I am starting the process to immigrate to Canada from the US. Maybe unsurprisingly I find I have no ideas where I would like to live. I do enjoy mountains, and don't want to be in the heart of a city.
I am starting the process to immigrate to Canada from the US. Maybe unsurprisingly I find I have no ideas where I would like to live. I do enjoy mountains, and don't want to be in the heart of a city.
I definitely require high speed internet access. Other than that, I could use some help! EDIT: Mountains are not a deal breaker. Water would be nice, but sea level rise is a concern.
EDIT: Oh, Come ONNNN!!!!
Canada’s about to elect our own right wing version of Trump. So if you’re looking to escape that by moving here… don’t be too optimistic.
BC almost went conservative provincially in the last election. Alberta and Saskatchewan are batshit insane conservative. Manitoba used to be but they’ve gone centre left. Ontario conservative corporate. Quebec… I’m not going to touch that one. And then the east which I don’t have a ton of feedback on personally.
Québec: the only province expected to NOT vote conservative in the next federal elections. Also the province expected to vote for a center-left government for the next provincial elections. But go on I guess...
I like Quebec but it is preferred to learn French (I am horrible at spoken languages, I'm having enough trouble with English let alone another language) and I don't like their secession movement.
That Pierre Poilievre is such a walking red flag. The way he talks down to journalists is very telling of his personality. Dude rolls his sleeves up and smiles in ads but he's unhinged
Yeah, OP would be better off trying to move to Scandinavia
Coming next there too
Manitoba always gets political whiplash every few election cycles. Fortunately, we just entered the NDP cycle after almost a decade of PC horrors.
The east coast has some very affordable housing especially compared to Ontario and BC. For example, there are suburbs or small towns within 30 minutes or less from Moncton and Halifax. Gives access to city resources without having to live in the city.
Interestingly, all of my heritage on my mother’s side is French Canadian. Unfortunately, the last one born there, according to the family history I could find was prior to 1900, so that probably doesn’t really help me much at all.
There was a huge exodus at the time with French education becoming illegal in some provinces and French Canadians not being allowed to work (similar to what happened to the Irish), my grandfather learned he was born in the USA when he got his passport at 65 y.o., his parents just came back while he was an infant and they never talked about the years they had spent in the USA to work.
There’s right wing and then there’s MAGA. Have you read up on Project 2025? Is abortion legal in Canada?
Hah for now it is….
You also have Danielle Smith (Alberta Premier) cozying up to Tucker Carlson, Poilievre (National Conservative Party leader) and the convoy, India and Russia.
And GOP operatives who coincidentally, I’m sure, also supported the convoy.
Canadian right wing influencers caught up in the Russian payment scandal.
I don’t believe for a second that Pierre and elements of the federal conservative party wouldn’t want to get rid of our rights in Canada. It’s just unpopular to say that part out loud.
Accessible abortion rights will almost certainly be back on the chopping block next election.
I don't think we'll have it nearly as bad as America because our political system works a bit differently but the conservative leader/party definitely have the hallmarks of trumpism with white nationalism, climate change denying, anti-women and anti-trans issues. They're going to play the same "we're better for the economy" game as well.
Quebec… I’m not going to touch that one.
Damnit now I'm curious.
In the 1970s there was a domestic terror group who wanted to separate from Canada so bad they started assassinating politicians and our current PM’s dad, who was also PM at the time, had to call in the army.
Their provincial politics are confusing because it’s not liberal/conservative spectrum - you also have to throw in the Quebec nationalists too. Like their ruling provincial party right now is conservative + Quebec Nationalist to the extreme that businesses must provide public advertising/public facing services in French only.
Quebec… I’m not going to touch that one.
Yeah you should have just not mentioned it and not replied a second time instead of telling lies.
If you, or anyone else in this thread is actually serious about becoming immigrants in another country, this is a great thread for what it will actually take to get started in making the move.
