Why On Earth I Would Move from Vancouver to Winnipeg
In the ten months that I’ve lived here, people have asked me, more than anything else, why I moved here. To Winnipeg. From Vancouver. Telling them the truth, “I just really like the city”, hasn’t been very convincing, and so this post attempts to explain something that’s a little bit unfathomable: Why on Earth I would move from Vancouver to Winnipeg.
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to get out of Lethbridge, the medium-sized town where Aaron and I grew up. I hated how conservative and “small-town” it was. I hated what I perceived was its lack of cultural activity. I hated having to drive to Calgary to see a decent concert. I thought to myself, “It’s too bad this is where my family is, because I will never live here voluntarily.”
I wound up going to school in Calgary and after that, I decided, more or less on a whim, that Vancouver would be a great place to live and made the big move. I was born in that neck of the woods, and longed for its humid and temperate climate; its liberal attitudes; its acceptance of people who don’t like red meat. I spent five years in Vancouver, made some good friends, and enjoyed my work enormously. I lived in many different neighbourhoods, and was exposed to the wonderful things that big cities have to offer. I’d never tried shawarma until I lived downtown, I’d never shopped at a green grocer until I lived in Kitsilano, and I’d never been on a culture crawl until I lived on the east side. There is nothing quite like jogging along the ocean! I worked downtown at what I felt was an enviably Good Job. I felt quite cosmopolitan.
But living in a big, desirable city like Vancouver has its costs. When people talk about BC being the “best place on earth”, visions of snowboarding and windsurfing and eating sustainably-harvested wild salmon come to mind. But here’s the thing: very few people in my age bracket could enjoy any of those things with any regularity unless they had a Really, Really, Really Good Job.
Or unless they racked up a lot of debt, trying to keep up appearances.
Housing costs in the Lower Mainland are prohibitively expensive. I was a renter the whole time I was in Vancouver, and when I look at all the money I was spending on rent, it’s no wonder I was just scraping by. According to Century 21, the average home price in Vancouver in March 2009 was $636,785; in Winnipeg, it was $209,628. That’s a third of the price. Now, I know I’m making less here than I made in Vancouver, but I can tell you I’m making significantly more than 1/3 my old salary.
People might be surprised to know that Vancouver’s liberalism extends to their tolerance of marijuana, but that might be about it. The focus on consumerism in the name of wholesome living — green consumerism, baby consumerism, local foodie consumerism, fitness consumerism — was fundamentally paradoxical. Only in Vancouver could a company make millions by selling $100 pants and other gear for a 1000-year old practice that actually requires nothing more than a body and a mind (I’m talking about yoga, in case that wasn’t apparent!). It felt like everything was a competition. Who can be greener? Who has the biggest and most ridiculous mortgage? It felt like a rat race. In ways that I still can’t explain, it didn’t feel like I was living in Canada anymore.
I became increasingly aware of the superficiality and pretense of it all. Yoga-mania. Dogs wearing human clothes. Starbucks literally steps apart from each other. This isn’t an exaggeration: that’s Yaletown (ask Laurel, who lived and worked there for some time). But it was bigger than that: in contrast, the divide between rich and poor was becoming more and more perceptible and harder and harder to bear (Canada’s richest and poorest postal codes are just across the Burrard Inlet from each other, but you see evidence of it almost everywhere you go).
After all those years of thinking I’d never live in a small town, a funny thing happened. I started noticing that in the Lower Mainland, parents had to camp out overnight to get their kids into French immersion. This was somewhat of an epiphany for me. I started the think that maybe a place like Lethbridge wouldn’t be such a bad place to raise a family. Then, the friend who I’d moved to Vancouver with and her fiancé decided to move back to Alberta. They realised that they’d never be able to afford the kind of house they dreamed of as long as they lived in Vancouver, and wanted to be closer to family once they started their own. That was another eye-opener for me. Around me, my friends were making decisions about their quality of life, and increasingly, staying in Vancouver wasn’t a part of those decisions.
