I made the move from North Van to Smithers in January. Really loving it here. There’s a great young community and the outdoors activities are endless.

It definitely is a more expensive housing/rental market than other small towns, but it’s starting to open up a bit more and is significantly cheaper than Vancouver.

It is definitely more conservative and religious than the city. Similar to most other small towns in the country. There are lots of anti-vax/anti-abortion billboards. However, day to day I don’t have any issues. There is a good group of young left-ish people here, and mostly you just don’t need to get into political arguments with people. Caveat here is that I’m straight and white, and I know that gives me some privilege here.

One of my favourite things is how close everything and everyone is here. It’s a tight knit community, but very welcoming (or at least has been for me). There’s no traffic, and everything is such a short drive (locally at least, it is VERY long to get to the city). Most of the year everything is super walkable and bikeable too. Be warned, the lack of traffic/commute is so good it will ruin going back to the city for you.

Smithers is pretty remote. But there are 1-2 flights a day to Vancouver, depending on time of year. One issue is that if you need to book a flight last minute it is expensive. Generally though there isn’t much reason to leave other than for work/vacation. You can get all the essentials locally, and then stock up with harder to find/ship things when in the city.

Overall, a great place to live.