Help!!! Canada, Prince Edward Island?

Question

My sister who will be 16 in September is moving to Prince Edward Island in Canada. Currently, she lives in Moscow and has a rather active social life. She is very much into going out to fashionable bars, cafe's, theatres, she is also into fashion etc. She is the youngest in our family and is very spoiled. I hope you get the picture – a typical spoiled 16 years old girl. She is very bright, used to being spoiled and living in big Cosmopolitan City. I am worried, that she will find PE island a little quiet. Therefore, if you have ever been to PE island please let me know what it is like out there. She is moving there with her mother, who married a Canadian a year ago. My sister's English is not that good, and she would have to complete her college there, so I know it will be extremely difficult and that combined with quite life–I don’t know what she will do. I had a look at PE official web site and I am getting convinced that she will hate it. Any info on PE will help. Thk

Answer 1

If cosmopolitan life is her thing, I'm not sure if PEI is the best place. The largest city is Charlottetown, which is about 20,000 people. Don't judge the tourist site, but it is mostly farms and fisheries. You can get ANYWHERE on the island in 3 hours driving. I'm unsure of how ethnic the population is in PEI, but i believe it is quite low. If your sister is willing to live alone, perhaps the city of Toronto would meet her needs better. A city of about 4 million, it has a large immigrant population and is has very hip parts to it. Also a very central location to visit major US centres from. Montreal is slightly smaller than Toronto, but it is a very French city, as it is in the province of Quebec. If she has some knowledge of French, or is willing to learn, this is a good option. Both of these cities are within a days worth of driving of PEI. On the west coast, Vancouver is another large city that is very chic. PEI doesn't have a wide variety of universities or colleges either. Toronto is very convenient as many of the countries higher education centres are near the city in southern Ontario. Along with Toronto. there are many other major urban centres with more than 100 000 people in southern Ontario. London, Kitchener, Ottawa, Windsor, Hamilton are a few other large centres with good education. I hope you find this information helpful.

Answer 2

You can buy property in Canada whether or not you are a resident of Canada. How much you can use that property depends on your immigration status and how long it allows you to stay in Canada. If you're looking at property in PEI and it says something about "non-resident restriction" or words to that effect, I can explain that. Parts of Canada's Maritime provinces, of which PEI is one, have long been popular with people from elsewhere in Canada and from the US who come there for the summer. Many places found that they had far too many "summer people", who spent a few months a year at properties that otherwise sat empty. And they were often the nicest properties, the shorefront ones. PEI has placed restrictions on non-residents buying properties over 5 acres or with more than 165 feet of shoreline. Googling "PEI non-resident buyer" will find you sites explaining what else there is to know about this.

Answer 3

Never been, but one of my best friends came from Charlottetown PEI, she has lived in cities all over the world, including London. Over the years I have come to know all her family and several people from the Island. All of them, without exception are warm, wonderful and lovely people. I know my friend used to go to bars, but couldn't tell you what they were like. One of the family, sounds a little like your sister, in that she enjoyed the fashionable side of life and she lived there till she came to London, England when she was 18.

Your sister is 16, I am sure she will be welcomed by the warm and beautiful people of the Island. It may be different, and she may not want to go, but she may grow to love it. She doesn't have long to wait till she can finish her education and go to college elsewhere, Canada is a huge place with many wonderful vibrant citities. Thinking of it, I never met a Canadian I didn't like.

Answer 4

Right. Very quiet, not a big Island, every place has it's own beauty. One must look for it sometimes, even though it is right in front of them. The nearby surrounding countryside is beautiful. Canada does have large cosmopolitan cities. It might surprise her.