Ultimately, these were the things that made me realise I did not want to settle in Vancouver. If I had grown up in that area, and had immediate family there; if I’d grown up with those strange contradictions as my reality, I might have felt differently. But I grew up in a small city where the biggest difference I could perceive between someone like me and someone whose family was significantly wealthy, was that I didn’t have a Club Monaco sweatshirt or Guess jeans in junior high. Maybe what I was really longing for was the homogeneity of my childhood.
My fondness for my new city, Winnipeg, is a result of many things. Almost all of my relatives live here, and a close girlfriend of mine had moved here a few years ago to be with her fiancé. But much like my decision to move to Vancouver five years prior, my move to Winnipeg was based on a gut instinct and an indescribable desire: I’d been to Winnipeg many times, I liked the province’s philosophy on summer vacation (read: lake life), and I knew the cost of living was significantly lower. I’d heard that almost anyone could afford to buy a house (my girlfriend told me that virtually everyone she’d met since moving to the ‘Peg owned their own home). But it was sentimental, too. My parents lived here as children, and it was here that they met and married. My two brothers were born here. Sure, the family had moved away by the time I was born, but I’d always felt somehow that my roots were in Manitoba, despite never having spent more than two weeks at a time here. In the pit of my stomach; in my heart of hearts, I’d always felt that I would someday wind up in Winnipeg.
Yes, Winnipeg has its own set of problems. The issue of poverty is extremely evident in the downtown core. The car culture is entirely too alive and well and the public transit system leaves a fair amount to be desired. I hear people say that there’s nothing to do here. Nothing going on. We all know that’s not true. I’ve now lived in three major cities, and it’s the same everywhere you go. A town is what you make of it. Winnipeg does have a vibrant arts scene – but I don’t think it’s particularly better than any other large city’s arts scene. Conversely, Winnipeg has a big problem with crime – but so does every other major city in Canada.
I guess what I like about this city is that here, I don’t feel the need to be anyone other than me. People here don’t glorify workaholism. People wear BlackBerrys but they seem to know when to turn them off. It feels like a small town with the conveniences of a big city, which is the best of both worlds. Strangers talk to each other in grocery stores. Neighbours keep an eye out for each other. And that’s pretty awesome, in my books. (The last one especially, because I just signed the mortgage papers for my very first house.)
All this is to say, I understand feeling like you hate your hometown. That was me, once, too. I’m not writing this post to be critical of Vancouver. It’s a wonderful city with amazing variety. There is a lot going on, and it’s very hard to ever be bored there. I think it’s important for all young people to live away from home at some point before they get too settled. Vancouver was a great place for me to have that experience. It’s a place I look forward to visiting twenty years from now — I know I will love revising my old stomping grounds.
When I hear people saying how much they hate Winnipeg – and it’s never a mild dislike, it’s always a hatred – I think to myself, “What’s keeping you here?” I understand that everyone’s situation is different, but let’s get serious: once you’re an adult, you can do anything you want. If you hate a place so much, why don’t you leave? But if people truly realised what the quality of life is like here, relative to other cities, I think they might feel differently about Winnipeg.
Like any place, I think you really need to get away from it to be able to appreciate it.
Love it! You’re an awesome writer! Any trip to another city has always ended with me being evermore convinced that I love my ‘Peg.
Great post as always Ems! Thank you for putting into words what I have trouble identifying being back in Calgary. Yes, I miss Vancouver more than occasionally but you’re right, a city is what you make of it and perhaps I haven’t been giving Calgary a fair shot. I left because I couldn’t stand it anymore but I had none of those same reasons for leaving Vancouver – it was more of a logical move than an emotional move. That said, having two sets of Peanut’s grandparents in the same city and being able to afford the kind of life we’d like to provide for our child makes this the only city I could think about living in right now.
I agree with you 100%. Toronto and Vancouver are crazy expensive cities to live in. I lived in Montreal and Toronto for 10 years and came back to Winnipeg. I could have never afforded a house in Toronto and had no reason to stay there. Winnipeg is a great place – and I had to leave to truly appreciate it! Thanks for writing this.
