Specifically British Columbia or Alberta. Tell me about living there. I’ve lived in So. California all my life. Would it be a big shock to me to move there? Is it hard to get citizenship there? Is the weather always cold? Is the economy bad there too, like it is in the United States? Do you do your taxes like people do them in the U.S.? Is life more laid back there? I know English is spoken there (and French), but if I moved there would a Canadian be able to spot me with my Californian accent? Are houses more money than So. California than in Canada? Tell me anything else I left out in here.
I’ll answer what I can here. The financial stuff I don’t know a lot about, I’m just trying to sort that all out for myself! Oh, going out on your own…
BC would be more comfortable than Alberta if you’re from Cali. I mean, it’s not like moving to Iraq or anything. Really, the main difference is the regular American McDonalds Meal is our Supersized. 
Alberta is more conservative than Cali (and the rest of Canada), but not like conservative Texas or anything.
Unless you’re marrying someone or have an in-demand job, yeah.
Alberta is the colder of the two. BC does get snow, but it tends to be on the rainy side instead.
Alberta grew too fast and is now getting hit, but it isn’t nearly as bad. It’s more like going from a period of massive growth to a period of no growth. I’m not sure how things are going in BC, but the western side of Canada hasn’t been hit nearly as hard as the eastern.
BC, in my opinion as a non-BCer, is a wannabe California. There’s plenty of places outside of the large cities where it isn’t a rat race or anything. Alberta is still pretty competitive because of how it’s grown so much in the last few years.
French isn’t really common in Western Canada. We’re on a total disconnect from Quebec, it’s like a totally different country. But yes, your accent will be spotted, but no, no one will really care (well, in a negative way. But they might be curious!).
kushiel’s answers are very good, I can add a bit. Taxes are fairly similar. One thing you should be prepared for as far as taxes go is that we pay a lot more of them. Free health care isn’t really free it turns out. It’s a pretty good system though. The weather in B.C. is the nicest in the country - on this side of the country it’s COLD, my facebook friends in B.C. are tending their gardens right now; the snow in my yard is almost up to my waist. The economy is bad in spots but overall not as bad as the U.S. a lot depends on the type of work you do. Our retirement funds are in just as bad shape. My wife became a citizen last year (from U.S.A.) and didn’t have any problem with the citizenship test or anything but it was s-l-o-w. I have no idea what it’s like for someone who doesn’t have a spouse here, I think it’s pretty similar to the States.
I grew up in BC and I am living in Alberta and I agree with what has been posted with the correction that if you don’t want snow stick to the Lower Mainland in BC. I grew up in the Cariboo Interior and it got cold and snow all winter long.
As for your other questions all I can add is that houses in the major cities are expensive. if you go to the MLS website you can search house prices in specific areas.
I moved from Los Angeles to Toronto five years ago. I can’t speak much about Alberta or BC, except to say that apparently Alberta has an above average number of attractive women.
Moving from Southern California to Toronto wasn’t a big shock. And it sort of was. LA is enough like Toronto for me to feel at home here, but small things were jarring. A US accent doesn’t stand out; you just have to learn to say sewrry correctly (that’s a southern Ontario thing).
Assuming you speak English, have a degree, a job in a needed field, and some money, a work permit isn’t that hard to get, but it takes a long time. If you can manage a job offer, you might be able to get a work visa under NAFTA, which only takes a couple of months for the paperwork to go through. Pain in the ass, but not bad. To become a citizen, you first get a work visa, then become a landed immigrant, then spend (I think) 3 years living here, then take the test. I’m skipping bits, but that’s the general bit.
As for the economy, it depends on who you talk to. Canada is a risk-adverse country. The lending didn’t go nuts the way it did in the states, we had been running a long and huge string of surpluses, Alberta has oil (lots and lots and lots of oil) and, well, it was a generally well run country. That said, our biggest trading partner is now broke, a lot of Ontario’s industry involved making cars, oil has tanked, and I think the dollar has strengthened, and there was, if not a bubble, definitely an over expansion in housing and prices are falling a bit. Construction, which Toronto in particular was seeing a lot of (not as much as Alberta, but a fair amount) has tanked and looks like it’s going to be down for a bit (I keep coming back to Alberta’s oil - it is my understanding that they actually had a fairly diversified economy, and I don’t know how they are actually doing there. Prices are likely to recover soon enough that this is probably just a much-needed breathing spell).
