Does Canada or Australia Offer More? (restaurants, club, vs.)
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Edmonton is slightly larger than Ottawa, but I would not say it feels more dynamic or urban.
Neither would I, and I lived in Edmonton for three years. I never lived in Ottawa, but friends there told me that Ottawa has no nightlife, because Hull (now Gatineau) has it all. They just headed across the river, to where the fun was. Ottawa had some great places (D'arcy McGee's on Sparks Street is a favourite of mine), but under Ontario law back in the day, they couldn't be open as late as similar places in Hull, so if you were looking for late-night fun, you didn't stay in Ottawa.
Edmonton is improving. On a business trip there last June, my colleagues and I had fun in a pubcrawl along Jasper Avenue. That wasn't possible even fifteen years ago; at least, not as we did it last June. Still, Edmonton has a long way to go before it can be considered "dynamic and urban," in my opinion.
Australia may have a more exotic feel ins some places-but stays much the same throughout. On a certain level, Canada does too-it just strikes me as though there is more variance.
There's actually pretty distinct differences as you travel though Australia. If you're in one of Darwin, Alice Springs, Townsville, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne... there is no way you'd ever mistakenly think you're in one of the others.
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
- Travel options: I guess this one is hard to say-are we talking outside of the country? I feel like because of proximity to Europe in the east, and America immediately south, Canada takes this one-however, Australia perhaps has more exotic/better travel options out of country-even as they are fewer
Within a reasonably short flight time of the Aus East coast there are a lot of small island nations in the South West and Western Pacific, that offer unique Melanesian and Polynesian cultures, and some of the most stunning scenery you'll find on the planet. Add to that Australia's own external territories that have very different cultural mixes and geography. Australia is pretty lucky in the way.
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
- Diversity of people/ personality types: Gonna go Canada here-for reasons mentioned above
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Australia does have a significantly higher proportion of foreign born that does Canada, as well as a very large population of foreign students from across the Asia Pacific.
Australia does have a significantly higher proportion of foreign born that does Canada, as well as a very large population of foreign students from across the Asia Pacific.
This is not meant to diss Australia's diversity which is real, but I am not sure that its foreign-born figure (of which maybe a third are British, Irish, Kiwi, American or White South African people who fit in rather seamlessly) even if 5-7% higher than Canada's, actually trumps having a foreign-ish self-contained nation-within-a-nation that speaks a different language right smack in the middle and that makes up about one quarter of the country.
There's actually pretty distinct differences as you travel though Australia. If you're in one of Darwin, Alice Springs, Townsville, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne... there is no way you'd ever mistakenly think you're in one of the others.
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Yes, you have differences between Australian cities like, say, Hobart and Darwin, which have their own personalities and styles.
But on this measure I don't think it can compared to the diversity of Canada's metro areas, where out of the top 10 two (including the second-biggest) have French as their operating language, and another operates in English and French across a provincial boundary.
If you go to the top 20 you add another that operates in French, and then two more if you include the top 30. We're talking metros of over 150,000 though some far larger than that. (These are not huge cities but they are of comparable size to Hobart and Darwin.
In the top 10 of our cities you have one (Quebec City) that is reminiscent of a city in northern France with a huge castle in the middle of it overlooking a river and islands from a dramatic promontory.
You also have an almost Asian-style Pacific rim metropolis (Vancouver) with the ocean on one side and snow-capped mountains on the other.
In the top 20 you have a foggy coastal capital (St John's) that is the same distance from Rome as it is from Vancouver, and which looks like an oversized coastal fishing town in Ireland or Norway.
This is not meant to diss Australia's diversity which is real, but I am not sure that its foreign-born figure (of which maybe a third are British, Irish, Kiwi, American or White South African people who fit in rather seamlessly) even if 5-7% higher than Canada's, actually trumps having a foreign-ish self-contained nation-within-a-nation that speaks a different language right smack in the middle and that makes up about one quarter of the country.
Folk from the British Isles make up only a couple of percentage points more of the Australian population than they do in Canada, while difference in the overall proportion of migrants is noticeably higher than that.
A lot of folk from NZ are Maori and Pacific Islander, and are a pretty visible group in a lot of cities. They are far more likely to migrate to Australia than Kiwis of European background.
Most South African I've met have been Afrikaaner, so are quite culturally distinct. The remainder have been a mix of English speaking, Indian and black.
I think Canada is more diverse overall. (We really loved travelling in Quebec) But the fact that there is not a lot of difference in the quality of life between the countries is indicated that it is rare to hear Australians express a desire to move there and I imagine vice versa.
We loved the mountain scenery, we really loved Ottawa and as I said, loved Quebec. My brother goes to Canada most years to ski. Toronto did not interest us much but Vancouver is very pleasant. Overall, if I was choosing between the countries it would come down to the weather.
I think Canada is more diverse overall. (We really loved travelling in Quebec) But the fact that there is not a lot of difference in the quality of life between the countries is indicated that it is rare to hear Australians express a desire to move there and I imagine vice versa.
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Oh, I think you'd probably find quite a few Canadians for whom the idea of moving to Australia is very appealling.
It's not so true the other way around - though yes many Aussies are interested in coming to Canada temporarily (working holidays, skiing at Whistler, general leisure trips, etc.)
.... we really loved Ottawa and as I said, loved Quebec. My brother goes to Canada most years to ski. Toronto did not interest us much but Vancouver is very pleasant.
LOL, Poor Toronto. We see people writing this on the forum over and over again.
Last edited by UrbanLuis; 12-16-2019 at 01:30 PM..
Folk from the British Isles make up only a couple of percentage points more of the Australian population than they do in Canada, while difference in the overall proportion of migrants is noticeably higher than that.
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Australia has something like 1.3 million people born in the British Isles. Canada has around 600,000 and we have a substantially larger population.
I believe in terms of "origins" about 30% of Canadians have British Isles origins, whereas in Australia it's in the range of 45%. (Though the percentage of British Isles origins if you take Anglo-Canada in isolation is probably fairly similar to Australia's.)
LOL, Poor Toronto. We see people writing this on the forum over and over again.
It's actually on the cusp of being one of the anglosphere's and even the western world's great cities.
Many Torontonians would argue that it's already fully there but I think there are so many of these comments that it's still got a way's to go in terms of building a unique character and soul.
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