If you have or plan to have kids: How are the schools?
If you follow local politics: How corrupt is the local system? Does cronyism prevent all reform?
How high are the taxes?
Do you get any benefit from taxes?
(For example, if city A has a higher tax rate than city B, but city A provides its own trash pickup, has much nicer parks with pools that are actually open and staffed in the summers, gets a 12" (30 1/2 cm) snowfall cleared off the streets in one and a half days instead of a full week, etc., the higher taxes might be worth it.)
Are all the radio stations Clear Channel (or some Canadian equivalent) or can one actually find classical or folk music or jazz or big band without laboriously loading each selection into one’s MP3?
(I would not bother even comparing local TV news outlets. There are no good ones in North America.)
What do you seek in geographic locations? (E.g., I really enjoy visiting prairies, but I need hills, trees, and large bodies of water to keep my spirit alive. I would love to live near mountains or the ocean, but I can survive without those amenities.) Obviously, Tripler would enjoy living on the rolling prairies, but would he enjoy living on the utter flatland sections of Kansas and Iowa or Saskatchewan?
Even with an ability to get a job anywhere, will that job pay for your lifestyle? (I cannot address Canadian costs, but in the U.S. there can be remarkable differences in similar locations. Metro Chicago, metro Detroit, and metro Cleveland all have similar cost of living indicators, except in one area where Chicago can require one and a half to two times the cost to buy a house. Chicago’s greater selection of entertainment and art may justify that expense, or it may not.)
As fuel costs continue to rise, what will any region see in availability? (In the U.S., heating costs in New England are substantially higher than in other locations and there have been periodic fuel shortages in some locations. Again, I do not know if any similar phenomenon occurs in Canada.)
How do you feel about different ethnic groups and how do local people feel about yours? (I would hope that most adults can cope anywhere, but it can play a role in the lives one’s kids’ experiences.)