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Canada's largest cities cost of living (rent) is lower than Americas counterpart, has higher minimum wage, everybody has health insurance coverage, 1 yr maternity leave, lower income taxes for lower incomes, cheaper day care, cheaper college, mandatory paid days off from work, lower crime rate and higher life expectancy. How come they are better than us and offer higher quality of life and better social benefits and safety net?? They are located just north of us.
Canada's a fine country and I enjoy going to Vancouver but twice as many Canadians emigrate to the USA than vice versa....why? I agree with several of the posters that Canada does some things better than us (health care comes to mind) and some things not as well. They also have a different demographic than the USA and they have a huge income from oil and mining that is essentially used to fund many of the services they have which we don't have the luxury of doing since we would have to divide that funding per resident by 10 since our population is 10 times higher.
The current high USD versus Canadian dollar is a function of the low prices of oil and mining metals so that will change when the world economy changes.
On the whole, Canada is a wonderful country that I have never had a desire to move to.
The US motto is "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"
while Canada's is "Peace, Order, and Good Government".
While not socially conservative, Canada has been blessed with a string of fiscally conservative governments (Liberal and Conservative) who take along a term view not a quick fix. Compared to the US, Canadian politicians are seen as stewards and not beholden to lobbyists and money men.
The Canadian dollar is taking a beating however and there are fears of a housing bubble turndown.
I live in Montreal and I am moving in the state. Quite frankly, Canada is much better. Again, you can look at stats, reports, numbers, compare taxes, gas price, etc. At the end of the day, these numbers give you an general overview and the vary from place to place.
In Montreal, the housing is not as hot as in Vancouver but it is still ridiculous for us. I think average price for a detached home is around 300k. Vancouver is probably 3x that. However, our income taxes here are higher (depending on your income). It can easily flirt with 50%. Sales tax is 15% total on almost everything except some stuffs. Yeah we do have health coverage that we pay for in taxes if you have a taxable income but last time I went in emergency, I waited 11 hours.....
The point is, there are pros and cons everywhere you go. Only way to really judge is to have the guts to move and try, whether it is the state or in Canada. Reading news websites in your living room won't help you there.
Are you serious? Vancouver and Toronto are some of the MOST DENSE cities in both America and Canada. Your statement is just wrong because 90% of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US. Inflating home prices
It's not wrong, it's just an opinion. Cities more dense than some US cities may be good, but these cities have like 7x the house cost compared to some US cities Buffalo vs Toronto for instance. It's just ungodly high. Everyone in Canada is not making mega bank I know or else it would show up on the GDP per capita.
I'm not so sure....Average detached home price in Vancouver...June 2015.... $1,442,296
Toronto....$1,052,000
Calgary....$454,100
Victoria (My home town) $558,500
Average Canada..... $440,000
No doubt single family houses in Vancouver are expensive and that figure sounds about right. However when comparing city to city you have to keep in mind the size of a cities borders.
For instance Calgary is 848 sq km. Vancouver is 114 sq km. So naturally the further from the city centre you are the cheaper it gets, so Calgary already has an advantage in getting the average price within it's city limit down.
This is what I found for the Lower Mainland
JUNE 2015 – Single Family Detached Homes
SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED JUNE 2015 Benchmark Price YOY % Change
Lower Mainland $891,800 12.20%
REBGV $1,123,900 14.78%
BURNABY $1,125,100 15.46%
BURNABY EAST $902,900 14.78%
Still not cheap, but it does add a little perspective.
That doesn't necessarily mean their schools are better. It could be that they have brighter students on average.
Schools are a provincial jurisdiction in Canada. Meaning funding for public schools is evenly distributed.
Many times Americans moving to Canada want to find a " good school district " in order to choose their new home.
It doesn't work that way in Canada...all schools pretty much deliver the same quality of education.
There is of course different challenges for the schools in poor neighbourhoods, but a bright child is less likely to be held back because the school lacks most advantages that public schools in wealthier neighbourhoods have.
Canada's largest cities cost of living (rent) is lower than Americas counterpart, has higher minimum wage, everybody has health insurance coverage, 1 yr maternity leave, lower income taxes for lower incomes, cheaper day care, cheaper college, mandatory paid days off from work, lower crime rate and higher life expectancy. How come they are better than us and offer higher quality of life and better social benefits and safety net?? They are located just north of us.
They have huge taxes on their things and gas to pay for the free stuff.
They also reformed their government by firing bunches of government employees back to the privat sector and they also reduced pension pay outs.
They have no real military and no immigration issues. We protect them and they are too cold to knowingly immigrate to.
The French part is a joke.
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