Originally Posted by
Linebacker35
Good choice of City my friend. Calgary is the best city in Canada, it and the rest of Alberta is swiming in money. No debt, no tax, and they have so much money they give us all $400 a year for no good reason. I think they said Calgary's economy is the fastest growing economy(%wise) after China. It should be a fairly nice transition for yourself, lots of Americans living in calgary(largest American population in Canada), alberta is more like the States than it is like the rest of Canada.
As for flying... AC Jazz, Central Mountain air, and westjet have calgary bases. Air Canada does not, but there is a huge number of AC pilots who live in Calgary that commute to Vancouver, toronto and winnipeg. Tons of flights between those cities, but there are also lots of employees doin the same thing.
Linebacker, are you kidding me? Calgary is (very) hot right now. Yes, they have the right idea with no icome/sales tax. However, after the oil is gone, what are you left with? An overpopulated, underdeveloped city with hella cold weather, flat prairies and a ****ty hockey team. Thats Calgary. Face it, we have the island, Van city and the best lake in the world. People from Alberta just have gotten lucky recently with their oil, but the first thing they do is get out and move to BC. But, worst of all, it's that 'we're better than you' attitiude that you guys have. I'm with bus_canuck on this one, Beautiful British Columbia beats "Wild Rose Country" every time.
Also, there is no way Calgary has the largest American population in Canada. Per capita, I garentee its Victoria, followed by Vancouver. In Victoria, every second car in from WA or OR, and no, they're not all just visitors.
vagabond - You ask about YYJ? Having been born and raised there, and having been to most other Canadian cites (YVR, YYC, YWG, YYZ, YOW, YUL, YHZ) I can tell you that Victoria is best, bar none. Victoria has the best weather in Canada, with far less rain compared to Vancouver. We are close to quality surf (Sombrio), a great ski mountain (mt. washington) and we have world class sailing right in town. Victoria is small enough for virtually no traffic, yet big enough for all the major stores and corporations (read: amenities) to open up here. There are tons of pilots here who commute to both YVR (on Jazz) for AC and SEA (on QX). I know one from UAL who is based in SEA, and at least 3 that fly for AS.
GBU - the general rule of thumb for Canada is, the farther west you go, the more American-ized, and the less Ottawa/Toronto center-of-the-universe B.S. and French you get.
Speaking French for AC is in no way a requirement, but it cant hurt. Hell, I know more Spanish than French.
1S 1E - the "dreary winters" in YVR are no different than SEA's. But yeah, I'd rather be in SNA or FLL for the winter.
On a completely unrelated note, Montreal is a pretty cool city (went to visit McGill a few months ago), at least the english speaking parts are.