Taxes are roughly what they are in So Cal. The biggest difference is sales tax; there is the Gouge and Screw nation sales tax (GST) at 5% on top of provincial taxes, so in Ontario it’s 13%. Other than that, everything will look familiar, but get used to being culturally illiterate for a while (You get T4s, if you’re lucky when laid off you get EI instead of unemployment, you buy GICs instead of CDs, etc).
As for the weather, yes, it is always cold here. Winter lasts 15 months. We have 4 seasons: Winter, More Winter, Yet More Winter, and Construction. There are no words for how cold it is. No sane person would live in this environment if they had any choices. The 2 largest cities have huge underground malls so that people don’t have to go outside during the winter. Which never ends. You get to learn how fast exposed skin will freeze at various temperatures. Okay, it isn’t that bad, but asking a Canadian about Winter in March is a bad idea. (Watch this - a bunch of other Canadians will now chime in and talk about how Winter here isn’t that bad. They are lying)
One of the most interesting things to me, as an American, is that people don’t get all worked up about being Canadian. Canadian Jingoism just doesn’t make sense as a phrase. A friend told me that the counter point to “As American as apple pie” is “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances”.
There are other funny things about the place. The politics are incomprehensible, especially if you watch the debates in the wrong language. There is an election every few weeks, which seems to result in a new minority government. Oh, and we have minority governments.
I really love Toronto and Canada. If you have any other questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.
Haha, not this Canadian. Another foot of snow coming tonight, winter sucks! Your comment about the seasons reminds me of a German manager we had at work. He used to say, “Vot a mizerable place, six munths of snow, six munths of mosquitos”
No, but in south-central BC its cold from about late October-mid March. It’s -2° now and there hasn’t been a time without snow on the ground since around November(though the snow’s never been deep). It’s usually around 25-30° in the summer. In Kelowna, that is. BC is huge though and the weather varies a lot.
I know virtually nothing about the economy but the news is often talking about how we were hit much less by the financial crisis due to more regulations on our banks, or something like that.
I’ve lived in BC all my life and have only met one person who spoke French. She was from Quebec. I don’t know about the accent, i’m terrible with accents and certainly wouldn’t notice, but others might.
When the national anthem plays before a sporting event, Americans put their hands on their hearts. Canadians keep their hands on their beer. 
Albertan here. Yes, winters are cold–I’ve experienced them in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge–but interestingly, nothing slows down or stops due to weather. Schools are open, workplaces don’t close, and outside of a number of road accidents during the winter’s first snowfall (in summer, you see, folks forget how to drive in snow), we keep going through weather that would shut down the southen half of the US. On the other hand, the weather isn’t always cold–you have to remember that we have summers too; hot summers during which gardens grow and flowers bloom thanks to the long hours of daylight. Outdoor cafes are quite popular.
The economy in Alberta isn’t doing too badly, though it’s nowhere near what it was. I don’t think fast-food jobs are paying $17 an hour plus benefits any more. Still, as long as there is a demand for oil and agricultural products, we’ll do okay. Thankfully, our banks and other financial institutions had a lot more regulations on them than their US counterparts did, so they’re not tanking as far and as quickly.
Taxes exist, but they’re a fact of life. Here in Alberta, we have no provincial sales tax, so we only pay the 5% GST on purchases. Income taxes aren’t bad, and you do get value for money–including, as has been said, healthcare. And there is enough left over after the tax folks take their cut that you can still afford houses, cars, and other goods without a problem.
I actually composed a response to the OP’s question about cold, but it sort of took on a life of its own so I posted it as its own thread over in MPSIMS.
I’ve been an Albertan since 1968. From 1965-68, I lived in Saskatchewan, none of which I recall, except for the night that our roof fell in from the weight of the snow. You get those kinds of stories in Western Canada, much like I suppose you hear stories in So. Cal. about the night our roof caught fire. Coping with snow and daytime temperatures of -20C to -30C are facts of life every winter here in Alberta and much of BC. The cold weather is worst in the northern halves of each province as seen on a map. In the summer time the weather gets hot – 30C-40C daytime temperatures in July and August are not uncommon all over Alberta and BC. Coastal areas will be more temperate in both winter and summer.
To compare re: real estate – a friend from Solvang had a small bungalow on a one-acre property, and during the boom it would have easily sold for over a million. My two-story walkout on a man-made “lake” at around the same time would have sold easily for three quarters of a million. Coastal area real estate would be pretty comparable to So. Cal.
