Hell of a question. lol

You'd really have to give up US citizenship? When did that change? I've known a few people that had dual citizenship. > >

Healthcare is awesome. Have to wait for minor shit, but if you're bleeding to death you get in right away.
A lot of right wingers say that Canada can't provide all forms of potentially necessary care, but in such cases they are sent to where that care is, at the cost of the healthcare system, so there's really nothing to get hung up on.
Canada is a little more unified than the US, but not by much. Provincial laws/customs/mannerisms/etc. can change fairly significantly. Choose your province carefully, depending on your personal prefferences.
The majority of subtle American influence comes from media. Though every now and then your ambassador seems to want to piss off the whole country. Seems to mostly be a Republican thing.
Religion is just as common here, but there are less fundies per capita.
Our current government is an American wannabe, and has done significant

                    I've been living in the Toronto area for about 34 years, I wouldn't think of living anywhere else, except Guyana since I have a big house there. Compared to the states,  we have a very low crime rate, a lot less aggression in social situations, and more importantly during elections gods and religion are rarely mentioned, the most successful politicians NEVER mention religion. We are a lot less religious then the states and far more likely to say "No religion in my life, eh? and no christly need for it neather, eh?"

                     btw, though I was born in New Brunswick,  I grew up in Brewer Maine  U.S. of A. eh?

It's widely percieved down here that the general mood of the people from the north is just kinda drab.  I must say that i've noticed it myself. I'm not speaking just of Canada. I am from central Illinois. Even when I travel to Minnesota I can tell a bit of a difference in people. They say it is because of the long winter season and it kinda makes sense.  My area is considered to be the medium of all the U.S.  - our climate, culture, attitude, and even religion. We know how to let loose n throw down n party, but we are not all a bunch of rednecks. Sadly I have not been able to travel the world.

Places I want to go:

Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Alaska, British Columbia, Quebec, various places in the Orient(suggestions ?)

Places I don't wanna go:

Mexico, Turkey, anywhere in the Middle East, India

We don't get a long winter anymore. It's going to get funnier hearing igloo jokes with every year as Ontario turns into Florida. > >

I just came across this:

"Article 15

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

WTF can't I go anywhere and be able to change my nationality?! Canada signed the humans rights treaty! Hipocrisy never ceases to amaze me.

I live in Halifax and I've been to the States a few times. To me, I dont see much difference in the people/culture however, I think religion plays less of a roll in politics here in Canada.

As well, of all the people I know, I'd say the atheists/theists percentage is about 50/50. And I dont know of anyone who I would consider to be fundamental. When I hear stories of people who lost their jobs or their friends and family because they came out as atheists....I just cant relate to that. I just dont hear of that happening around here.

This is one leftist/European stereotype that never ceases to amuse- 'everyone not of our bent or ideology is delusional'. Thanks, I'll pass on your "reality", because as fucked up as the states are at present, Teralek's "reality" sounds infinitely worse.

Also, in germany, you can't say the word "Hitler". There are other reasons not to move to Germany (such as the statistics involving how many 10-year-olds apply for birth control each year), but the utter lack of inalienable rights ranks as #1.

I have a "reality"? 

I've met cool Americans too with good sense of reality. Stereotypes have limits! My favorite show in America is the Daily show, that must say much about me. I admire American culture dispite my criticism, I keep watching and comment on things from there.

From all the guests I had on the ship considering: 90% british and the remaining 10% were a mix of Australians, Americans, Canadians, Germans...

The Germans were the smartest bunch, british... were well... british, Americans were the most outgoing people, Australians were laid back, Canadians were just like Americans, I couldn't tell the difference.

The countries I'd like to live in order of preference: (the list changed after working on ships, probably will change again)

Norway; Sweden; Canada; Denmark; Holland; Germany; Ireland; USA; UK; Estonia... If I had a lot of money I wouldn't mind living on a Caribean island too... possibly Antiga or St. Kitts

                       Unlike yourself, I have lived in both countrys for decades each.  I was born in New Brunswick, but from age 1+ to age 21+ I grew up in Brewer Maine, there are very distinct differences between being American and being Les Canadiene beaux coup [bo coo]-- {to be Canadian is great}. For one thing we can easily switch to 'les Quebecois' {kee-Beck French} without loosing any sense of nation-hood; In fact we thrive on 'les differance between the Francophone and les Anglophone.  What do Americans think when they hear a native born "yankee" speaking Spanish or anything other then English?  Most Americans resent being called "yankee";  Well 'hell, high water and damnation; I bay moyrah yankee den any hoos born thayah, aay up!                       Quite simply Tralek you  need to spend more then one day in a tourist dock before makeing that kind of statement.

Sorry man. I might be a lot of things, but I don't like telling people what to do.

Looks like "Sean" is commenting on 60s/70s 'flowerchild' canada.

probably becuase the URL looks like this;

"data:image/png;base64,superhugehashthatcrashesmybrowsereverytimeipasteitinmybrowser"

This is google's "base64" hash url format, and NO messageboard software can hotlink it, as far as I know. Some google images can hotlink, some can't because they come in that format. 1 way around this is to simply open up firebug in your browser. Works on my firefox as of v11.0 .

I don't usually discuss politics in much depth with them. 2 of them are "liberals" like me, the other is conservative but we still like each other. We just don't talk about politics. She's an honest person. 

I sometimes feel that what I want to say doesn't go clear enough... maybe it's because english is not my first language?!

Edit: BTW! You want to know something funny? The day I found out she voted for republicans I asked her if the fact that she was Christian was one of the reasons she voted for them. And she answered: "of course!"

And I replyied something like: "religion should never mix with politics. That's a fundamental of democracy..."

I've met a number of Canadian professionals that were driven away by high income and business taxes. Canada is still relatively poverty free because it has a large quantity of natural resourses that can be exploited to pay for the welfare state. It seems destined to go the way of Europe with a large dependency class just waiting on their check and free stuff from the government.

Funny how Canada is more stable and productive per capita than the US, has less unemployment, less crime, less welfare, better education, better healthcare, and is infinitely more sustainable than your foolish ideology would have us believe.

And all that while barely touching our natural resources.

Not that it would necessarily disclude any of those particular cities, but I can't believe those studies don't take into account climate or cost of living. 

Both of those would be a major factor of "livability" for me.

True. My favorite place to live would be:

 Own a resort... and make love to her:

every day.

That would be the most livable place to me

Just for the record. I took that picture of the Canadian flag from the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth in Halifax NS. 

I didn't read the article, but you haven't convinced me either. Direct cost of living is subjective, and cannot simply be directly compared between cities. Example: figures are not likely accurate, for demonstration purposes;

If it costs 1400 to rent an apartment in Calgary, and 800 in Toronto, then it would seem Calgary is the more expensive by far.

But then you realise people in Calgary get paid twice as much as people in Toronto, and have less taxes to pay, and suddenly you realise that Calgary has the lower cost of living.

So just because it doesn't actually say cost of living was factored doesn't mean it wasn't. And I don't have a lot of reason to spend 6 hours trying to figure out exactly how they determined what was the most liveable city. So I choose to believe they were smart enough to calculate costs.

Have you visited Vancouver, Lower Mainland BC (Kelowna area), Lake Shushwap, the Canadian part of the Rocky Mountains, Grand Beach in Manitoba, Lake of the Woods? Certainly all worth a visit, and that's just places I've been myself. Heard amazing things about Vancouver Island and the Maritimes. Also, NORAD sits on our territory. Quite necessary in the past.