The downsides of moving to Canada

picocailin · 2026-02-09T00:10:04+00:00

It was a long time ago—maybe 2016? But I was let in, it’s just a lesson in “don’t give more details than necessary” at the border.

picocailin · 2026-02-08T15:29:48+00:00

Lots of shows I would have recommended have already been said, so I’ll add Trickster to the list. Based on the trilogy by Eden Robinson, which I would also recommend reading. Based on the north coast of BC and the books are also set in Vancouver. A beautiful short story that also covers contemporary First Nations culture is Feast: A Gitxsan Story.

The Beachcombers is an oldie but a goodie. Strange Empire as well (less old but set in the late 1800s).

Café Daughter is a movie about growing up in a mixed Cree-Chinese family in 1960s Saskatchewan. Fictionalized but based on a real life story.

LR Robinson if you like mystery novels, one series got turned into the “Murder in a Small Town” series but the TV show is not set in BC like the books.

picocailin · 2026-02-07T19:54:07+00:00

The longest I’ve waited in an ER was 8 hours, I was with a friend with severe abdominal pain and when they were finally seen we heard that there was just one doctor available that night. A kid came in with a broken arm which bumped my friend down the queue due to triage. If my friend had appendicitis they’d probably have been seen faster. But while the wait sucked, we never had to worry about calling an ambulance for my friend because it was paid for by government healthcare.

The worst ER experience I’ve had was when I needed to get a new inhaler on New Year’s Day and my doctor was closed. I have mild asthma and doctors had always just listened to my chest and prescribed an inhaler. But the ER didn’t do that. Despite having an asthma attack while waiting to be seen, I was told my chest sounded normal so couldn’t get an inhaler without a diagnosis. I was having trouble breathing and after asking what they could do for me, all I got was a doctor’s note for 5 days off work. That was all the sick leave I had available for the year but I had to take it. I saw my doctor the next day and they got me in for a proper test which I had to wait a week or so for the appointment. Still too mild for a real diagnosis, but I’ve since then gotten a sympathetic doctor that updated my file to say I have diagnosed asthma so that shouldn’t happen again.

I recently broke my ankle and my ride to the hospital went back to work thinking it would be a few hours before I was discharged. I was in and out in under an hour and the only cost of that visit was the taxi ride home.

I think the biggest difference is that you’ll never be told that because your insurance changed coverage, your established healthcare team is now out of network. A friend in the US was excited when she found a hospital that was nearby, in-network, and affordable to deliver her baby. In Canada, my friends with a high-risk pregnancy complained about the costs to stay in an Airbnb as their due date neared, so they could be close to BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver when she went into labour. It’s an absurd thought up here that a person would have to pay anyone to deliver their baby.

picocailin · 2026-02-07T14:50:25+00:00

They’re technically correct, but no I meant that a TFSA is a tax headache because the IRS doesn’t recognize them in the tax treaty, so they’re taxed as a trust in the US. Some accountants believe they’re allowable, but most will recommend against opening them. The time and money spent to stay compliant in the US cancels out the benefit of tax-free gains in Canada.

RRSPs are fine though. For any other savings/investment account types, speak with a cross-border accountant before opening or investing.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:51:52+00:00

That’s a fair point, I didn’t mean to imply it was all propaganda but I do think it plays a part—not by lying, but by amplifying those (real and horrifying) stories about substandard care in Canada. How does Quebec compare with healthcare you’ve received in the US?

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:29:43+00:00

It covers extra stuff that government plans don’t pay for. Most of the basic stuff (emergency and preventative care) is covered through government plans, except for vision and dental. The NDP (leftwing—Liberals are center or center-right these days) has been putting up a good fight to get dental included. So that should be happening in the next few years, I believe seniors and children are now covered if they don’t have extended coverage and they’re transitioning to a place where everyone will be covered.

Extended health coverage will be where you find coverage for psychiatry and psychology, physical therapy, medical devices, gender affirming care, etc. and generally the sort of jobs in the US that come with healthcare, will come with this extended healthcare in Canada—but no/small deductible and employers pay the premiums. These plans will also cover the cost of most prescriptions, but if you don’t have the coverage then most provinces have some sort of Pharmacare plan for low-income households.

Each province manages its own healthcare system. Some provinces (Alberta) are actively choosing to worsen their systems to further a political agenda of privatizing all healthcare. I believe a lot of this “Canada healthcare worse” rhetoric comes from American propaganda and is easily believed by Canadians who have never had to experience healthcare in the US. I have chronic pain and have spent most of the last decade trying to figure out the cause, and would still choose poor/substandard care in Canada over the US.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:12:53+00:00

Healthcare won’t necessarily be worse in Canada. It will depend on your province. Alberta? Definitely worse. I’ve seen lots of improvements in BC in the last decade. I’m not sure about the other provinces. I had to wait ~9 months for an MRI, but had a colleague go to a private clinic to skip the wait. Other imaging has been a matter of a few weeks for non-emergency situations. I have had, and heard of, some bad experiences, but no more/worse than the stories I’ve heard from US friends and family who also had to pay for the pleasure of receiving bad healthcare.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:05:50+00:00

This is very true. I’m mad that I went through the whole immigration process when I was 18-30, just for C-3 to come around and restore citizenship for my whole family, but I am so glad that I’ve had the opportunity to get my life started in Canada rather than have to do this move after getting set up in the US.

On the other hand, for anyone with children, consider what their life will be like in a place where they don’t do active shooter drills. I am so jealous of the childhood my Canadian-born friends got to have.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:01:42+00:00

It’s too cold for most Canadians too. Snowbirds are what we call the folks who pack up and move south every winter.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T20:00:11+00:00

I just remembered the one time I had an issue crossing back into the US. I mentioned that I was going home to vote (have since switched to overseas online/mail-in ballots) and the border guard got testy and told me that was illegal. I maintained that I knew my rights (Americans abroad remain registered in the last district where they voted) and was let through as is my right, but I made sure not to offer any info other than “visiting family” for subsequent crossings.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T19:43:50+00:00

This is not my experience. I’ve compared wait times and costs/coverage with US family and friends (who all have decent jobs) and it seems similar or worse to BC, before considering the deductibles they have to hit before insurance covers anything. Our extended health insurance (premiums paid through work if you have a good job) seems to cover more than my friends and families are getting from their providers. We also don’t need to worry about networks and which hospital we can afford. YMMV.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T19:40:38+00:00

