Question - Australia or Canada?

[wesleynicks]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to get your opinions on this one, I am currently living in the UK but want to move to either Canada or Australia. With all the visa etc things aside, I wanted to ask you all if you could go to either country but had to choose one which one would it be and why?

I know this is a very open question and probably stupid but I thought for a bit of fun I would ask it any way!

Thanks in advance for your time!

Regards

WesleyNicks

[kellyl]

Hi,
We immigrated from Ireland to Australia 4 years ago & we are now hoping to get a visa for Canada!
It really depends on what your looking for, we picked Oz over Canada the first tine for the sunshine but we actually miss seasons!
If you gave any specific questions ask away....

[emma329]

Where u thinking of moving to in Canada Kelly? We are thing Saskatoon area.

[wesleynicks]

Well I like the sunshine but I can imagine having it all the time would probably drive me insane! Where are you guys moving to? Have you been to Canada before?

[kellyl]

We are thinking Vancouver but depends on work etc
We live in far north Queensland, which is the tropics, so we get mostly sunshine but the summer is wet with high humidity.
Australia feels very remote especially where we are, Canada is closer to home & civilization!!!
We've never been to Canada but we'd never been to Australia either & I don't regret the move, just looking for something different now!

[emma329]

Hi Kellyl,we thought of Vancouver till we heard thr the winter is rain,rain,rain and people say its very dull then too.What work are you looking for?We' love to go to Kellowna but work isn't there for my husband whose in construction so we are thinking Saskachewan area.That looks appealing and Ontario.U need to find out where the work is and do research on it aswell as asking people on here but I jus think u'll get 2 sides to every story,so some will like and some will dislike.Weve been told Toronto has the work but it's very much like London which don't want.Good luck with ur search xx we r in the process of emigrating.Where r u from in England?x

[G-Mo]

Originally Posted by kellyl

Hi,
We immigrated from Ireland to Australia 4 years ago & we are now hoping to get a visa for Canada!
It really depends on what your looking for, we picked Oz over Canada the first tine for the sunshine but we actually miss seasons!
If you gave any specific questions ask away....

If you want seasons, just move to Melbourne, there you can get four seasons in one day (thanks Tim & Neil), it's also pretty seasonal year round.

[fletcher m]

We considered both, Jo is a nurse and relatively quickly got both registration and a job offer for Oz, at the same time we applied for canada PR and CRNBC registration, still awaiting both. Much easier to get to Oz, however, beasties, day to day expense and the cost of housing and that " housing bubble " in Oz has made us decide on Canada as 1st choice. If we struggle to get in, Oz is waiting in the wings if we still really want to go overseas. Otherwise, UK is fine and dandy at the mo, we are not getting any younger, late 40's, we have good jobs and all is well. You could say, our glass in more than half full.

[jawnbc]

I've lived in New York, Vancouver and Sydney--20+ years in both Canada and the States; about 3 years in Australia. My husband and I are about to move to New Zealand: he's lived in London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Sydney and Vancouver. So here's a few comments about Canada and Australia. Bearing in mind my politics are left...



Australia: social safety net is weaker for most things, since policy pushes most people into private health insurance. Higher education would be an exception, where Aussie residents and citizens have access to some financial resources for studying. The politics are very polarized--American style--but Canada seems to be slowly creeping that way, sadly. Australia is bright and sunny but the resources required to make it a comfortable place to live (electricity, water) and work (same things, but at an industrial level) don't help what is already a challenging climate. Some of the friendliest, most outgoing and generally warm people...but can also be a bit coarse. Taxes very high, but not perhaps compared to Europe.

Canada: strong social safety net with respect to health (no user fees) and K-12 schooling. Higher education generally excellent with low fees: most students rely on student loans to finance their studies if their families cannot do it alone. Politics are skewed left/centre-left: getting rid of universal single payer public health insurance would be the only thing to cause riots except for hockey! Canadians like to think of themselves as progressive; they're also suspicious of profligracy. Everywhere in Canada has tough winters (wet and dark on the West coast; cold and dry across much of the rest, except the East coast, which can be blustery as well) but nice long summers with long warm evenings. Electricity is cheap and water is cheap or included in taxes--to an extent Canadians are terrible wasters of fresh water. Canadians are friendly if a bit reserved: Vancouver can be a tough place to "connect" compared to the rest. Taxes higher than the US but lower than Australia or Europe (NZ is lower than Canada, however!). Dental care is only covered for those on social assistance ("welfare") and there's no coverage for prescription medicines outside of hospitals--though each province's health ministry buys in bulk and saves compared to, say, the US; many people have supplemental health and dental insurance through work (often partially or wholly paid by the employer) to cover 80% or more of dental and medication costs (and perhaps a portion of eyeglasses/contact lenses).

One man's opinion......

[jcw148]

Originally Posted by wesleynicks

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to get your opinions on this one, I am currently living in the UK but want to move to either Canada or Australia. With all the visa etc things aside, I wanted to ask you all if you could go to either country but had to choose one which one would it be and why?

I know this is a very open question and probably stupid but I thought for a bit of fun I would ask it any way!

Thanks in advance for your time!

Regards

WesleyNicks

Interesting question. I'm an American, living in Australia (Adelaide) looking to move to Canada (Vancouver or Victoria, BC). My wife is Canadian so it will be easy getting into Canada.

We have two small kids and family still in the states. The primary reason we are looking to move to Canada is mostly because we would be closer to the family in the US. We like Australia quite a bit, but it is FAAAAAR from things. I travel for work about once every two months and a 15 hr flight back to the states or 30hr roundtrip to Europe is painful.

Australia is really nice if you can leave everyone and everything behind you. The realestate here is very expensive, but probably no more so than say LA, NYC, SF in the US and Vancouver in Canada (I don't know europe at all). The social systems in AU are nice and the people are very friendly. I wouldn't have a problem living here forever except that is so isolated.

Another issue for me about AU is the infrastructure. The country is roughly 3/4 the size of the US with only 26 million people. It is a very rich country (They don't call it 'The Lucky Country' for nothing) and the government has good social programs taking care of people, but there are water issues, the internet is terrible and most of the country is completely uninhabitable (though, not unlike Canada in that regard...just a different type of uninhabitable).

Aside from climate being different, Canada and AU are very similar. That is one reason I like the idea of Canada so much.

Again, I think living in AU is great aside from the distance to North America and Europe. (ie home/family/work stuff).

Hope you find what you are looking for.

Jason