So I had my (Victoria, B.C.) first-year college class decide ...

[Lisa]

... which Canadian town or city they would move to, if they had to choose one they'd never visited before. (I also had them check into the employment and cultural scene, and figure out how much the move would cost them.)

Edmonton -- 9
Calgary -- 3
Banff -- 1
Lethbridge -- 2
Prince Albert -- 1
Saskatoon -- 3

Whistler -- 1
Kamloops -- 3
Nelson -- 1
Whitehorse -- 1
Yellowknife -- 1

Toronto -- 2
North Bay -- 1
Ottawa -- 1

Montreal -- 3

Wolfville -- 1

[nosmokes]

1. so edmonton ain't real high on the list of places

that they've been before, obviously. d'ya know why that is, with it being so popular as the spot never been to?

[tuvor]

3. West Edmonton Mall is all I can think of.

On Edit: Oh, which city would they MOVE TO. Well, the economy's kicking ass there right now, what with no debt and oil investment and all.

[Lisa]

4. Interesting, eh?

This was a regional geography class. Sure, they're supposed to have read the section on climate -- but I don't think they realize how cold it can get in Edmonchuk! I am assuming that the reason Calgary wasn't as popular as I'd expected is because a lot of them may have been there (next really big city over from Vancouver) and the exercise stipulated that they couldn't pick somewhere that was already familiar to them.


p.s. yes, the mall did feature prominently in about half the Edmonton assignments I read (mainly since they were hoping to get jobs there).

Most of the class are BCers (I think half are from the Island) and the level of curiosity about the rest of the country is incredibly low. The other instructors noticed this too -- many of the students just are not interested in going anywhere else in the country. I was desperate to get them to think about what it would be like to do a major move. Especially after someone offered the suggestion earlier in term that "if people up north or on the East Coast are unemployed, why don't they just go somewhere else, 'cause it's so easy to get work".

One single mom with two kids got up and did a presentation that showed how much it would cost to move her entire household to northern BC -- her much-younger classmates were sitting there with their mouths open, as she explained that she wouldn't be able to afford to just pull up stakes and hang around in a new city in the hope of maybe landing a job sometime.

[tuvor]

5. The worst thing about Edmonton is the cold, long winter.

[tuvor]

2. I guess none of them have been to Edmonton, then?

Not sure what point you're trying to make. :shrug: