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!!!
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.
Alberni is amazing but I wouldn’t live there due to natural hazard risk. If there is a tsunami (and that’s not even an if, it’s long overdue) the town will be gone. And there will be no way to evacuate because there is only one way out
Natural disasters are definitely a concern
They’re overinflating the risk of that happening by a wide margin.
The last tsunami didn’t even wipe out the town, in fact it didn’t kill a single person in Port Alberni despite destroying 55 houses and damaging hundreds of others. It’s unlikely a second one would be worse considering that the earthquake that caused that one is still the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America.
Also, the last one also happened in 1964, long before things like earthquake and tsunami warning sirens were a thing.
I’m talking about “the big one” though which is long overdue
The vast majority of big one scenarios will be in the wrong direction to hit port Alberni with a tsunami. They’re mostly expected further south.
That being said, there are still tsunami sirens in town for a reason. Tsunamis aren’t that fast relatively speaking, and you only need to get a little higher up, 10 meters or so.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I mean, Pierre already said he’s going after porn, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Pollievre is a snivelling rat man, but anyone who claims he’s equivalent to Trump needs to turn off their screens
You’re talking about the guy who said he’d use the notwithstanding clause? Sure, maybe you like the idea of longer sentences for criminals, but I would still question whether you should love that more than respecting the constitution.
He is, but the same forces that are pushing project2025 and are puppetering Trump are also active in the CPC.
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.
Just invent a bunch of racist stuff towards the French Canadian minority and you’ll have an idea what most Anglo Canadians think of Quebec for daring to protect the French Canadian culture.
Ever heard of Lord Durham? You would believe the guy is a freaking hero to them.
All of canada seems to be shamed for trying to protect its culture to be fair. The government actively tries to guilt trip us
As an US-Canadian dual citizen who grew up and was educated in Canada/Europe, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t get this argument. Canada as a confederation is 157 years old, we haven’t had the time to carve out a unifying cultural identity.
Ask any Canadian, hell ask yourself, “What is Canadian culture?” Rick Mercer has done so many street interview segments about this (we watched them during history class for funsies). It always boils down to “We’re different from/not as bad as America”, “We’re kind of like Europe” or “hockey”. The answers were also very different if you asked francophones in Quebec, francophones outside of Quebec, Acadians, or you know…Indigenous people.
Actually Rick Mercer might have been the closest thing we had to Canadian culture. And we did nothing to protect him 😞
My take has always been that we have strong regional cultures over a unified Canadian cultural identity. The U.S has a little bit of this as well, but not in the same way/with more stuff to point to in terms of national identity.
Edit: Actually, here’s a good experiment for anyone who wants to think about this more. Take a look at some of the Canadian TV shows and movies that have actually been successful, and people abroad may point to as representative of Canadian culture. What about them is distinctly Canadian, over [x]-Canadian? Can start with the obvious (Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny, Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, FUBAR), but I’d bet folks may find this holds across some less obvious ones too.
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.
The CAQ (ruling party) are NOT extreme separatists, and the law 101 that has french be prioritized in public advertising and facing services has been passed in 1978 to protect our cultural heritage. Otherwise yeah politics are spicier because of the separatist background which is still an ongoing question, but the whole thing still takes place on a very recognizable pattern of centre right liberals, conservatives, and libertarian-ish parties, with the occasional left leaning but still center crew.
“they started assassinating politicians”
One of them, not intentionally, and they took full credit for it as if they had intentionally murdered him. They kidnapped a second one that didn’t die.
Quebec Nationalist to the extreme
The current ruling party is Federalist and no more nationalist than any other provinces’ party in the way they act with the federal government and in the way they act towards people of other culture, in other provinces they just do it covertly.
businesses must provide public advertising/public facing services in French only.
That’s false, advertising must be in French first and French service must be available but nothing keeps businesses from offering service in any other language they want.
If all your knowledge of Quebec comes from the racists on /r/Canada you can just keep your opinion to yourself.
You know as well as I do that if you’re not a French speaker in Quebec that you’re a second class citizen in the eyes of the government (and many of the population).
I mean… Yeah, the official language is French, any other language is provided at best effort. The only places that are officially bilingual in Canada are New-Brunswick and the federal government, and even that would be a stretch (federal government). Would you expect to be treated as a first-class citizen while not speaking a word of Italian in Italy?
Not just best effort but any other language is actively discouraged and hindered by the government.
Which happens naturally with English in all other provinces without any governmental intervention and against the government’s will in Quebec because English is the language used by 360 million North Americans who have a media megaphone that spreads their culture all over the world at the expense of all other cultures.
*Laughs in Francophone in New Brunswick… *
You try living anywhere else in Canada without speaking English and come back and tell me you’re a first class citizen. Get off your high horse.
NB (the only bilingual province) just got rid of a premier that was the member of an anti French party in the 80s/90s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Brunswick_Confederation_of_Regions_Party
In 1985, Higgs handwrote a brief and presented it to the Guérette-Smith Commission, starting it by praising the United States for being "united under one flag, one government, and one language,” adding that “we will never achieve such a level of loyalty and unity when at the same time we embark on a process supporting two different cultures.”[9] In 1989, Higgs ran for the leadership of the CoR Party.[3] In his bid for the COR leadership, Higgs “complained about francophones ‘who can speak the common language, but refuse to’”.[14] He also supported an elected Senate, opposed the Meech Lake Accord, favoured fixed terms for government, and stated “We do not have an obligation to cater to those people who can speak the common language, English, and refuse to do so”.[15]
Which province has the highest level of bilingualism? Quebec. Not New-Brunswick. Quebec.
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/98-200-x/2016009/98-200-x2016009-eng.cfm
So do you really think we’re not accommodating enough?
Oh. I must’ve hit a nerve. Truth hurts huh.
Tabernac!
Lies and ignorance hurt a lot more than truth.
Je parle français my dude. J’ai étudié le français jusqu’au niveau universitaire comme mon mineur.
What 22% of Canada is bilingual? I’m one of them.
I made my effort. But as I said above you don’t win hearts and minds by angrily jumping down people’s throats on the issue.
I’m just saying I disagree with the language laws I have Anglo friends living in Quebec, born in Quebec and it is very difficult for them - like the commenter said, they do feel like second class citizens at times. She’s gotta get updates from her kid’s daycare in French only and run them through Google Translate. It’s a lot. It’s like if you were sending your kid to daycare and the caregiver and the parent both spoke Dutch. I really don’t give a flying f if the daycare caregiver chooses to give an update to that parent in Dutch. It doesn’t concern me. But in my understanding they’re not allowed to - it has to be French. Happy to be corrected on that.
I wouldn’t begrudge someone who serves Vietnamese clientele to have a menu and signage primarily in Vietnamese with English or French smaller on it (or even not at all). Things like this don’t seem to be allowed under the law but I’m happy to be corrected.
If they were born and have lived in Quebec all their lives then they can get any service they want in English, by law.
What’s their excuse to not know French at this point, right? Hell, Anglo Quebecois is the group that declares itself the most bilingual at something like 88%! Don’t tell me it’s hard to learn or hard to practice or any of that bullshit. I come from a region where 2% of the population speaks English first and I have top level bilingual ratings at my job.
Signage and menus need to be in French first, that’s it, you can have any other language on them as long as French is the most prominent.
It’s funny how Anglos are all about helping minorities and guilt trips about colonization EXCEPT for the French Canadian minority.
Look at how Anglo Canadians were flipping out about Cantonese/Mandarin signage in BC not too long ago but if Quebec does something to prevent it becoming (more of) an issue then they’re flipping out about Quebec oppressing minorities.
Hell, am I not accommodating you by not replying in French even though it’s my first language and we’re in a bilingual country. It’s the default experience for French Canadians whenever there’s an Anglo Canadian around, even bilingual ones.
Sure and why is that? Because English is a very useful language to know. Why is that because of America, till it implodes collapses whatever it is the driving force in the world as it has the biggest economy by far.
So all cultures should disappear and everyone should just start speaking English, that’s what you’re saying?
Little did you know that the separatist movement is largely a left-wing one, driven mainly by the PQ (center-left) and QS (left). The center-right (CAQ, PLQ) and right (Conservative) parties oppose the separation of Québec and want to stay in Canada.
You seem to think that we are some kind of crazy schizos that want to eliminate every foreign person around, and its absolutely false. We just want to be able to keep our language and culture alive. 8M people in Québec vs 400M in Canada + USA, and the rate of french-speaking people is declining at an alarming rate. Think about that for a second. All the people saying we are racists and whatnot don’t seem to realize that being a minority is not reserved for people with dark enough skin colour. In the end, you are the racist ones, trying to assimilate us for 400 years. Bunch of hypocrites.
The Coalition Avenir Québec is a Quebec nationalist, autonomist, conservative provincial political party in Quebec.
I said nothing of the sort actually. Just facts about the history of the FLQ and October Crisis at the extremely basic and factual level. I’m quoting Wikipedia on the CAQ.
None of what you built out is what I actually said. And if I slipped on a word QN vs separatist I apologize. Obviously you’re a separatist (independentiste). Good! Separate if you guys want to. Wish you all the luck. I have no skin in the game.