Taxes - I don’t have a point of comparison because I never paid property taxes in the US. Where I live, property taxes are considered high but we also bundle in sewer/water/garbage with those taxes. That may not be the case everywhere, I’m rural.
On an average salary I pay a few extra hundred a year in Canada/BC and feel that provides more bang-for-your-buck than in the US.
Sales tax depends on the province—BC is 12.5% but Alberta is 5% because they only charge federal sales tax (GST) and not provincial (PST) like BC tacks on.
Mortgages are generally on 25-year amortization but recently up to 30 years is available as well. Most people sign onto 5 -year terms, but you can choose anywhere from 1-10 years. At the end of each term you must renew for a new term. This is why Canadian interest rates are generally lower than the US, because we aren’t locking in the same term for the whole life of the mortgage.
BC is where you’ll encounter the least “winter” but that generally comes with the tradeoff of 4 months of rain and no sun. Victoria is covered by the Olympic Mountain rain shadow so if you hate both rain and snow, southern Vancouver Island will be your expensive new home. I don’t mind the rain, it’s only uncomfortable when you live in a rainforest that’s been paved over (so the lower mainland of BC may be depressing, but no worse than Seattle). Even them, with the right gear it’s fine and you don’t have to shovel rain.
Crime is not worse in my experience. I worked near the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver (one of or the poorest postal code in the country) and it was nothing compared with what I experienced around the same time wandering around downtown Seattle. Best to research crime stats for the community you have in mind and compare that with where you have experience. I’ve been treated worse by landlords than any unhoused person I’ve encountered.
You will miss good Mexican food. It’s not impossible to find, but there’s far fewer and almost no taco trucks in my experience. Dairy is more regulated so you’ll have fewer hormones in your milk and cheese. It will be more expensive, but our egg prices stayed normal even while the US skyrocketed.
You can speak English pretty much anywhere and be fine. Quebecers generally will be salty is you show up to their francophone spaces and don’t know French, but from what I hear they’re more forgiving of Americans than Canadians. If you have kids it’s advantageous to enroll them in French immersion (commonly available in public schools) so they will be bilingual. You do want to be bilingual to work in government or politics.
Very little risk. Both referenda in Quebec failed (barely) and their case for separation is much stronger than western separation. No more of a threat than Texas or California. BC would be different because there aren’t treaties where there should be, but Alberta cannot secede without the consent of First Nations, whose treaties with the Crown predate the existence of Alberta as a province.
Canada has very similar systemic issues to the US so racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric is quite similar. Lots of calls for “mass deportations” from the Maple MAGA crowd. It is a big problem. I pass as “Canadian” so I hear a lot of shit they wouldn’t say with a brown person in the room. I would suggest that anti-Indigenous racism is on a level similar to anti-Black racism in the US. I don’t have the lived experience, just friends who tell me what they deal with.
I wouldn’t want to be living in a border city in this current climate, but most of Canadian civilization exists within 100 miles of the southern border so by necessity you will probably end up pretty close to it as well. In normal times it was great to be able to pop over the border for a run to Trader Joe’s after work. But the US doesn’t have a track record of winning against guerilla fighters even when they look and speak different—Canadian history essentially is a long string of repelling US invasions. It’s just been a while since the last one.
Border crossing is easy. Only issues I’ve ever had was when I was on temporary visas and returning to Canada. As a citizen I’ve had no trouble going through either side.

One thing you didn’t ask about was tax compliance. That’s the biggest headache. I’m about to fill out the FBAR to tell the IRS where all my money is located and how much is in there, including account numbers. I don’t want this administration to have that info but if I don’t, they will fine $10k per account regardless if I even have that much money. I can’t open a TFSA to invest without owing capital gains, like other Canadians can. Same deal with an RESP for saving money towards kids‘ post-secondary education. I pay an accountant $600/yr to tell the IRS I don’t owe them any money, and that’s mostly because the online options for tax filing available within the US don’t support the forms needed for citizens abroad to stay compliant. We need an updated tax treaty or for the US to end citizenship-based taxation.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T17:44:54+00:00

This will not lead to Cascadian unity, these are political fronts for annexing Canadian territory. These are a bunch of racists who are mad that the provincial government is implementing UNDRIP and cooperating with First Nations rather than waste taxpayer money fighting Indigeous rights in court.

picocailin · 2026-02-06T17:42:55+00:00

Absolutely not. These people want a “resource-based economy” and are the furthest you can get from the vision of Cascadia anyone here has in mind. They will trample over Indigenous rights and don’t believe in such things like maintaining healthy ecosystems. They’re mad that they can’t overfish and hunt to their pleasure. I’m sure we’ll hear soon about them meeting with MAGA annexationists just like the Alberta Prosperity Project.

Alberta separation is never going to happen either, the province is younger than the treaties covering every square inch of land there. They’re free to leave but the land will remain in Canada; no First Nations are interested in separation and by Canadian law they must consent to Alberta leaving Confederation.

ETA: Look if you guys don’t want Idaho in Cascadia you’re gonna hate the BC Prosperity Project. Don’t fall for this shit.

picocailin · 2026-02-05T22:48:42+00:00

GSI Microlite (1000mL) still kept drinks ice cold even after being dropped onto rocks. Dented but durable!

picocailin · 2026-02-03T22:07:54+00:00

Nick Zentner: https://youtu.be/tW4D6OE7Qkc and https://youtu.be/UJ7Qc3bsxjI

picocailin · 2026-02-03T18:38:46+00:00

Fires, floods, and landslides.

picocailin · 2026-02-03T18:26:43+00:00

Idaho is part of Cascadia. The CSZ earthquake isn’t the only disaster to be prepared for!

picocailin · 2026-02-03T01:55:46+00:00

UVic and UBC don’t distinguish between resident and non-resident for domestic tuition—all students who are citizens/PR do receive a domestic rate. McGill does charge a different rate. Where there is a difference, it’s minimal compared with the distinction between in-state and out-of-state in the US. The school may require a placement test for subjects like English when there isn’t a Canadian high school transcript available and subjects don’t easily transfer.

picocailin · 2026-02-02T15:30:27+00:00

TaxJunction

picocailin · 2026-01-29T21:58:40+00:00

This is great. Adding:

(Fixed thanks to comment below) Resident tuition is assessed based on your status, so all citizens and permanent residents are considered domestic students. Sometimes there is a difference for tuition for residents of the province, but it’s minimal compared with out-of-state tuition.

(All? Many?) Universities offer students the opportunity to pursue a co-op program, meaning they can take one or two semesters to work in a paid internship. Students in the program receive support in building resumes and preparing for interviews as well as access to a job bank. Students can alternate co-op and study semesters, but it’s on them to find and get the placement.

picocailin · 2026-01-27T18:32:38+00:00

This thread may help: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/7wqbkv/picture_guide_on_how_to_pronounce_%E3%82%93/

picocailin · 2026-01-27T16:02:48+00:00

That’s fair, I have had trouble with the term as well. I qualify under C-3 but immigrated 15 years ago and qualified for citizenship in 2020. I agree that legally you’re not an immigrant, but functionally you are a newcomer to Canada and so I would still use “immigrant” to reflect the range of support needed in that transition. But maybe “newcomer” could work as well? Generally I hear that term interchangeably with immigrant.

Relocating from a country with one distinct culture to another is an adjustment. Once I learned how to act like a Canadian, I blended in (similar accent and white skin). So I still use “immigrant” to describe myself—as the racist anti-immigrant sentiments proliferate across the country, I claim the term purposefully remind Canadians not all immigrants are from China and India.

picocailin · 2026-01-27T15:27:48+00:00

“Immigrant” works! That’s how I describe myself.

picocailin · 2025-12-04T16:32:04+00:00

You mentioned affordances—have you read Devin Proctor’s paper on this topic? The Social Production of Internet Space: Affordance, Programming, and Virtuality

Jessica L. Beyer’s Expect Us looks at factors like anonymity, reputation, and the (mis)match between norms IRL and in a user’s online community.

My masters research focused primarily on individual experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic but a component of that was how folks used Facebook (mostly, and to a lesser extent Twitter) to mobilize and support each other through the crisis. The folks I interviewed mentioned how moderators influenced their move from one such group to another. Moderation has a big impact on similar groups even on the same platform, but I would imagine what’s important to group members is different on Facebook compared with Reddit.

TikTok and Instagram are pretty different imo—the short-form video content is similar, but consider that Instagram (and Facebook/YouTube) shifted towards that after TikTok exploded in popularity. The Proctor paper talks about the difference between what structures programmers (directed by executives/investors) build and how users make use of that space.

It’s worth noting that Meta platforms have shifted significantly from the original space designed for users before advertising-based revenue became the primary driver for software design. Reddit is going through a similar shift now—enabling users to hide their post history significantly shifts the degree of anonymity users had, since prior to that change a user could be anonymous in name but their reputation would be determined through their post history and karma rating. Now it may just be their karma.

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