Nicely done! My girlfriend (now wife) and I moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver in 1998 (I was attending school at Emily Carr). Upon graduation, we both ended up with ‘enviably good jobs’ but not the ‘really, really, really good jobs’ as described. We met a ton of amazing people, most of whom we still keep in touch with – thank you intertubes…
However, with the birth of our first daughter in 2002, the decision was made to move back to Winnipeg. Childcare costs, taking steps toward owning our own place and proximity to our families (read: support system) were all major factors in our decision.
We’ve now been back for 5 years, and while there is a lot we miss about Vancouver (mountains, architecture, food, diverse ethnicities) the reality is that we would be in a much less stable place than we are now in Winnipeg. Plus our girls have flourished under the watchful eyes of their doting grandparents.
These days we enjoy Vancouver in short, compressed doses, focusing on doing the stuff that we miss most – a nice way to recharge our batteries. And as our daughters grow out of babyhood, we’re making time to rediscover the city we left in 1998 and finding lots to like.
Cheers!
Really great post, Emma – I enjoyed reading this.
Nice post !! I agree with so much of what you wrote and the comments so far.
Cities, like anything else ARE what you make of them. Yes, we have the same problems – some better, some worse – than other cities, but none of them are unique to Winnipeg.
I’m not sure why the hate-on for Winnipeg. I think it has, unfortunately, become a part of being “cool” here (like smoking in the schoolyard used to be) so it gets inbred into people when they’re young. Most large cities have their unique type of “tortured urban intellectual” and ours appears to be the person that could do ‘so much more’ if the city they lived in didn’t suck. Problem is, as you point out, they never do leave which makes me wonder if the city has just become a crutch for people’s other problems.
Another key reason, I believe, is that we are an isolated city. We don’t have neighbouring cities of similar size that we visit regularly enough, or get news about everyday life enough, to compare ourselves to. When we DO visit places it’s often an all-inclusive resort in Mexico or we fly somewhere as a tourist so “what to do around town” is nicely packaged for us in glossy brochures. Then, people return, and see that life here isn’t like that, take it out on the city.
If people channeled even 25% of the time and energy spent complaining about things into being part of the solution you would have a very different city.
Funny, I just noticed that the “stain” to the right of this box is part of the screen image. I saw it and thought ‘now how the hell did I do THAT’ and was ready to get a cleaner
Awesome post! Really captures the essence of both cities well…
Another fab post. I too find the “I hate Winnipeg” venom mystifying. My passion for this city is one reason I started a forum about this city (winnipegsandbox.com).
I too lived away and returned. I spent 16 years living in Toronto returning in 2006. I grew to hate living there more and more every year. Mostly because the lifestyle was so amazingly hectic and getting worse.
I’ve also visited most every major city in Canada many times each. I enjoyed my visits. I saw what was great about them. I also saw their warts. Winnipeg is every bit as good and every bit as bad.
Keep up the fab writing.
cheers, gom
This is why I read your blog, to see my city through your eyes.
I’ve been everywhere in Canada and beyond, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else, warts and all Winnipeg is my home.
I am sending the link to this post to a few of my friends!!
In Winnipeg, hate is just a special kind of love.
I love the article, I have lived in Jasper,AB Edmonton,AB and Laramie,Wyoming, I keep coming back. Winnipeg is home and always will be.
Great post! Love the blog…
Beautiful post. Similar to your final paragraph I could not wait to leave this tiny little town of Winnipeg for the big city of Toronto (to go to OCAD). I figured I would never, ever be back except to maybe visit my parents. In 1989, pre-internet Winnipeg was much more cut-off and remote from pop-culture. Toronto was as exciting as one could expect and I loved it. In 1994 I ended up being lured back to Winnipeg by a girl I had met the previous summer when I was visiting. I had fully intended to go back to Toronto after a few months.
But then I discovered that I really LIKED it here! It shocked me, my parents and friends who had heard all of my ‘nowheresville’ rants. As I matured and eventually found the woman I would marry, buy a house with and have children with, moving back here was the most profound silly decision of my life.
I do still have moments and yearnings of big cities with loft apartments and walk-to cafes in every part of the city, but I have also discovered that one can afford to travel to different cities like these across the globe. Most of my friends back in Toronto who do not have the really, really, really good jobs rarely, if ever, travel. They either cannot afford to or have no interest to. But I think that because I live in a more remote, less expensive city, I get to see more of the world and expand my experiences. And then come back to my own home!
I think it’s so great that everyone has such nice things to say about living in Wpg, and I really do agree that it is exactly the right place for many people to “settle down” or just the right place for many people to call “home”.
But, I have to go against the grain and say in my experience of moving from Wpg to Vancouver and then back to Wpg for a couple of years to see if I could call it “home” again…and then back to Vancouver, Wpg just no longer feels right for me. I tried, but the Westcoast even with it’s outrageous cost of living is truly “home” to me now. I miss my family and I miss my cottage at Lake of the Woods, but I could never trade in my lifestyle out here and move back to Wpg permanently. That being said, we will likely move out of Vancouver and to a smaller (although still costly) city/town/island somewhere in BC when it’s time to really “settle down”.
@everyone – thanks so much for your kind feedback. I knew I wasn’t crazy, but am glad to have some affirmation!
In the end, I think feeling good about your “home” isn’t about a city, it’s about who you’re surrounded by and what your quality of life is like. Winnipeg may not be a particularly exciting or glamourous place to visit, but it’s a great place to live.
I lived in Winnipeg my whole life and just recently moved to Vancouver almost 2 years ago. Best decision Ive ever made.
I think your problem with your time in Vancouver was trying to keep up with the urban-hip trendy image since you say in Winnipeg you can just be yourself.
Today I saw 3 $150,000+++ Ferrari modenas but im not going to try and get a huge auto loan just to keep up with appearances. Whenever I go downtown, I laugh at all the trendy youngsters obsessed with shopping and gadgets. I cant count how many Lulu Lemon hoodies and sweats I see….its the downtown trendy consumer-whore lifestyle.
There are so many places to explore here also. Mountains and oceanside paths along in inlet sure beats Oak Hammock marsh and Birds Hill Park. Plus you can enjoy these amazing views all year round. Also, Geographically, Winnipeg is so isolated. The next city is Regina or Grand Forks, which are both pretty lame and far. Vancouver is only 3 hours away from Seattle and even just within BC many goreous cities/towns nesseled within the mountains….or even on Vancouver Island.
The ferry ride is pretty neat on its own!
The problem with Winnipeg is simply the weather. What can someone do in -30 weather? and we are not just talking about a few weeks here…winter lasts for MONTHS. Didnt it just snow there a few days ago?? and this is mid May!! Winnipeg is a hibernation city. Buy a house and build a wreckroom basement…then watch hockey all winter. Im able to ride my bike and go to the outdoor golf driving range in the winter here.
The main reason why people move back to Winnipeg is to be with family/friends because they were homesick…OR to be able to buy a house. Rightfully justified in my opinion, but for me Im still going to give it my best to stay and live in Vancouver. I find that its mostly the housing that is expensive.
we’ll…you get what you pay for:
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/106994/The-Worlds-Best-Places-to-Live-2009
@zwickster — Sounds like you’ve found a place that makes you really happy! I agree with all those qualities of Vancouver that you enjoy – I enjoyed them too. I was just remarking yesterday that I felt like taking a ferry ride. It *was* lovely to be able to zip over to Victoria or down to Seattle for a nice weekend trip – I won’t pretend I didn’t love that!
I don’t think, though, that my eventual problem with Vancouver was that I “was trying to keep up with the urban-hip image”. I would not and would never have been caught dead buying anything at Lululemon and certainly never aspired to any type of “trendy consumer-whore lifestyle”. It wasn’t trying and failing to be a part of that culture that got to me; the very existence of that culture was what I disliked.
I do agree that Winnipeg is a bit of a hibernation city – I’ve never heard it described that way, but I think it’s apt. But a lot of people don’t have a problem with that or let that stop them from spending time outdoors. I, myself, had a fantastic time at one of Canada’s best winter festivals (Festival du Voyageur) this past February, when temperatures definitely dipped lower than -30. But honestly, with the hustle and bustle of workaday life (not to mention making the most of Manitoba’s short but glorious summer), it’s kind of a treat to lay low and take it easy all winter.
