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!!!
Atlantic Canada. Cheap cost of living compared to the rest of the country, beautiful environment, lots of nice small communities.
Nelson BC
If you want to be near mountains, want affordable living and are progressive, Lethbridge, AB may be your best bet. The landscape there is a bit weird. Looks kind or like Iceland or something. Super hilly with big valleys and very few trees outside or the city, but definitely not a big city vibe like you’d find in Edmonton or Calgary.
Pretty mild climate too.
But the Alberta government is fucking idiotic, so I can’t say what will happen in the future with healthcare and human rights.
Oh that’s easy. They’ll be destroyed by a party that can’t lose an election.
The UCP just introduced the most extreme anti-trans legislation in North America. They have been methodically and relentlessly destroying public healthcare, and handing private contracts to their friends. Education has been revamped with a curriculum that explicitly promotes oil and gas production, denies the harm of residential schools, and encourages rote memorization over comprehension. Oh yes, and public charter schools. They’ve recently started to make inroads on ultimately banning abortion.
And they’ll get reelected, over and over again.
Hmm, the others are saying Alberta is right wing
Compared to US it’s nothing lol
Most of western Canada is right-wing. Especially Alberta and Saskatchewan. Outside of Vancouver (where living is beyond unaffordable for most), BC is also pretty conservative, albeit less overall I’m sure than Alberta. The tricky part is that quality of life is quite good in Alberta. Housing is affordable and we’re the least taxed province, so if you can live with the occasional stupid hick with a “FUCK TRUDEAU” flag or decal, life is pretty good here. It’s really your only affordable option if you want to live near the mountains. Otherwise the Appalachians do extend into the eastern maritime provinces. Jobs are just extemely scarce and often seasonal out that way.
I immigrated from Michigan back in 2017. I’m very left-wing and so is my wife who has lived here her entire life. The province nearly flipped last election so things have been improving on that front, and you’re certainly not going to be the only leftist around. Well, unless you move to a small town or Grand Prairie or Fort Mac.
Lethbridge and Edmonton are the most left-leaning places in the province. Edmonton, however, is fucking huge… So you’re not getting away from the city up that way.
There is no escaping the right-wing brain rot. It’s everywhere now. 2016 spread into Canada like wildfire. But when I came here my life improved tenfold. I make three times what I did back home for the same line of work (retail/produce management). I have healthcare, a daughter, bought a home with my wife this summer. It’s a million times better than the States, but we are looking down the barrel of gun. I wish you the best on your immigration, and I hope you’re as happy here as I am, wherever you wind up.
Alberta is the most taxed province as far as income tax though I think
It’s one of the least taxed and there’s no provincial sales tax
https://www.nerdwallet.com/ca/personal-finance/provincial-tax-rates
Yeah, no sales tax, but high income tax. You’re paying tax - just in a different form.
…
Did you read what I said and checked the website? It has one of the LOWEST income tax in Canada AND no sales taxes. That’s not even taking the basic exemption amount into consideration, with Alberta having the highest!
It doesn’t have high income taxes by any sane metrics. You can compare to US States where the government provides no services to the population at all but then people are just paying even more to the private sector instead.
Go to any Canadian news website and search Danielle Smith.
She is Alberta’s premier (equivalent to a US governer).
The thing about Alberta is that they consistently elect the most hardcore right wing crazies in all of Canada.
And they also consistently elect genuinely progressive, openly socialist governments of the kind you imagine Bernie Sanders might run.
There are no middle of the road centrists in 'Berta. You’re either a frothing mouthed “Jewish Space Lasers” kind of crazy, or you’re a proud union member ready to give everyone UBI and free education.
The latter tend to be found more in the cities, as always.
Unfortunately the former seem to have the edge overall in elections.
So, politically, it’s definitely not a great environment, but culturally you’d actually find a lot of like minded folks there. The problem is that right now you’d probably spend your time hanging out with those like minded folks grumbling about your QAnon premier as she sells off the entire healthcare system and deletes sex education from schools.
Consistently?
Alberta has had one NDP government in the past 50 years, all other governments were conservative.
Sorry, what I meant by that is that individual voters either vote for one or the other. I wasn’t referring to the overall state of who actually wins. But I get that that wasn’t clear at all from how I phrased it.
Ah ok, I reread it, you were talking about municipal government. Yeah, sadly municipalities can’t do much if the provincial government gets in their way and with first past the post and electoral districts… Well, conservatives win Alberta 95% of the time!
Always windy
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, that is what I assumed
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.
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.
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.
If you like mountains and your job is remote then why not try and live in somewhere in Alberta? Canmore is right next to Banff and is absolutely gorgeous. That being said Alberta is pretty much the America of Canada meaning their politics is pretty right wing. If you want to live in a province that’s more left wing you can try British Colunbia which is on the other side of the rockies.
Yeah right wing is a hard no for me
couple of details though: Canada right wing is a long ways away from US for the most part. Also AB almost got NDP elected last election which is, after 40yrs of unbreakable concervative hold on province is telling. So yeah right wing is correct but you’ve got to pay attention to nuances. Calgary and South of Calgary are good places to live with decent infrastructure. You go most places BC you’ll be surrounded by a lot of conservative minded folk. In both provinces I’ve been surrounded by conservative minded folk which were persistently calling POTUS45/47 a nutcase. So… don’t get too hung up on labels.
Alberta had the NDP and kicked them out after one manager and now they’ve elected a conspiracy nutjob… The NDP government was an anomaly, they’ve had a conservative government in power for the past 100 years except for one NDP government.
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…
You could live in the Northwest of British Columbia around Haida Gwaii or Vancouver Island
.What kind of work are you looking for?
I am planning to keep my remote job at my company
Have you run that by them? If you become a resident of another country, they may have payroll restrictions that prevent them from paying you.
We had a Bosnian employee emigrate to Canada, and was approved, so there’s precedent. I am not the only one interested either. Of course I will check with HR, but I have some other things to get squared away first.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Quebec… I’m not going to touch that one.
Damnit now I’m curious.
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 (separatists) 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.
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.
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 are 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).
*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 beginning 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?
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. 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.
Just invent a bunch of racism 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.
Yeah, OP would be better off trying to move to Scandinavia
Coming next there too
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.
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.
We also have donair if that helps.
Donair always helps
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.
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.
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
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.
Kamloops, BC?
It’s got mountains around, it’s not completely caught in the Conservative trap, you’ve got decent amenities of civilization around without the big city or suburb vibe of Metro Vancouver, (I still think it pales as a “city” compared to Toronto), but as a day trip you can head there to sightsee or pick up big box stuff.
If you want something more laid back I second Yukon.
I’m in Kelowna and loving it. We’re turning more progressive as the city grows. NDP lost the ejection here by 40 votes out of 25783 total votes, that’s pretty good considering how conservative this area used to be and how much popularity the “fuck Trudeau” style conservatism has gained and retained over the years. Can’t really go wrong with any of the small towns around here either, from Vernon to Lake Country to West Kelowna to Summerland to Penticton.
I am not looking forward to the next federal election. Trudeau is about to pull a Biden and stay in too long and hand the whole thing to the right in a landslide. If only that dummy didn’t give up on electoral reform the second he got into power. What a waste
Move to Baffin Island, best internet in the country. I prommy.
Moving here is going to be a long term drop in quality of life. Wages are lower, the dollar is weaker, taxes are higher and the “free” health care is not free.
