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I was recently in Calgary. I found the people there friendly, polite and nice just like all the Canadian stereotypes suggest. I would love to live up in Canada,

• cmrdporcupine 11y ago
  Southern Ontario where the bulk of the Canadian population lives has basically the same climate as Chicago or Detroit. It is cold in the winter and blistering hot in the summer with a 170-ish day growing season. If you don't consider those places to be brutally cold you wouldn't consider it that way here. In fact the areas on the north shore of Lake Ontario have a milder climate (due to lake effect) than those of upstate NY to the south of us. I grew up in Alberta. It is cold and dry and has a short summer. I prefer the weather here even if the summers can be a bit too humid and hot for me.
  • rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
    Upstate NY here, and we get the worst weather in the US from Canadian winds and lake effect snow. For half the year it's always windy, always cold, always snowy, and always so, so gray. But aside from that it's a great place to live. Land is cheap, you can get good local food anywhere, and we're safe from nearly every natural disaster you can think of. Just bring a jacket.
    • cmrdporcupine 11y ago
      Seems like many Americans near the border have this perception as Canada being the 'source' of their cold weather. In reality the bulk of the nastiest storms here in Ontario come over the lakes from northern Michigan, which is, yes, north of us. Look on a map, most of the heavily populated areas of Canada are as far south as northern California. The parts that are north of the 49th are much less populated. Yes, periodically there is a nasty cold front coming down from Hudson's bay, but the prevailing winds and weather patterns are west to east. So most of our weather blows over from the midwest U.S. The really nasty awful cold weather last year for example, hit the U.S. midwest harder and nastier first.
      • mdm_ 11y ago
        I see elsewhere in this thread you mention you live near Hamilton. Well, I work in Hamilton and commute from Niagara, and that puts you and I south of the following: Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Maine, 2/3rds of Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Vermont, and New Hampshire, 1/2 of Wyoming, Michigan, and New York.
      • olentangy 11y ago
        Here in Ohio we so look forward to what we call Alberta Clippers. Quick little snow storms followed by colder air. So, yup, we tend to refer to snow and cold as coming from Canada.
• bryanlarsen 11y ago
  If the weather's too cold, just put on better clothing and suddenly it's comfortable again. Unlike Houston, where it's crazy hot and humid all the time, and there's nothing you can do about it except for hide inside in the air conditioning. No, the problem with Canada recently has been that it's been too warm. It's hard to really appreciate winter if it's too warm to go skiing or skating. We got close to an inch of rain on Sunday here in Ottawa that really messed up our snow. :( I'll take the weather in pretty much anywhere in Canada over the weather in Houston any day. I will complain about the lack of sunshine in the wintertime here, though. That's just depressing.
  • goldmouth 11y ago
    Really, any day? It's 65 and sunny in Houston today, it's 16 and snowing in Ottawa.
    • bryanlarsen 11y ago
      Yes, my daughter and I are going skating tomorrow.
    • SixSigma 11y ago
      It's 12F (-11C) and snowing here in North Finland but the children are still in the playground at school.
• rgoldade 11y ago
  The West Coast (Vancouver, Victoria, etc.) rarely falls below zero degrees Celsius. Southern Ontario gets cold but it doesn't generally get Alberta-level cold. To be honest, I would rather live in Toronto than Houston.
• Frostbeard 11y ago
  As far as Canada goes, the winters in Calgary are pretty nice. I've lived in the Yukon, Nova Scotia and I grew up in the lower mainland of BC, but I'm in Calgary now and have been for a couple of years. Definitely prefer it here. There's little snow, and we get tons of sunshine. When it does get cold, it's dry, so it doesn't feel as bad as a warmer temp on the coasts. You get reprieves in the form of chinooks too, where the temperature will jump up 20 degrees for a week or two. It's above freezing here today, but it was at -20C on Friday. There is a tech scene here as well, and it's starting to get a bit more traction now that oil and gas aren't eating up all the brain power. Getty Images has offices here, and there are start-ups in and out of the energy industry. It'll be interesting to see what the city looks like in 10 years. Lots of folks are calling for it to be the next Detroit, but it doesn't really seem to be going that way.
• terrywilcox 11y ago
  It's actually been a pretty mild winter here so far. I can't remember any really cold days.
• patmcc 11y ago
  The west coast isn't cold - Victora has a growing tech scene, and Vancouver always has jobs (not a lot of money, but lots of jobs).