All I know is my own perspective – thank you for sharing yours!
Whats wrong with lululemon ?
Prairie folk are such haters.
I love this post! I also grew up in Lethbridge (Good ole’ north side girl here). I moved to Winnipeg on a whim by choosing it out of the university acceptances I gathered in 1999. People are always asking me why I wouldn’t move back to Alberta after graduation. And all of those reasons (especially being able to own a home) are the same for me. Now I don’t ever want to leave!
@Zwikster:
You are a whiner through and through. All you do is complain about Winnipeg. You even go as far as to come onto a Winnipeg forum and continue compaining there. For someone who loves Vancouver, it seems as though you spend an awful lot of time on the internet complaining about Winnipeg. You like Vancouver? Awsome. Good for you. I hate the city. Vancouver is full of snobs who think that their excrement doesn’t stink, and you have turned into one of them. You need to get a life or a girlfriend and concentrate on spending time enjoying Vancouver instead of whining and complaning about Winnipeg.
I came across your blog completely at random and thank you for an interesting and engaging post. I’ll be honest, outside of a plane and bus stopover I have no experience with Winnipeg, though I might say I’m a lot more interested in finding out more. All I needed was a quick google around the place and I’ve found some things I’d love to check out (Winnipeg’s architecture for one looks very interesting).
It’s also interesting to see a review of Vancouver that takes account of its more superficial side. Ive been living here for some time now (across the street from the Lululemon office, which isn’t all that posh) and I’ve experienced many of the things you describe. I’m also glad that you still enjoy many things about the place. I’m always trying to find parts of Vancouver not yet discovered by the “plastic people” and luckily there are still some.
I’m sorry that Fiercep feels so negatively about us. I’m a pretty friendly person myself because I’ve always felt it’s the best way to approach life and people are a lot friendlier right back. I can’t speak for the people of Yaletown as it’s a far too plastic place for my likings, but I do enjoy spending my time in East Vancouver. Despite it’s reputation for crime and poverty (much exaggerated by the media, the whole place isn’t the Downtown Eastside), I’ve found people and neighbourhoods here that are very friendly and the people are no different than any other Canadians I have met.
Once, we’re through this ol’ recession I’m going to do a bit of travelling. Winnipeg is on my list and luckily for me I’ve got a bit of time to do some research. Good thing too, all the regional bickering that happens in this country actually inspires me to see what is making people think their stuff is so cool and it reminds me of how fascinating Canada was when I was a kid. Thanks for piquing my interest.
@Jamie
If you lived right by the lululemon headquarters, then laurel and I used to live close to you
We had a great apartment on Broadway at Glen for a year or two. I enjoyed my time in East Van quite a bit – morning walks to JJ Bean and Illuminaires at Trout Lake are some good memories. There were lots of great shops to poke around in on Commercial, and always interesting people to watch. You’re right – the Downtown Eastside isn’t the entire east side of Vancouver, and it’s too bad that people have the idea that it is.
I do hope you make it to Winnipeg sometime! The architecture is something to see, and there’s lots going on at any time of the year – that’s something we hope to showcase on the blog. If you do make it out here for a visit, be sure to get some recommendations from the locals on what to see and do, where to eat, etc., – I think those sorts of tips are so much more valuable than the usual tourbook suggestions.
I love what you said about thinking Canada was fascinating as a kid – we tend to lose that feeling as we get older, I think, but it truly is an enormously interesting country. Good for you for recognizing that fact!
I heard about your blog on CBC this morning and what a find! I grew up in Vancouver and moved to Winnipeg almost 2 years ago for a job, so I definitely see a lot of things from your outside-looking-in perspective. There are quite a few things that I just shake my head at (from a Vancouver perspective) that Winnipeggers seem to find the norm.