You aren't going to find mountains in any of the parts of Canada that you'll want to live in. BC is trending right, Alberta and Saskatchewan are the right (Alberta is the Texas of Canada), Ontario is a shit-show, and Quebec is... Well, how good is your French?
I'd suggest PEI or Nova Scotia and satellite internet.
You forgot about Manitoba (that's okay, everyone does lol). We're safe from a willfully destructive government for at least another three years.
Oops, sorry... That was an oversight; my mind skips over Manitoba when I'm thinking of the large, southern provinces.
I also didn't bring up the Northwest Territories, Nunavet, Yukon, New Brunswick, or Newfoundland and Labrador. If they like mountains, NT and Yukon might both work, although getting any kind of supplies in will likely be difficult.
Nova Scotia has some nice mountain ranges within driving distamce to areas with good internet. Particularly in cape Breton, though they are more right wing than the rest of ns.
We also have donair if that helps.
Donair always helps
I can forgo mountains if necessary. I mean, we’re gonna have RFK Jr running Health and Human services here. It’s just going to be a shit show.
You can have mountains i n BC, you don't need to live downtown Vancouver to see them. Lots of rural areas
If you're ok downgrading from epic Rockies style mountains to just like... Big hills (a hundred foot cliff is still pretty impressive up close, ok 😅), then the maritimes might be pretty good.
Summer and winter are much milder near the cost (although I wouldn't call the weather good), and the east coast is cheaper than the West Coast.
If you live near to a "city" you can get good Internet. I have like 1.5gb fibre, and I live on the boundary between suburban and rural.
It you're leaving for progressive reasons, Alberta is north Texas. BC is pretty progressive, although I don't know how they lean outside of metros. I have my suspicions though.
Small town and rural BC is very close to Alberta. They got a bulk deal on Fuck Trudeau stickers for their trucks.
I mean, honestly, that’s true for the entire country.
True pretty much everywhere. Rural folk dislike the government and prefer to rely on themselves. They're right wing. City folk do the opposite.
That pattern is followed almost everywhere, from America to Canada to Australia to Finland.
Yeah, that is what I assumed
This is very helpful, thank you. I am super liberal.
You're going to want to stick to cities for the most part.
Good luck :)
Lol the NDP only won by like 20 votes this election so not as progressive as you'd think. Also our NDP is still center left so not that progressive at all.
Vancouver area is nice, but goddamn expensive. Love it here, but the I have no economic prospects.
Sorry, I don't have a recommendation, but I will warn you against Alberta. I've lived here my entire life here and I love this land, but it's getting more dangerous here for queer folks. BC could be a consideration if you can afford housing there.
Don't come to Canada. If I was able to leave this country, I would. We have so many of the same problems as the US. I would go to Europe
I would go to Europe
Lol, as if the right isn't on the rise pretty much everywhere and WW3 is brewing in our own back yard..
Capitalism is decaying in to fascism globally and rapidly. Wherever you go in the world, you WILL be up against varying levels of the same bullshit, and while I understand less bullshit is easier to live with, without active resistance, it becomes more bullshit real fucking quick, and you'll be back where you started.
Yes, USA is in a for a really bad time, and Canada definitely looks better in comparison. And while it is, as a Canadian I still fantasize about trying to move to europe. Grass is always greener.
Just don't expect to escape all the nonsense automatically by coming here because for all we know we're just lagging behind a few years. I have had the disspointing experiences of finding some of my Canadian friends were in favour of the Trump victory.
And then the housing prices.
Many of us are quite familiar with American politics. If you emigrate, you'll figure out why.
Immigration is exchanging one set of problems for another. If immigration is a vast improvement, those problems are in the background. But if it isn’t, then it takes a lot more work on your part to work through them.
If you want mountains, you're kinda limited. Vancouver, BC, has great mountains, ocean, and forest access, but COL is pretty high for Canada. Calgary, AB is the closest city to the Canadian Rockies, but is in the middle of nowhere elsewise.
If you're looking for good internet, though, you're going to want Vancouver or Toronto. Those are the tech hubs of Canada.
