it. I usually spend my weekends in other cities though.

Erkki: We are a smaaaall country. Which makes it all the more surprising how much influence we had/have. It might also explain why half the Western European countries at one time or another occupied us. Except for England. Hooray for the Brits! But I guess they felt they were too far above us continentals to bother.

I think if I'd travel a bit in America, I'd start to appreciate how time-effective it is to have all the big cities within arm's reach from each other.