I don’t think I’ve made up my mind about about Winnipeg. It’s truly a love-it-or-hate-it type of place. I think it’s because this place is what you make of it. Some people choose to, some don’t or can’t. It’s nothing like Vancouver or Toronto where it’s easy to find something that a friends or a hobby, because chances are that whatever your interests are, there is a group of people that share it. In a town of almost 700,000, that is less likely.
Thus one is forced to search for it, and if it doesn’t exist, cultivate it, complain about it, just move away, or find completely new interests, which is far more interesting but a lot more work.
The one thing I dislike about this town is that it’s difficult for an outsider. In many ways, like you said, Winnipeg is a big small town with its own well established cliques. So it’s hard for an outsider to find their own place. People here have usually been here for a while, so they have their own well established group of friends who have known each other for a while too. I feel like a nomadic army brat in high school.
However, one of the things I do like about Winnipeg is that it always surprises me. One surprising thing is the diversity in food (surprising for a town this size) rivalling even Vancouver. I have had some of the best meals ever in Winnipeg. The Indian food is tough to beat. Steak houses are superb. Find dining establishments are on par with Vancouver.
Winnipeg is really a love-it-hate-it type of town.
I’m so glad I foudn this blog!
Very well written post. Tho I would disagree about cost of living. For housing Wpg is a good deal. Food, gas, and other costs are similar to other parts of Canada. Maybe heating your house all winter long makes the costs more expensive? I think I have said that before.
As someone who grew up in Vancouver, I moved away believing the myth of Vancouver lifestyle. But sadly, it is not true in that there are lots of people chasing trends. I will go back often to Vancouver to visit friends and family but if I did not have people to see, I may go back less and less. Once I came back I was shocked by the contrast of rich and poor. In Winnipeg, with smaller population, there is still “rich” and “poor” but you don’t see the huge contrast. That may be a function of smaller population.
Hmm…I loved the “hibernation city” one of your commenters used. It is true but there were many beautiful wintry nights where you could take a quick walk around the block and see sparkly snow. I learned to love winter after my Winnipeg stint which carries over here. I always say I’d rather warm up than have to deal with humidity and try to keep cool.
All in all I miss Vancouver’s incredible early spring (the flowers, cycling, walking outside) and I am used to rest of Canada weather now.
PS I especially liked what you said (or someone else) that people should move away from where you grew up to gain some perspective. I know lots of friends in Vancouver who believe the myth and don’t see how high priced and increasingly un-livable it is.
Great post!
I was born in Halifax, grew up in Winnipeg, went to college in Thunder Bay, Ontario, took my first job in Portage la Prairie, moved to Halifax for six years, back to Winnipeg for two, then to Vancouver for 10, then Ghana, West Africa for a year and now I live in a small town of 10,000 in the highlands of western Guatemala. Phew!
Each place was great while I lived there — but after a decade in Vancouver I too grew tired of the costs, the commercialism and especially the lack of soul. It’s a great place to visit, but I don’t think I’ll hang my hat there again. I would move back to Halifax in a flash. It has everything: soul, culture, a decent winter (although spring sucks) and great people.
Every time I go back east it’s like I never left. Although that is true with Winnipeg as well.
Home is where the heart is…
Born and raised, I might leave but I KNOW I will come back! This is my home and I LOVE it! Take pride Winnipeg!
OK,does anybody have an idea about Total Cost of Ownership term? Why on Earth people stupidly look at the prices only?
Take an excel spreadsheet and put together life Vancouver VS life in Winnipeg considering all hidden costs.
Example:
-Average house in Winnipeg is about $275 000 for a small family unless you are ready to buy old crap.BUT
-Plus property tax ( 3 times more expenseive than Vancouver). Take into consideration average property tax for this kind of house is $3000 a year, Vancouver is $1800.So withing 20 years, you’ve paid out
ave of $90 000 only for owning the property
, whereas in Vancouver you pay more of your money towards your ownership of property that is reinvestable
-Plus heating-you pay up to $200 per mont hduring the winter season…which is almost half year.
-Snow shoveling/removal.
-Plus , really you HAVE to buy a house, as you do not have any other options: no good condos that would be less than 35 yeares old, or no good townhouses to choose from.
-Plus winter clothing, that you don’t need to own in Vancouver, another $1000 a year at least per family.
