<p>San Francisco/The Bay Area is nice. I'd rather live there than in New York City.</p>
<p>The SF metro area is probably one of the best in this country and definitely on the West Coast. Most of the areas are incredibly wealthy, i.e North Bay/Marin, South Bay, East Bay can be a bit sketchy but even areas like Pleasant Hill and Concord are very nice.</p>
<p>*My SIL is Canadian (well, American, by now). When we attended their wedding in Toronto, I couldn't believe how paranoid some of the attendees were about the US. I'm sure alot of it was the much stronger alcohol talking.</p>
<p>I had to inform them that no, in fact, most Americans rarely even think about Canada (unless you live in a border region like we do) and are not constantly formulating our national policies based on how to make them miserable (ICBM's, beef trade, environmental issues). And no, we are not planning an invasion (though I seriously think it might be an idea to consider, I'm pretty sure the Minnesota National Guard could take them-jk). I think they assume since they get so much news out of the US up there that we get tons of Canadian news down here which is not true.</p>
<p>Seriously though on the issue of a hostile takeover, the US would probably invade Mexico first since they have Cancun and resort areas and all of the great archealogical sites and a lot of great UFO sightings. (Ever notice how you don't hear about Loch Ness or UFO sightings in the Northwest Territories?)</p>
<p>The things I don't like about the Canadians are state controlled television (i get CBET as a local channel) and they way they are constantly trying to put a national spin on everything. Turns out not everything is an agenda, sometimes people just do their own thing. Canadians seem to spend alot of time nationally reassuring themselves that their system works. We are addicted to Sunday broadcasts of curling during the winter and I like watching their Olympic broadcast coverage of events such as track where the broadcasters are constantly saying "well, at least they did their personal best" after they can't get out of the second heat of the competition. I also don't like converting to Celsius.</p>
<p>If I had to move to Canada I would go to PEI or Nova Scotia. Although Toronto is one of the cleanest cities I have ever been to (with some of the craziest drivers to boot.)</p>
<p>I have opinions about California but none are based on actually living or traveling there. They are based on having two brothers who have lived there and meeting people from there. None of my opinions are positive outside of Travel Channel reasons so I will keep them to myself until I get more first hand knowledge.*</p>
<p>Actually the US would probably invade Canada for its natural resources. They can't make much money off of Mexico. But I've never met anyone paranoid about a take over... maybe you just hang out with retards and/or potheads. And we actually all know that you don't get any news about Canada. We're aware that we're not ever in the global spotlight.</p>
<p>Oh and metric ftw. I couldn't imagine going through school on that impractical imperial system.</p>
<p>I'm probably reiterating what all the SoCal residents said, but here it goes:</p>
<p>As far as tolerance goes, it depends where you are. San Fransisco is probably way more tolerant than a smaller city like San Diego; however, San Diego would be considered extremely liberal in comparison to a conservative city in a southern state. Gays are welcome, and scenesters, metal heads, and pseudo-hippies abound. Nevertheless, there will always be that rift between the "normal" and the...."different."</p>
<p>Education varies. Beaches are awesome.</p>
<p>As far as diversity goes, the Asian and Mexican population in San Diego (and probably throughout SoCal) sometimes seems to surpass that of the white population.</p>
<p>Canada-overhyped
Other than the great healthcare, it's not the greatest place to live. The education system is not too great, terrible shopping/nightlife etc. And my god, the gas prices these days.</p>
<p>The education system differs by province. Alberta and BC have good education systems. Ontario has a decent one. The rest of them aren't anything special, but still better than most countries. I'm mostly basing that on performance by students on international standardized tests.</p>
<p>Gas prices are high everywhere and are twice as high in Europe. The night life obviously differs by city.</p>
<p>And our healthcare sucks, actually. It's paid for by taxes and everyone gets "free" healthcare, but appointments with specialists take months, sometimes over a year.</p>
<p>Overall Canada's biggest flaw is probably its weather. I'm moving when I'm done school.</p>
<p>Nono, as far as I saw when I visited US, Canadians are waaaaaaaayyyyyyy more polite than Americans. I'm sorry. But it's true. And politics isn't as vigorous as US in Canada, either, I bet half the people in Canada won't even know it's election time when it comes. Healthcare is amazing! And gas prices are high everywhere, not just Canada, I mean, come ON! I do agree about shopping though. US is better for shopping... and not as much taxes in US... Education system is great though, but it's more or less easy to be accepted into a top notch university in Canada... all you need is like 85 avg in 6 grade 12 courses that you score highest in. But getting 85 is still hard, probably harder than 95 in US, it's just a different grading system. There's pros and cons, but as far as politeness goes, I don't think it's hyped, I think it's genuine.</p>
<p>What are you guys talking about that the shopping sucks so bad where you guys are? In Edmonton we have everything.</p>
<p>Haha, yes, I'm sure you have everything in Edmonton. I live in a little unknown town in Ontario. :)</p>
<p>lol, I'm sure that the shopping sucks in hickville, Tennessee, too. Or in any small town in the world.</p>
<p>There's supposed to be ROLLERCOASTERS in that mall in Edmonton, for heaven's sake... But I don't even like shopping in Toronto. Toronto's yucky and unclean.</p>
<p>Rollercoasters... water park... bunch of stuff. It's a good mall. I haven't been to another mall that even compares. Never been to mall of america, though.</p>
<p>But even without the mall... there's stores around the city with everything.</p>
<p>I'll just put it this way if that's OK. US has better shopping than Canada unless you live in Edmonton. Edmonton is the best city ever for shopping, hands down :D</p>
<p>I imagine that New York probably have the best shopping in the world. They probably don't have a huge mall, but just randoms stores everywhere. Same with LA. I'm going to Phoenix in a few weeks so I'll be able to compare it to other cities like calgary and whatnot.</p>
<p>But all in all, Canada's awesome. It's a good country to be attached to. And it's pretty.</p>
<p>with the 49% tax on the wealthy, forget about it.</p>
<p>What?? Max income tax in Canada is like 35%!!</p>
<p>lol. I don't know why so many Americans think that our taxes are so high. It's less than 40 for the top bracket. 35 seems about right.</p>
<p>im pretty sure it's in the 40%'s. Why do you think we've got free highways, healthcare and education?</p>
<p>Are you kidding? We barely have anything, and what we do have is riddiculously overmarked.</p>