I am a new immigrant to Canada. I have a few things that I would like
to accomplish in the long term, after I make my move to Canada
permanently. Since I have spent my time in the States, I would like a
well informed Canadian individual's input on what location(s) would
best suit goals that I have in mind.

PS - location(s) would generally be something like ... Scarborough,
Ontario. Ie ideally a city. But if you can present an argument for a
general region and give me what your personal preference would be, I
would not mind either.

Goals:

1) A residential area which is close enough to modern areas so as to
provide good employment opportunities with a commute, however
distanced enough so as to provide a location I can see myself staying
in for the next 10-15 years (I like calm and nature).

2) A location where the prospects for a job in the financial / banking
sector are still strong. My background is as an analyst + engineer in
mortgage banking. I also have experience in startups, in analytics.

3) Travel - A location where I would be able to tell my friends from
the States to fly upto relatiely easily. Additionally, ideally I would
like to be able to drive down to see my friends within a reasonable
amount of time (for example, 4 days of driving would be unreasonable).
This is of course not compulsory. Its a 'would be great'.

4) Kids. A location where I can raise my kids and expose them to the
many aspects of life. Multicultaralism would be nice, but not to the
extreme over-populated sense of Toronto. One reason why I am
considering strongly against Toronto is because of the increase in
crime rate and general elbow-to-elbow situation there.

5) Sports - I love sports. If the location also offered an active
community , that would be awesome.

6) Institute of Learning - I would like to pursue a Masters once I
find a suitable location, move, and find a job. Ideally I would be
able to commute evenings and find myself able to take a part time
masters degree too.

7) People - not to set expectations too high, but having people around
would be nice. I have lived in the boonies before and i think ive
gotten over that no-one-for-miles phase!

FYI - I am asian. Ideally if there were areas where asians are overly
present or  disliked, I would like to avoid those locations as well. 
Apologies go out to anyone who finds my comments lacking in
familiarity with Canada - I am still learning quite a bit every day!
:-)

These pointers are just an attempt for me to shape and define where I
want to move to, and make my home. Its a big decision, and I thought
what better way to continue my research than asking for input from
some of the brightest researchers :)

best,

d_xodus

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Clarification of Question by d_xodus-ga on 18 Jul 2006 00:46 PDT

Just to clarify - 

1) I am single , the Kids thing was with future planning in mind

2) Since I will move there intially on my own, without a car, it would
be good to have a reliable transportation system to depend on until I
saved enough for a car

Thank you.

If you have any comments or questions please feel free to ask.

How about Vancouver?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver

Regarding the Vancouver area, the questioner indicated he preferred an
area without a strong Asian presence, despite being Asian himself, and
Vancouver has a large Asian population:
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo27x.htm

I'm not in the mortgage banking business, but I would guess that a
quickly growing  economy would be favourable for that business, in
which case you might consider Calgary or Edmonton, both of which are
booming. On the down side, real-estate prices are very high there and
rising, so it's really a seller's market at the moment unless you are
speculating. Property prices are also very high in the Vancouver and
Toronto areas relative to most other parts of the country.

The Statistics Canada (statcan.ca) site has many tables listing
demographic, economic and geographic features of different provinces
and urban areas and would be a great source of information for you.

The requirement that the community have post-grad education will limit you:
http://www.schoolfinder.com/schools/schoolindex.asp?CountryCode=CA&ProfileType=MBA
although note that in some areas you can live in a smaller town/city
and commute to a larger one for work or education depending on your
taste for commuting. For example I have friends who live in Barrie and
Guelph and commute to Toronto for work, but that isn't something I
could take.

In most cases living in a suburb or smaller community and commuting to
a larger urban centre on public transit would require that you live in
one of the largest urban centres, such as Toronto, Montreal or
Vancouver where public transit is much more important and convenient
than in smaller centres. For example in Thunder Bay where I live (pop.
~ 120,000) it would take me about an hour to get to work on public
transit vs. 15 minutes if I drive.

You mentioned Scarborough:  personally I find the whole Toronto
megaplex not to my liking except to visit although I have friends and
a brother there who wouldn't live anywhere else. My pick for a larger
centre where I've spent some time and could live is Ottawa - very
diverse, lots of museums and things to do, clean, lots of parks and
bike paths, close to outdoor recreation such as the ski-hills in the
Gatineaus.

Anyway, just thought I'd get my two cents in - I'm not a researcher.

Welcome to Canada!

I would probably recommend the Montréal area.  It's a nice modern
city, with good access to public transporation, good schools and
access to two professional sports teams (NHL: Canadiens, CFL:
Allouettes) and most importantly, a generally easy going attitude.
Learning to speak french would only help you out in this city, but is
generally speaking not explicitly required (though it will limit you).
Montréal is also just a short drive away from the US northeast, so if
that's where your friends are located, this would probably be a good
spot. Additionally, Québec in general has wonderful programmes for
early learning and childcare in my experience.

On the other hand, a majority of the population is non-asian, the west
coast of Canada has a much larger asian presence if that is important
to you. I can't speak for Vancouver having only ever visited though.