-Plus gas costs to heat up your car all the time.
-Winter tires
-Again, you HAVE ot have a vehicle, otherwise you will not be able to move around, especially in winter…Vancouver? Easy (speaking of going green)So put together car loans and depreciation costs, gas and insurance with total spend up untill $2500 a year, that you just might not need in Vancouver AT ALL.
-Travelling:everywhere is expensive from WInnipeg, as it’s in the middle of nowhere. Vancouver? Why would you ever travel…all right, drive down 10 hours and you will get to beautiful California not beautiful Minneapolis with snow up to the 3rd floor. So put that together and you wil figure that you HAVE to pay average of $2500 for travel expenses per year for 2 people if you like to travel.
-BC:Higher wage rates in general and more areas for professional growth IF you own large variety of skills.
Reasons I’m typing that: I am a professional economist working in teh industry where if you don’t put all of possible costs of the business deal together before you agree to the contract, you loose big time.In business we all know that cheaper price is 20% to 50% of your consideration when you review the business offer.Then you add up to see the real price that you will have to pay.
I really wish people would always see hiden costs in everything and they could make better and smarter decisions.
I immigrated to Manitoba 4 years ago because it was fast, easy and it was good starting point for an immigrant, as honestly guys, it’s so easy to compete with Winnipeggers as they’re SO LAZY.
Got Canadian education and experience (easy, as I could find a job even without experience, as there is not enough competition and skilled labour), well now thank you very much I had enough of that….
bye-bye Winterpeg with constantly complaining and stressed out people who never had any real issues in life,
-cheap and lazy lifestyle where everybody only eat at somebody else’s house as there is not much to do,
-line ups to Tim Hortins in -40 in old rusty trucks
-gossiping at work about everybody as this helps you to feel your life less meaningless and boring…
-did I forget about winter, when you try to clean up your car in -40 when it’s dark and windy outside???
I can only say that I can see that this city is for very lazy, unskilled people who doesn’t want to do anything , talk useless things and looking for new reasons to somplain all day instead of working, not to try to get more education and to sit in house all the time watching TV going out only for more food and more movies… Enjoy your life.
…moving to Surrey , BC within couple of months.
) and YESSSSSS planning to buy a nice 10 year old condo, which could only be my dream in Winnipeg and I hate houses..
Job-same, but salary is 18% higher for the start comparative to what I had after all of the increases here for last 3 years
I am originally from Surrey which is about a half an hour away from Vancouver. I loved the city a lot, but now we live in Winnipeg. At first my sister and I resented my parents. But after a while we started to really like Winnipeg, I mean it will never be like living in one of the most beautiful provinces on earth, but it has its good points. I still though miss Surrey a alot, but if you have a choice, come to Winnipeg, its very artistic and beautiful, in a small town kind of way.
Later.
I am moving back to Winnipeg from Vancouver for nostalgic reasons. Winnipeg is just the city you feel you can make a difference in, you can own it, and have a say in it’s direction!
I have been reading your blog avidly over the last few weeks. I am an international student currently in Abbotsford, over in the lower mainland, studying at a local university.
My girlfriend, a local BC’er, can’t seem to understand my obsession with moving to Winnipeg after graduating. It was great to find a voice, one of the few, that seems to reassure my imminent decision. Thanks for that. : )
I loved reading all these blogs and find it quite apropos. I’m in my early 50′s, born and raised in the ‘Peg and have been working as a teacher for well over 25 years. I am now contemplating retirement in the next few years, and am considering the move out west, esp. after a recent short visit to Vancouver, which blew me away.
I’m pretty much a homebody in Winnipeg (hibernating remember?) and after working with kids day in and day out, I usually take refuge in my small but well appointed bungalow with a finished basement in River Heights. In summers, I love to garden and take pride in my yard, but wonder if “maintaining” a house is what I really want to do in my golden years.
