Kananaskis Mountains
I wrote the heading to this over five years ago and then proceeded to forget that I had a blog; strange how life distracts you.
Where was I?
Oh, yes; Canada.
So, at the time, all those years ago, we (my wife, Sheina, and I) were seriously considering moving from Scotland to Canada.
Many people have asked me over the years, why? Why would you leave a place where you had a good standard of living, good job, good social network, family close by. It's not an easy question to answer in a few words although I did develop a few soundbites:
"Why not?"
"For the skiing."
"For the weather."
Of course, when people heard these, their jaws would drop and their eyebrows rise because, while each is in some part true, they don't explain why I would make such a big change in my life. Sane people don't leave everything behind and drag their family to another continent for a high-speed quad chair and a large vertical drop.
So, here's the real reason, and it's not short:
Sheina and I have always thought of living away from Scotland. Perhaps it's in our blood as two of my uncles and Sheina's brother moved away when they were younger. I even lived in London (England, not Ontario) for 2 years (which is a whole other blog) and we have tried, unsuccessfully, to get to Dubai and Bermuda. In 2001, we went on a skiing holiday to Whistler, just north of Vancouver, and we loved it. When we got back to Scotland, we decided that we would try to live in Canada, just temporarily, to see if we liked it.
It turned out that a temporary move to Canada was about as likely as me getting a sex-change. I wanted to work in my chosen field, as I had a family to support, but no employer would look at me unless I had an immigration visa. So we had a decision to make; give up on the whole idea or go for it. We discussed it with family and friends and we received many differing opinions but there was one comment that we heard over and over. So many people told us that they had once had the chance to go to Canada but didn't and they regretted that decision. Both Sheina and I didn't want to look back on our lives and think "I wish we had taken the chance" or "I wonder what it would have been like" so we decided to go for it. Life is only so long and you have to cram as much into it as you can and, what's the worst that would happen; we didn't like it and came back to Scotland.
It was about this time that I wrote the heading, referring to "Fortress Canada" because of the trouble in getting temporary work and the long and involved test of personal organisation that is the Canadian Immigration process. We applied for an immigration visa in January of 2003 and received it in March 2004. By June, I'd been offered three jobs and we moved to Calgary (no, not Vancouver) in August of that same year.
Why Calgary? Well, my uncle, who lives on Vancouver Island, told us to look at Calgary when we told him of our intention to move to Canada. As he put it, "It's booming!". Well, that was in 2002 and he wasn't wrong but that in itself wasn't a reason to move there. We looked at both Vancouver and Calgary and tried to weigh up the pros and cons for each. This is what we came up with:
Vancouver for: it's beautiful, good skiing nearby. high standard of living
Vancouver against : climate is too similar to Scotland (ie rains a lot), high cost of living, strong trade-union presence (I'm left of centre, but not that left).
Calgary for: even better skiing nearby, cold winters/warm summers and dry!, second sunniest place in N. America (after Miami), cheaper that Vancouver.
Calgary against: a little redneck, not nearly as pretty as Vancouver, Tory provincial government.
Calgary at Night
You'll notice repetition of my ealier soundbites because these were a big part of our decision process. But, when we wrote down the pros and cons it became pretty obvious that Calgary was the place for us. Of course, this was a personal choice and it'll be different for everyone.
So, we went to Calgary, well actually Okotoks, a little town just to the south. It's now 2007 and we're still here. We miss Scotland but we're enjoying our new surroundings and have no plans to return.
I intend this blog to be a prospective immigrant's guide to the process and will post hints, tips and anecdotal tales as I think of them.
I hope you enjoy.
