I always heard such good things about Quebec City. Quality of life looks excellent. Thanks for sharing the housing price update. It sounds pretty good. As I recall, there are a bunch of good tech jobs there also due to UniSoft and friends.

It sounds fine in theory but leaving Vancouver to go to St John's for affordable housing is not really an option for any one with family here. I may as well go to Thailand for affordable housing, it is more affordable and flights are the same price. People have obligations with family and they want to be close to their friends. It's not like Europe where you can do 60 minutes from a big city and prices fall off a cliff. In bc you have to go four hours drive from Vancouver to find cheapish housing (Hope it's the spot) and that's not a commutable distance. The complete lack of public transport makes it worse but the sheer scale of it is the biggest problem. If I was going to start again there is no way I would choose Vancouver but people get stuck in cities for many reasons but the biggest one is either relationship commitments or where the work is.

I think your parent meant Edmundston, New Brunswick, pop. 16,437.

My man doesn't even know about Edmunston, NB. It's really that bad.

With maybe the exception of Quebec City and St Johns which I'd like to visit, not to disparage those cities, but they are... small, extremely isolated, and yes cold but I think that's the least of the issue, and I say that being from Winnipeg.

The cold is a real issue, but it's an extreme issue if you have the other two qualities, all 3 present in Winnipeg too because it's like 9 hours from any other city over 300k. I remember bussing to school every day, and walking one block would make my face feel like it was on fire, then I'd get home later and it would be dark, nobody really wants to do much except drink because there isn't much else. Sprawl and the same terrible zoning as anywhere else made it so only copy/pasted franchises would go up in the commercial areas, always along a major roadway with giant parking lots. I revisit once or twice a year, and it's deeply upsetting.

I pass through many towns like North Bay on road trips, and I have nothing against them inherently, but I think they're only suitable for the same people who just have no interest in being around many other people and bailed from Toronto as soon as their work went remote (I don't personally care for TO as much as Van). That, or people who just literally need any place to set up shop and support a family, but it's crazy to me that the major cities are essentially saying to a majority of young people who are renting their basement suites and have been for a decade, "It's cute that you want to stay where you've already built your community, but we own this and you get to pay my mortgage"