Love Calgary and Edmonton. But the UCP is ruining this province. Please don't come here.
We'd need to know what they mean by high-speed but I think it's mostly everywhere nowadays. Just the very remote won't have it. I know farmers with high speed internet.
We have really good internet in Winnipeg. We currently have 1.5 gig fibreoptic for our home. Winnipeg has a decent cultural scene, but no mountains, I'm sorry to say. Cost of living is one of the better options, at least for western Canada. As I've mentioned elsewhere, there is a lot of racism towards First Nations here.
If you're good with cold, you might enjoy it. We were literally coldervthan Mars recently. Not a great city for your car, especially if it rides low to the ground, lol.
QC has mountains. Some of the best Skiing and MTBing around. NB has fiber internet. Cheaper too. I recently had fiber installed at my cottage in central Ontario. So you don't have to be anywhere near Toronto. In fact, Toronto is one of the most expensive places for fiber. Smaller towns have actual competition.
If you want to be near mountains, want affordable living and are progressive, Lethbridge, AB may be your best bet. The landscape there is a bit weird. Looks kind or like Iceland or something. Super hilly with big valleys and very few trees outside or the city, but definitely not a big city vibe like you'd find in Edmonton or Calgary.
Pretty mild climate too.
But the Alberta government is fucking idiotic, so I can't say what will happen in the future with healthcare and human rights.
Oh that's easy. They'll be destroyed by a party that can't lose an election.
The UCP just introduced the most extreme anti-trans legislation in North America. They have been methodically and relentlessly destroying public healthcare, and handing private contracts to their friends. Education has been revamped with a curriculum that explicitly promotes oil and gas production, denies the harm of residential schools, and encourages rote memorization over comprehension. Oh yes, and public charter schools. They've recently started to make inroads on ultimately banning abortion.
And they'll get reelected, over and over again.
Hmm, the others are saying Alberta is right wing
Most of western Canada is right-wing. Especially Alberta and Saskatchewan. Outside of Vancouver (where living is beyond unaffordable for most), BC is also pretty conservative, albeit less overall I'm sure than Alberta. The tricky part is that quality of life is quite good in Alberta. Housing is affordable and we're the least taxed province, so if you can live with the occasional stupid hick with a "FUCK TRUDEAU" flag or decal, life is pretty good here. It's really your only affordable option if you want to live near the mountains. Otherwise the Appalachians do extend into the eastern maritime provinces. Jobs are just extemely scarce and often seasonal out that way.
I immigrated from Michigan back in 2017. I'm very left-wing and so is my wife who has lived here her entire life. The province nearly flipped last election so things have been improving on that front, and you're certainly not going to be the only leftist around. Well, unless you move to a small town or Grand Prairie or Fort Mac.
Lethbridge and Edmonton are the most left-leaning places in the province. Edmonton, however, is fucking huge.. So you're not getting away from the city up that way.
There is no escaping the right-wing brain rot. It's everywhere now. 2016 spread into Canada like wildfire. But when I came here my life improved tenfold. I make three times what I did back home for the same line of work (retail/produce management). I have healthcare, a daughter, bought a home with my wife this summer. It's a million times better than the States, but we are looking down the barrel of gun. I wish you the best on your immigration, and I hope you're as happy here as I am, wherever you wind up.
The thing about Alberta is that they consistently elect the most hardcore right wing crazies in all of Canada.
And they also consistently elect genuinely progressive, openly socialist governments of the kind you imagine Bernie Sanders might run.
There are no middle of the road centrists in 'Berta. You're either a frothing mouthed "Jewish Space Lasers" kind of crazy, or you're a proud union member ready to give everyone UBI and free education.
The latter tend to be found more in the cities, as always.
Unfortunately the former seem to have the edge overall in elections.
So, politically, it's definitely not a great environment, but culturally you'd actually find a lot of like minded folks there. The problem is that right now you'd probably spend your time hanging out with those like minded folks grumbling about your QAnon premier as she sells off the entire healthcare system and deletes sex education from schools.