My impression, visiting my friend, was that life was more laid back where she lived. Reading the local business guide, it was clear that the expectations around educational qualifications were lower for various occupations than they are where I live. She worked for a physiotherapist, and it was not a very busy practice, and that was much the same as the previous office she’d worked for – she spent a fair bit of work time playing Spider Solitaire and no one seemed to mind. Now I know that Solvang is not all of So. Cal. – but I think my impressions would extend as far as the Santa Barbara area. No one would be able to tag you as a Californian by speech on first meeting – regional accents from both areas are pretty flat and very similar. Very little French is spoken in Alberta and BC outside of specific settlements (like St. Paul) that have a larger Francophone population. Public schools are required to teach a second language, but it might be Spanish or Mandarin just as likely as it might be French around here.
Maybe in comparison with American jingoism, Canadian jingoism doesn’t exist. But just watch Don Cherry any Saturday and try and tell me that Canadian jingoism doesn’t exist. The two biggest beer companies here base their advertising on the fact that they’re Canadian*. Tim Horton’s is a $4-billion company because they’ve successfully marketed themselves as a Canadian company.
- Even though both companies are now foreign-owned.
So long as you are a U.S. citizen, you are obligated to pay U.S. income taxes, regardless of where you’re living or where the money is earned. There are lots of books for Americans relocating to Canada–check out Amazon. Also, the federal rules regarding permanent residency recently changed to make it more difficult for people to relocate unless you work in a specified profession. Alberta and BC may have province specific immigration rules that will be of use to you.
To someone coming from California that would not be the case at most income levels. Californians pay a lot of tax, and their taxes are going up this year.
It’s also worth noting that since California has an extraordinarily high standard of living, you generally make more money, but US federal tax rates don’t give you a break for that. $150,000 a year in Silicon Valley, say, is like $75,000 in most areas of BC, but you still pay a more reasonable marginal rate in BC.
There is probably some, but I really don’t notice it much. I don’t consider the “The world needs more Canada” at Indigo to be on par with anything in the states. I don’t watch hockey but thought Don Cherry was a bit of a joke, isn’t he?
No, it’s because they put opium in the coffee. I thought everyone knew that.
Don Cherry isn’t only a bit of a joke.
We he certainly takes himself seriously.
Would it be a big shock to me to move there?
No
Is it hard to get citizenship there?
Yes - Marry a Canadian, have a skill Canada needs. There’s a point system.
Is the weather always cold?
No. Summer is warmer. Some parts are always cold (Newfoundland, Nunavut)
It’s colder than SoCal though.
Is the economy bad there too, like it is in the United States?
Not as bad, at least not yet.
Do you do your taxes like people do them in the U.S.?
Taxes are generally higher than the US. Personal income tax tops out around 50%
Is life more laid back there?
Compared to SoCal? Maybe. Depends on where you live now. The range of laidbackness is probably similar.
I know English is spoken there (and French), but if I moved there would a Canadian be able to spot me with my Californian accent?
If an American is “spotted”, its because of he or she is loud, aggressive and inconsiderate, as well as ignorant and uncaring about Canadian society. The ones who aren’t like this aren’t spotted. Except for linguistic oddities like ‘Dude’ and ‘eh’, Canadian English and American English are similar.
Why do you want to move to Canada?
NB: I was born in San Diego, lived in Santa Barbara in the 80’s and 90’s, moved to Canada in '93, Canadian Citizen since '04, moved to Vancouver 6 months ago.
A bit of a hijack, but sometimes I get my comedy kicks by reading Free Republic, the place is just comedy gold, and often there are threads about what people plan to do when the godless communist socialists start forcing everyone to give up their money and guns and marry gay feminazis. Often seen in such threads are plans to move to Canada. Mexico is out of the question of course, because there are too many brown people who don’t speak English there, so Canada, you should be getting ready for thousands? hundreds of thousands? millions? of half-brained, gun-loving, socialist and liberal-hating halfwits fleeing from the tyranny of a government that actually cares for its people, finally.
Either no one has the heart to tell them why their Canadian plans are whacked and doomed to failure, or it’s just too much fun watching the disconnect from reality.
“I’m a gunna buy me lots and lots of guns an’ ammo, then I’m movin’ to Canada!”
We have just the spot for them; tell 'em to pack warm and bring their guns. 
That reminds me of this comic.