I had realized how liberating it felt while visiting Vancouver. I enjoyed the diversity of peoples, great restaurants, transportation and everyone seemed to have a purpose for being downtown. It’s so cosmopolitan. In Wpg., I NEVER go downtown, unless to the odd concert at MTS Center. For the Forks, I’ve “been there and done that”. I don’t care for the Folkfest or Folklarama and will occasionally do a Fringe Show. One always needs a car to get around in Wpg., while I would be ready to do without it in Vancouver.
Over the next several years, I’ll be doing my “homework”, so to speak, regarding my future. I don’t plan to buy anything out west due to outrageous prices, but I’m pretty sure that with my pension and other investments, I should be able to afford a decent rental, like a townhouse. BTW, I have a partner 10 years my junior who’s also willing to move if and when it’s time (he dabbles in the film industry), we have no kids but a young pooch; we have some family in Wpg. that we don’t really see all that often (too busy, I guess), plus a few close friends. So, nothing is really begging us to stay. They’re always a phone call away – no matter where we would be living.
I’m feeling that perhaps, with the new locale in Vancouver, as well as the more moderate weather and the beauty of the mountains, I might find some new meaning in my retirement years, albeit the higher cost of living. The winters in Wpg. are long and cold, but I do agree people are indeed friendly and it’s a great place to raise a family. It’s true, no matter where one lives, it’s what you make of it.
To stay put, or to stake my sorry cold butt out west when I retire?? Time will tell. Thanks for your input.
PS. The only one thing that might keep me from moving away is Sylvia Kuzyk, although I don’t always like what she has to share about the weather.
@Clemire,
I think a lot of people move west for the climate, and I don’t blame them! Today is one of the first really snowy days of winter, and I feel a certain pang for the mild West Coast weather I got used to. Only you can say for sure whether staying in Winnipeg is right for you, but sounds like you’ve got the time and energy to wait for a bit before deciding. Why not have the best of both worlds? When the time is right, keep and rent out your bungalow here and rent something on the coast and see how you like it for a year. Rent *is* high on the coast — especially if you want to live in Vancouver in a location that’s close to good transit and close to the ocean (which makes it easy to not have a car, and to enjoy the gorgeous environment at a moment’s notice). But it is doable and I certainly felt it was worth it the years that I lived there. I hope that you find a place to retire to that makes your heart happy!
Hey Emma,
Not sure if you remember me…when you and your pals started up WOMH in 2009, I contacted you to let you know that I too had a blog about lovin’ Winnipeg (olivebits.blogspot.com) and that I would have been happy to guest-blog the “mature” (read 40-year old) perspective. In my blog, I wrote many love letters to my new city…I grew up in Vancouver and didn’t know a thing about Peggy! Though you think you may have had a different opinion re Vancouver (the snobbery and dogs wearing pants)if you had grown up there, that likely wouldn’t have been the case. I watched it morph from a laid-back, friendly, outdoorsy city to the same suffocating, self-involved, dog-as-accessory city that you described. We had two young kids and weren’t prepared to drop $750,000 to upgrade our 2-bedroom 700 sf house to a 3-bedroom house. So we looked at all the housing prices across the country and packed ‘er up. We now own a beautiful heritage home AND a cabin. We don’t camp overnight (or even an hour) to register the kids in any activity. Those Mountains? Lovely. The ocean? Nice. But I can relax at my cabin and watch the waves of Lake Winnipeg crash as loudly as any ocean waves. You have a good thing here, fair Winnipeggers. I think the tides are turning in your favour…
[...] had gone to law school in Winnipeg back in the day. And so when it became known that I was leaving the Best Place on Earth for Winnipeg, they all wished me well and offered me words of wisdom. As I’m sure you know, when people [...]
Amazing story… I live in Winnipeg. Almost everyday I read or hear about how bad Winnipeg is and it completely annoys me. It’s just a place. Of course it’s not going to be perfect because no one can hold and empty soda can or cigarette butt until they can find a nearby trash can. It’s just how people are. When I went to British Columbia, not everyone was so nice or “perfect” there like I’ve been told they would have been. In fact, they’ve seem to be more rude and act as if they were royal or something. And to be honest, I’ve always wanted to move to Vancouver. Not that I’m saying it’s a bad city (like they do about Winnipeg)… Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.