Go to any Canadian news website and search Danielle Smith.
She is Alberta's premier (equivalent to a US governer).
Always windy
60km/hr all the damn time...
You do not really have mountains there. Maybe Canmore would be better ( pretty small but takes no time to get to Calgary ).
How much money do you have?
The only affordable places left are absolute shitholes
If money is no object, move to Victoria
Let’s say I make $90k US dollars a year, and I work remote
Will you be able to work remote from Canada?
That's enough money to live basically anywhere. 90k usd is a lot more money than most people make in Canada.
If I could live anywhere and work remote it would probably be Masset, Ucluelet, Nelson, or maybe Whitehorse if you don't mind the cold. Victoria if you really want city
Bit of a curveball, but for remote work have you considered Barbados?
A bit over $120k Canadian. Enough but not as rich as you think in Vancouver.
Might I recommend Milo Alberta? Super cheap. They use an air raid siren every day to announce lunch (the town is closed other then the restaurant 12-1).
If you want something with mountains, you likely can not afford that.
Try Drummheller if you have not seen it its in the badlands. Looks like this
As a siren enthusiast, I love when towns still carry on the traditional noon siren blasts. That doesn't happen much here in Ontario anymore.
FYI, Milo's siren isn't an air raid siren, small sirens like Milo's (a Federal Model 2 in this case) are typically fire sirens used to summon volunteer firefighters to the station during a fire call. Milo's is on the fire department, so it's probably the fire siren. They're usually tested daily or weekly to make sure they work when needed.
Odd they always called it an air raid siren, but I also know it has been replaced a few times now. Might have been one at one point.
Are you vegan? I'm looking for a vegan roommate and I live downtown city of a hundred thousand and fifty ish.
Very much not vegan, sorry about that!
Nelson BC
Permanent residence in #Canada is hard to obtain, though it's far easier if you take a job, in a field where you're in demand. By government policy, the number of people getting permanent residence each year is being cut back, so even that may not be sufficient.
I'm retired and have no hope of getting permanent status, unless Canada starts accepting asylum claims by U.S. citizens.
1/2
#MovingToCanadaMy own plan, and yes it involves privilege, is to obtain shelter in Canada and then be ready to travel there intermittently. We can visit temporarily for 6 months at a time without a visa. My choice of location is determined by how far I can go by car with a cat.
And maybe then I can find some way to help people for whom getting out of the U.S. is a matter of survival.
2/2
British Columbia.
Kelowna, Kamloops, Abbotsford maybe.
Vancouver Island is great but not many mountains. If you have the money, the North Shore in Vancouver is awesome.
You could live in the Northwest of British Columbia around Haida Gwaii or Vancouver Island
.Move to Baffin Island, best internet in the country. I prommy.
I wouldn't get my hopes up, you want to come here and still work for your current US employer? What does Canada have to gain from that? You're not coming to fill a gap for us, you want to move to reap the benefits without any direct involvement.
I mean OP would be paying taxes here and spending money in our economy, while not taking an existing job. That's pretty good.
Or taking one place in the annual quota for someone that would come here to work in a field where we need people, like healthcare.
That doesn't really count on a citizenship application, though.
This seems to be a non sequitur. OP is asking about where to live not where to find employment.
There are visas under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico that enable movement of employees between the three countries. These have been in place since the 1990s.
I don not get this response. OP wants to come build a life in Canada. Sounds like direct involvement. Also wants to bring their $120k annual income which will get injected into the Canadian economy. Sounds ok to me.
So anyone who wants to come build a life im Canada is welcome? Or is it as long as they have money?
Their income comes from a job that doesn't benefit Canadians and we have immigration quotas. Anytime an immigrant comes to Canada to work remotely for a foreign company they're taking the place of someone that could come here to work in a field where we need workforce.
Kamloops, BC?
