Do most canadians live in the city? for canadians. and is it cheap to live in the countryside?

just wondering. alexa informs me canada has 35.6 million people. do most of them live in the city? what’s it like in the country? i know land in BC is expensive, but what about everywhere else?

what kind of fruits and veggies could i grow in canada? just a hypothetical. i’ll be in my current location for at least 20 more years.

Actually, @Lifer, it’s not really “urban vs. rural” when it comes to population. The way that it’s been for the last several years is that about 90% of the Canadian population live within 200 km of the American border. If you can put up with our harsh winters, I’ve heard it said and some of us even believe, the people are nice. I don’t know about all of B.C. being expensive, but Vancouver has an expensive housing market.

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ok thanks for the response

The one type of fruit that you would have trouble growing are citrus. And maybe, also watermelon.

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BC is expensive. I am in Quebec and you can get a house in a triplex for 170 000$ canadian.

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sometimes on youtube, i watch the urban farmer curtis stone, who is canadian and lives in b.c. i think, he said land in b.c was expensive is where i got that info. he gardens in large lots in neighborhoods, and sells his produce to restaurants and stuff. sometimes his videos are a bit long, but they are interesting.

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Weather is extreme, summer it can get to 45C and winter -44C.

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Winters are harsh, I have relatives who live throughout Canada.

With that said I think Canada is an awesome place to live.

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In Quebec you’ll have to learn French though. Work requires English and French. Maybe you can find French only jobs but not English only. The husband of my cousin had a hard time finding a job because he only speaks English and Arabic. He could only work in Ontario. So he was forced to learn French here.

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I’ve lived in Canada all 25 years of my life and I can confirm that the winter’s really suck here… and I live close to the US border so there’s way worse places to live in Canada when it comes to weather.

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have any of you canadians seen the northern lights? that’s on my bucket list! i once thought about trying to visit yellow knife and trying to catch a glimpse of them. i guess i always go to alaska for that as well. wouldn’t require a passport anyhow.

my buddy moved to alaska after college. he owns a property management company in anchorage now. havent seen him in years.

Yeah, Newfoundland is definitely bad.

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Manitoba has probably the harshest winters but you kind of get used to it. A lot of people live out in the country here. It’s not really that much cheaper but much more land. I live in a very small city. Housing here is pretty cheap compared to many other provinces. But the wages reflect that.

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Aside from a short stint in British Columbia as a child, my comments pertain to the province of Alberta where I’ve lived pretty much my entire life.

  1. Housing is usually cheaper in the rural areas, especially in the prairies. The smaller the town, usually the more affordable. However, your access to services plummets and all of your other costs skyrocket. Vehicle costs especially. Driving one hour for groceries or two hours for medical appointments adds up. The groceries you can get locally are limited, wildly expensive, and last a fraction as long as they would from a high volume store in the city.

  2. Housing in the city is expensive, but you can save everywhere else. There’s public transit so vehicles are optional. Good cheap shopping is abundant. Your access to services will be excellent.

  3. The sweet spot is to find a good-sized town that is a bedroom community for a larger centre. They have semi-affordable real-estate, but there is still more space, less crowding, and you get cheap groceries and most of the services are obtainable. All you’re usually missing is public transit (that’s a city only thing here), but most of what you need should be doable on foot.

The weather? Most Canadians on the prairies hate it, fervently wish for the global warming we keep hearing about but haven’t seen, and we spend the especially cold days making videos of large vehicles idling for hours and then post them on social media taking extra care to tag Greta Thunberg.

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I’ve lived in a city in BC for the past 30 years and before that a smaller city, but I grew up in a town of 270 people in BC.

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