Personally, i love Canada. I don't think i would want to live anywhere else. It is such an ENORMOUS country with almost every ecosystem and landscape on earth including rain forests and deserts.
Everybody (at least in the east) is very open minded and generally pretty cool. There are people from all over the world here and the major cities are something to be seen. Montreal is an amazing city to visit as is Toronto and the east coast. The Rocky's are amazing to see and Vancouver has a strong chinese and asian influence.
Being so close in proximity to the US, Canadians tend to walk, talk and act like Americans reguardless of what you may have been told on TV. :tongue: The only people who say "aboot" are from the east and i have rarely if ever heard it used in Ontario.
Canadians are VERY different politically then Americans. Canada has very strong centre left and left wing ideologies. It has been said that centre-left in Canada is equivilent to far left in the US. :biggrin1: Canadians overwhelming vote for left wing parties. There are 3 major left wing parties in Canada and one conservative right wing party. Over 60% of Canadian vote for one of the left wing parties, but because of vote splitting the current government is right to far right wing and is a offshoot of the current US administrations neo-conservative policies... which is not a good thing. They have tried to resind our gay marriage laws and effectivly killed our handgun registry, national daycare program and marijuana decriminalization laws.
As far as safety, Toronto and other big cities have there moments, but in 2005 Canada only had 660 murders which is amazing for a country of 33 million people. Per capita it is 3-4 times lower then the US.
I personally also like the fact the Canada is a Commonwealth country and has a strong British heritage. We draw from the British legal system with the exception of Quebec civil law. The Queen is also our monarch. And we speel things the correct English way! :tongue: (Although we use the metric system.)
Housing prices, at least in Ontario, are RETARDED. Income taxes range from 15% to 29% for people making over $120,000. We also have a 6% GST (Goods and Services tax) which is equivilent to VAT.
We have national health care, although probably not as good as NHS since we have to pay for perscriptions, dental and eye care.
And yes, depending on where you live the weather in the winter could be bad, but places like Victoria, British Columbia or Toronto, Ontario are pretty temperate. Last year in Toronto it didn't drop below freezing until late December and only lasted until late February. And it rarely goes more then 10 degrees below freezing in Toronto. If you live in Winterpeg, Manitoba, you might be sitting at -30 celsius for 4-5 MONTHS! Same as Calgary, Alberta. Toronto in the summer is SOLID 85 degrees F, (30 C)
and in July and August can get to 100 degrees F (40 C) for 60 days straight and sunny.
If you look on a map, a large portion of the Canadian population is further south then several US states including Washington, Oregon, Idago, Montana, N Dokota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, NY, Maine and Vermont. The southern tip of Ontario is almost at the same latittude as northern California. The weather in NY state which is about 1 hour from Toronto is ALWAYS much worse. They get 3-4 times more snow then we do in Southern Ontario.
If i were to move somewhere else, i think i would probably have to say southern Florida though.
So, ya.... all in all Canada rocks.