It's got mountains around, it's not completely caught in the Conservative trap, you've got decent amenities of civilization around without the big city or suburb vibe of Metro Vancouver, (I still think it pales as a "city" compared to Toronto), but as a day trip you can head there to sightsee or pick up big box stuff.
If you want something more laid back I second Yukon.
I'm in Kelowna and loving it. We're turning more progressive as the city grows. NDP lost the ejection here by 40 votes out of 25783 total votes, that's pretty good considering how conservative this area used to be and how much popularity the "fuck Trudeau" style conservatism has gained and retained over the years. Can't really go wrong with any of the small towns around here either, from Vernon to Lake Country to West Kelowna to Summerland to Penticton.
I am not looking forward to the next federal election. Trudeau is about to pull a Biden and stay in too long and hand the whole thing to the right in a landslide. If only that dummy didn't give up on electoral reform the second he got into power. What a waste
Atlantic Canada. Cheap cost of living compared to the rest of the country, beautiful environment, lots of nice small communities.
If you like mountains and your job is remote then why not try and live in somewhere in Alberta? Canmore is right next to Banff and is absolutely gorgeous. That being said Alberta is pretty much the America of Canada meaning their politics is pretty right wing. If you want to live in a province that's more left wing you can try British Colunbia which is on the other side of the rockies.
Yeah right wing is a hard no for me
couple of details though: Canada right wing is a long ways away from US for the most part. Also AB almost got NDP elected last election which is, after 40yrs of unbreakable concervative hold on province is telling. So yeah right wing is correct but you've got to pay attention to nuances. Calgary and South of Calgary are good places to live with decent infrastructure. You go most places BC you'll be surrounded by a lot of conservative minded folk. In both provinces I've been surrounded by conservative minded folk which were persistently calling POTUS45/47 a nutcase. So... don't get too hung up on labels.
Maybe visit. In practice, probably not as right wing as you are thinking.
Name a left wing issue in the US that you do not have in Alberta. Universal health care, abortion, and same sex marriage to name a few.
On the climate side, Alberta just moved completely off coal ( though the biggest local industry is oil and gas of course ).
Compared to where I live, Alberta is right-wing. I am not sure where you live in the US, but there is a good chance that Alberta is what your local democrats are shooting for.
The UCP and their anti-trans agenda is not great. Does that directly impact you? The problem is that we are not far from the US. Southern politics are dragging us to the right, though it is more rhetoric than action so far. That is happening everywhere in Canada.
I recommended BC but, if I had the remote income to pull it off, living in Canmore would be pretty great for me honestly.
I you don’t mind colder winters, the Maritimes is also something to think about. You might really like Halifax or St. John’s. Both are big towns more than major cities, real estate is cheap, and the people are lovely.
Port Alberni, BC
Or Merritt, BC if you want to be on the mainland
Both have all the necessary hospitals, schools, rec centers, high-speed internet, and decent access to larger cities if needed.
Man… if I could I’d move to Whistler lol
Living in a resort town isn't as good as you might think. You get annoyed by tourists very quickly and eventually you end up taking the place for granted anyway
I mean, I don’t really have mountains where I live at all. While I would enjoy a property at Whistler, I wouldn’t mind just having a good view out the window. Maybe Squamish? Anywhere within an hour or so drive of Whistler
If you can afford that, you can jump in your helicopter and go wherever you want.
Ugh, I was looking at prices like “these aren’t that bad”. Then I saw the 1/8-1/10 ownership…
Lol this happens every US election.
I think they are cracking down on it though so maybe it’ll work…or maybe you’ll end up waiting for so long another president takes over. Mixed blessing. Cuz in Canada you get stuck with turds for prime minister for life. Their bipartisan is locked in way harder than in the US. But at least they have a seat system to keep it somewhat in check so there’s that.
Moving here is going to be a long term drop in quality of life. Wages are lower, the dollar is weaker, taxes are higher and the "free" health care is not free.
Obligatory Terry Crews CBSA agent Portlandia clip: