Montreal

14:47 / 30.10.08

My cousin-in-law works at Ubisoft Montreal. Don't know if he has any pull, but if your Husband is a gamer and had programming capabilities, it may be a place to look for work...

14:49 / 30.10.08

Nah I'm the geek & he's the dork. Thanks though!

14:55 / 30.10.08

As for Old, Cold, English and filled with Culture, you may also want to Google "Kingston Ontario" and "Prince Edward County Ontario". Absolutely gorgeous. I picked grapes for a vinyard this fall: Very life-affirming, get back to the soil stuff. All very communal, as well: the picking is done free for a lunch, t-shirt, as much wine as you can drink on-site and a personalized bottle if we go back next year made from the grapes we picked. The vinyard is called Sandbanks Estate Winery, but there are several others in the region. Lots of artist communities and an "Artist's Trail"...
Best luck, let me know if I can help in any way...

15:14 / 30.10.08

I'm moving to Montreal in one month...

16:04 / 30.10.08

Exciting!
I've heard it's a bit rough to move there in the Winter though.

16:18 / 30.10.08

I've heard that too but fuck it, if I have to experience the winter I may as well just get it over with.

I've secured an apartment and I'm ready to go...

16:23 / 30.10.08

I was poking at the Quebec immigration test drive thingy.

Seems like the spouse and I need more French to be let in the door. Did you have a hard time of it or were you already proficient?

17:16 / 30.10.08

I don't speak much French at all, but as a Canadian citizen I don't need to pass any kind of immigration tests to switch cities.

17:16 / 30.10.08

Oh right sorry for some reason I thought you were in the UK.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

17:33 / 30.10.08

I used to live in England, but I'm Canadian.

00:51 / 01.11.08

Holy crow! I'm just a hop down the road in Sherbooke, and Kali will be moving up to join me here after our impending nuptials next March. This is great news!

XK, if you have ANY questions about immigration etc., drop me an e-mail at my gmail account (same as my username). I've examined all the options thoroughly several times, and I can give you a pretty thorough rundown. There's also a really good forum at http://us2canada.com/ which is really more for people in my boat (sponsoring family members/future spouses) but has some very useful forums.

Cameron -- drop me a line once you're settled in!

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

00:40 / 02.11.08

Yeah, it's not as easy as just packing up and going unfortunately.

Unless you're marrying a Canadian. Then it's slightly less easy.

12:37 / 03.11.08

yay!

I did the free contact a immigration lawyer thing to find out if we look suitable. Looks good but I'm advised by some close friends who lived in Montreal to get us some Canadien français tutoring before I even bother tying to get Quebec to approve us.

I'm not even sure how to do that...

grant

14:56 / 03.11.08

Kidnap Genevieve Bujold.

15:15 / 03.11.08

Start with your basic French à la "Rosetta Stone" courses, or similar. Don't worry about "Canadian" French: it differs from area to area. Franco-Ontarians use different slang than Quebeçois. Even in Quebec, Montreal is different from Quebec City, or Lac-St-Jean, or Gaspé, or Abitibi...
Basic french will serve you fine for getting along. Being bilingual in Parisian French will open many doors and you will pick up the joual easy enough.
Repeat after me:
Tabarnac! (Tabarnacle)
Collise! (Chalice)
Cris! (Christ)
'Ostie! (Host)
Mange la merde, mon'ostie cris de tabarnac j'va te colliser un!

I apologise, I couldn't help myself. The above is very poor: unfortunately, I write French like I speak French.

Do you have any French language skills?

16:33 / 03.11.08

I took French in middle school so no, no French at all. I have only two real languages, American English and Unix. I have minor reading comprehension of Irish. The spouse has two languages, American English and gamer. He's more welcome around the world than I am for it.

It's funny how many people are hassling me about moving thinking it has to do with the election. It doesn't hurt that this link has been a joke in our household for a long time.