Foreclosure Vancouver
How is the quality of life is in Canada compared over America?
This question is more for ex-pats who were American citizens and immigrated to Canada. Or for Canadian citizens who lived on both sides.
I was thinking of working and living in Vancouver BC in a IT position for a few years. Who knows? If I like it enough I might immigrate. I feel that the quality of life in America has been degrading for the past couple of years. HMOs, foreclosures, inflation, the upcoming recession, fear-mongering demagogues, lack of gun control, longer work hours that isolate communities, the amount of crap put into food, rising illiteracy rates, etc. The list is getting longer!
As a law-abiding American, who pay taxes, volunteers, etc. I feel that although I’m doing the right things in life and for my fellow man, I feel the system is designed to bleed you here. Do Canadians or ex-pats feel that in Canada?
I’m a Canadian ex-pat living in America. There are some minor cultural differences, but overall the quality of life is about the same. The U.N. ranks Canada higher on almost all of its positive indices, but for the average, middle-class person with no disabilities or medical problems, I don’t think you’d notice a difference.
It’s a common myth that Canada has higher taxes – it has lower federal income taxes for most brackets, and Alberta and Ontario are lower than most states in the Union, in terms of provincial taxes. Alberta is the lowest in terms of sales taxes, as well. So tax-wise Canada compares favorably – this is because it came under a lot fire in the 90s for not being competitive with the U.S., in personal and business taxation, and has worked over the past 15 years or so to lower those taxes – successfully.
Right now Canada’s economy is doing well, but the work hours are probably roughly the same and food standards are the same.
I do feel like Canada’s government is more sensible than America’s. There’s not near as much wasteful spending, and I felt more like the people controlled the government, not the lobbyists. There isn’t a lot of senseless “pork” added onto bills, and I feel that although there are taxes in Canada, at least they’re going somewhere worthwhile.
You can stop hearing about illegal immigrants, too! Immigration is not a major negative issue in Canada.
I hear Vancouver is a really fantastic place to live, and I would suggest checking out Victoria on a visit. If you don’t like it there, you can always come back. I say go for it!
I would return to Canada if my husband didn’t have strong family ties here – I’ve lived throughout Ontario, in Newfoundland and Alberta briefly. I have a very positive impression of all of those places.
P.S. Here’s a link about taxation in Canada. BC’s provincial taxes are mid-range.
EDIT: I don’t know how Matt paid that much of a difference in taxes. To pay 15% in the United States, you need to make under $31K (and not pay any state or sales taxes!), which would also put you squarely in the 15% federal tax bracket for Canada. Not counting state OR provincial taxes. Ontario’s tax bracket is only an additional 6% at that income level. So maybe things have changed wildly in the last few years, but the numbers don’t add up.
Vancouver foreclosures double