However your reaction is why people are hesitant to engage with anything related to Quebec and learning about it. The rigidity and inflexibility does push people away.
“just facts”
Which actually weren’t true.
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.
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
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.
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.
You could live in the Northwest of British Columbia around Haida Gwaii or Vancouver Island
.
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!
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 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.
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.
So anyone who wants to come build a life im Canada is welcome? Or is it as long as they have money?
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 mean OP would be paying taxes here and spending money in our economy, while not taking an existing job. That’s pretty good.
That doesn’t really count on a citizenship application, though.
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.
Man… if I could I’d move to Whistler lol
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…
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
Atlantic Canada. Cheap cost of living compared to the rest of the country, beautiful environment, lots of nice small communities.
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.
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.
Boo! We just have a crazy person in charge, but its not some right wing wasteland here.
As an Albertan, I’m perfectly fine with less people coming here
It’s a shithole folks. Stay away.
Plenty of space in Milo, or Vulcan…
Move to Baffin Island, best internet in the country. I prommy.
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.
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
Manitoba has, uh… hills ;)
But also has a left leaning government (for at least another three years, probably longer with our voting patterns) and low CoL. $120k CAD can be very comfortable here, even in Winnipeg.
Sounds good to me!
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
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.
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.
If you want mountains, you’re kinda limited. Vancouver, BC, has great mountains, ocean, and forest access, but COL is pretty high
for Canadacompared to almost anywhere in the world. Calgary, AB is the closest city to the Canadian Rockies, but is in the middle of nowhere elsewise.Slight clarification
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.
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.
Love Calgary and Edmonton. But the UCP is ruining this province. Please don’t come here.
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.
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.
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.
Good luck :)
You’re going to want to stick to cities for the most part.
Vancouver area is nice, but goddamn expensive. Love it here, but the I have no economic prospects.
Alberta is nothing like Texas. Alberta is largely an atheist population for one thing
But the Christfuckers we do have are obnoxious and loud enough to make you think otherwise
Not really. I grew up in rocky mountain house. One of the most conservative ridings in all of canada, and I grew up surrounded by atheism for the most part. It’s way more atheist now compared to then as well
Go to fort vermillion area and see how stheist they are. Area is full of menonites.
I’ve never been further north than Edmonton in that province ha
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
You’ll still need a work permit to work in Canada, even for a US company remotely. So hopefully you’re up to speed on that process. In terms of where to live, there are some places in BC outside major cities that are affordable. Might be worth taking a road trip around to check some out
I don’t know about Canada but, for example here in Japan, a work visa requires a japanese company sponsoring and being the primary employer. I think some kind of digital nomad thing is in the works, but that wouldn’t be long-term.
Edit: looks like OP is trying the company transfer route as their company has branches there. Just something to think about for others thinking of moving around the world.
I’m in the midst of the process. Road Trip Sounds good. How’s the weather in BC in December? 🤭
Let us know how it goes. I’m curious to see how you manage to move forward on this. I’m aware of a lot of options here (e.g. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanhack_working-remotely-from-canada-with-your-current-activity-7120340233904148481-GXUd ) but curious to see which one ends up being the right fit for you in particular.
- From a fellow exile who got out to Canada in the first term
Did you keep your US job, or find work in Canada? Are you a software engineer? I basically project manage software engineers
I had to find work in Canada, but since I am a software engineer, I was able to take advantage of NAFTA (back when it was still called that) to help me do so.
Like Washington but colder
Actually, like Washington but warmer and drier - global warming has really transformed the area.
Rainy on the coast but roads in the interior can get dicey if there’s snow. Stick to major highways.
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
I lived in Anchorage for 3 years. I am down with cold! 🤣 We have offices and employees all over the world, so that should not be an issue.
Honestly, Manitoba may not be a bad choice for you (unless the no mountains thing is a deal breaker).
- left leaning government for at least another three years
- $120k CAD salary will be very comfortable anywhere in the province
- cold as balls half the year (since you’re okay with cold)
- lots of farmland for locally grown food
We have offices and employees all over the world, so that should not be an issue.
Have you considered talking with your managers and asking them for overseas transfer?
Curious to see about this. I was in a similar situation (“offices and employees all over the world”) but still could not get my company to sponsor me overseas, even though my direct manager and my skip worked really hard to try and make it work.
Yukon is a very special place to say the least. Think Alaska but with extreme friendliness and a left wing attitude.
A bit over $120k Canadian. Enough but not as rich as you think in Vancouver.
In Toronto or Vancouver, you’d be a peasant.
In Winnipeg, you’d be a king.
A year might work or would be nice. Barring any catastrophic tsunami’s or hurricanes. After that, I fear it might sink into the sea.