Where in Canada would you live if you HAD to move?

[kool maudit]

Trieste.

[SignalHillHiker]

I wouldn’t move anywhere 100 km away. It’s not really a realistic premise here. 1,000 isn’t really far enough either. Just Halifax.

If I move again, it’ll be East. Almost anywhere in Europe would be fine. Not sure how many years I could last in a small, sunny, southern city but even that I’d consider. Of course, ideal would be somewhere like Dublin, Berlin, etc.

[Andy6]

Hmm... 100 km ? Maybe St. Clair Ave.? 1000? Would that be like around IKEA somewhere? (Putting on my downtown Torontonian glasses 🤓).

[hipster duck]

Now that I’m a parent and closer to 40 than to 30, the appetite to move is very low, but I’d probably optimize a place that has a decent civil society, is reasonably urban and has a better climate than most Canadian cities. I’m too old to learn a language to perfect fluency and a lot of appealing places put up a barrier between locals and newcomers, so the list is really short at this point.

Melbourne looks nice, but it’s far away and I’ve never been. I also find the US less and less appealing - especially now that I have a family - but I like the mid-sized cities of Oregon a lot. I like the Gulf Islands, but I don’t know what I’d do there. I admire the urbanism of Amsterdam, but I’d probably just make friends with ex-pats and the weather is like Vancouver in the winter without Vancouver’s guarantee of a good summer.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by vid

Ushuaia or Punta Arenas in Tierra del Fuego. Their climate is basically October year-round and that's my favourite month so that's basically the only reason.

Twelve times as much Hallowe'en candy! There would be Rockets and DoubleBubble the entire year round.

[giallo]

In Canada, I'd stay in BC. Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna are all fine for me.

Outside of the country, I'd move away from Asia. After 18 years out here, it's time for a new continent.

Paris is awesome, so I'd have no problem living there, and having the European continent at my fingertips to travel is a major plus.

Sydney has always held some allure. I've never been, but I love me a big city surrounded by beaches.

Colombia seems damn cool. Maybe a year in Bogota.

[Truenorth00]

Sevilla.

Why is this limited to 100 km and 1000km?

[urbandreamer]

100km is exactly the distance between KW & T.O. I was walking downtown Kitchener today and realized (again!) it's a total shithole, possibly as grim as downtown Brantford or Oshawa. At least in Windsor you've got all of Michigan and Ohio at your doorstep. So 100km from my High Park apartment is ... Rosedale! Less than 1000km away is Montreal. Rosedale vs Westmount hmm.

But you know what's better than either and still less than 1000km from High Park? NYC. It's got a lot going on so I wouldn't get bored.

I'd also like to live in Virginia - either a farm in the Shenandoah Valley or a suburb of DC.

Otherwise, I do plan on living in the UK for a few years at least: London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Isle of Wight.

Realistically I'll settle for North Vancouver.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Cairo certainly offers chaos ...

Cairo is one of my favourite places I've ever been too. Everyday you could go out and discover something new and the people were some of the nicest I'd ever met.

They also weren't as aggressive as the people in Luxor or Aswan either.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by giallo

In Canada, I'd stay in BC. Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna are all fine for me.

Outside of the country, I'd move away from Asia. After 18 years out here, it's time for a new continent.

Paris is awesome, so I'd have no problem living there, and having the European continent at my fingertips to travel is a major plus.

Sydney has always held some allure. I've never been, but I love me a big city surrounded by beaches.

Colombia seems damn cool. Maybe a year in Bogota.

Bogotá and Medellin both have a lot to recommend them. Bogotá is more sophisticated, imo, but Medellin has a better climate and a more visible expat community. Personal security is a consideration in both, but the people are lovely in both cities. Traffic in Bogotá can be brutal and Medellin has better public transit (for now).

[MolsonExport]

Maple Creek. or Okotoks.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

100km is exactly the distance between KW & T.O. I was walking downtown Kitchener today and realized (again!) it's a total shithole, possibly as grim as downtown Brantford or Oshawa.

I wouldn't go that far. KW is booming and Kitchener is being made over. There are lots of new condos going up and the commercial scene is quite diverse. It's still mostly hard to look at, but it ticks a lot of the urbanity boxes that people care about these days.

You could compare Brantford and Kitchener using a hipster metric like this: Downtown Brantford has no bike shops or ramen places. Actually, Brantford has no ramen at all. That alone is a quantitative measure suggesting that the two cities are very different.

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

At least in Windsor you've got all of Michigan and Ohio at your doorstep.

Michigan and Ohio? Be still my heart.

[urbandreamer]

King Street downtown Kitchener today was mostly filled with meth heads, alcoholics and bums. While from diverse backgrounds, they all reminded me of how grim small market Canadian cities can be ... Nanaimo and Orillia look more charming. Many stores are closed/closing, there's a few old school bars still around but it has a very "country redneck" feel to it. There's maybe six apartment/condo towers under construction but they all have terrible "C Market" architecture - even Mississauga is slightly ahead on the aesthetics yuck. If Uptown Waterloo feels like a student strip plaza downtown Kitchener is where the dropouts hangout. There's a smattering of tech bros but it's like the smart ones head to Toronto on weekends. If you're comparing KW to TO, downtown K is Mimico/New Toronto while Uptown W is Long Branch.

Aesthetically, walking from downtown K to Uptown W you're greeted with a barren streetscape with acres of parking lots, mediocre 1960s medical buildings, lack of trees and the concrete jungle that is the LRT infrastructure. KW has managed to turn a once charming historic street into a car-oriented highway.

When you're celiac restaurants mean nothing to you.

Lake Huron towns, Ann Arbour, Cincinnati and the Cleveland Browns

[FrAnKs]

In Canada : Halifax and Victoria.
Rest of the world : Oslo, Dublin, Auckland.

They all have this in common : they are Maritime cities. I absolutely need this...and it's even better if mountains are near!

[rbt]

If forced to move I would try to summer in Moscow then other summer in Christchurch.

I'd have to get NZ citizenship though and don't have nearly the interest Maori culture required to achieve that.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Twelve times as much Hallowe'en candy! There would be Rockets and DoubleBubble the entire year round.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Maple Creek. or Okotoks.

Maple Creek is a tropical paradise, but Okotoks is better if only because of the number of things to do there.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Maple Creek. or Okotoks.

I'm not sure there are things to do in Maple Creek. (If there are, then they were well hidden.) So I'd give Okotoks the edge there.

[vid]

Lio, I just made that joke.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Moving at least 100 km (I'm assuming less than 1000 km) I'd move to somewhere like Kingston, Ontario or maybe Lake Placid NY or Vermont/NH (can I be assured that there it will be de-Trumped USA) and if it is greater than 1000 km it would be a small chocolate box town in England or maybe a place in the south of France or northern Italy and I will magically be able to speak fluent french/italian.

FYI, NH/VT are still pretty much 100% the same as I've always known them (I started to go there for business regularly starting in 2012). At the local level, you would not be able to tell whether the White House tenant is Obama or Trump.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by vid

Lio, I just made that joke.

I hadn't finished reading the thread when I hit MolsonEx's post. So I replied to it.

("Great minds think alike", they say? )

Plus, I've been to Maple Creek. Have you?