olddog – Member
I would suggest you think about the cold rather than the snow. As you can imagine they are pretty efficient with dealing with snow and inland it’s a continental climate so doesn’t snow as much as you may think – it just doesn’t melt!. But it really is bloody cold. Well below zero for days/weeks on end.
I was born and raised in Winnipeg, which has a climate almost identical to that of Edmonton. olddog is right to mention the cold; in fact I would say he understates it. Well below zero for days/weeks?!? Try from November until March. Try an average January temperature of minus 25 and the possiblilty of -40 with the windchill.
So if you’re looking for glamour, it isn’t the place to be. It is possible to enjoy culture there, and they have a ballet company, a symphony orchestra, live theatre, etc., BUT, it is more a place to live if you want to feel alive, to know what it’s like to live in concert with nature, and to have access to innumerable outdoor opportunities.
No, Edmonton would not be my first choice of city in Canada to live in, but it isn’t shit and so wouldn’t be my last, either. Especially if I was British and looking for a good experience of what it is like to be Canadian. You could, of course, try that in Vancouver, but what Vancouverites don’t realise is that few people in rest of the country care what they’re up to. Vancouver is definitely Canadian, but it is Canadian in the same way that LA is the United States. A more realistic experience (and I would add invigorating experience, if you like adventure) would be to live not in LA, but in Cleveland Ohio, or Minneapolis Minnesota or some such place. Living in Edmonton will be much more like those latter two choices.
I could say tonnes about what you could look forward to, and what you could find frustrating, but trust me when I say that if you approach it positively, you will love it. I know it sounds ridiculous, but feeling air so cold in your lungs that it hurts to breathe while trying to shovel the snow out of your driveway can make you feel alive.
It can probably kill you too, mind, but I am more the kind of person that loved it. And if you love the outdoors, and ice hockey, and mountain biking, I am sure you will too.