Why Maria ❤️ Vancouver

When Maria and her nine-year-old son returned to Vancouver for good in 2007, admittedly, it was not love at first sight. They were both suffering from a bad case of homesickness. However, Maria’s young and impressionable son fell in love with Vancouver after settling in within six months. For Maria, it wasn’t until 2010 during the Olympics in Vancouver that she realized how lucky they are to call Vancouver their home. 2010 was the year when Maria realized she’d fallen madly in love with Vancouver! It has become their hearth and home.  

Here are a few reasons why Maria is head over heels in love with Vancouver:

Excellent quality of living. According to the 2021 Best Countries Report, Canada ranks no. 1 in quality of life and social purpose. As a single working mom, Maria didn’t have any financial help from anyone, and she had no spousal support. She has full custody of her only son and she was fully responsible for her son financially. Living in Vancouver, BC was a wise and smart decision for Maria.

The Canadian Government helped Maria raise her son through the Canada child benefit (CCB) administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). It is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age. In addition, Maria also received help from the BC Provincial Government through the BC child opportunity benefit (BCCOB) — a tax-free monthly payment to families with children under the age of 18. The amount is combined with the CCB into a single monthly payment. All Maria had to do was file her income tax in a timely manner and she received all these benefits from both the provincial and federal governments until her son reached 18. Living in Vancouver, you can really feel that everyone is equal. There’s inclusiveness and diversity.

Plenty of job opportunities in Vancouver. From the day she arrived in Vancouver, Maria was blessed to land lucrative job opportunities. She started as an Intellectual Property Assistant for the legal department of a biotech company, a spin-off company inside University of British Columbia. She stayed in this position for five years. The pay and company benefits are excellent which gave Maria and her son an extremely comfortable lifestyle.

After five years, Maria worked with a top head-hunter who matched her with job opportunities from various industries — mining, government, finance, banking, and hospitality industries. Maria assisted Vancouver’s top CEOs, the movers and shakers of the BC economy. In 2017, Maria and her family opened their own Filipino restaurant which had a good run for two years and closed it just before the pandemic hit the restaurant industry. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Currently, Maria is in sales selling fitness memberships to the hip and upwardly mobile professionals living in Kitsilano, a trendy neighbourhood in Vancouver.

Suffice to say, finding work in Vancouver is easy. Most jobs pay an annual average of C$ 63,133 before taxes. After taxes, you can expect to take home an average of C$ 44,318. To live comfortably and have a decent lifestyle in this city, you need to earn an average annual amount that ranges between C$ 40,500 – C$ 136,000.

World class education. Maria’s son is blessed to have gone to Vancouver’s top schools. British Columbia has one of the top-rated school systems in Canada and the standards of education in Vancouver are generally excellent. Schools in B.C. provide world-class teachers and curriculum. All K-12 schools are regulated by the B.C. Ministry of Education.

Most B.C. K-12 schools are public schools located within the province’s 60 school districts. Schooling in British Columbia is divided into two levels: elementary school (kindergarten to grade 7) and secondary school (grade 8 to 12). Students who live permanently in B.C. attend these schools free of charge. Maria’s son went to the same secondary school that the famous Jimi Hendrix went to! The government subsidizes education from kindergarten through post-secondary. Canada tops the list as the most educated in the world, with 56.27 percent of adults having earned some kind of higher education.

The best Universal Healthcare in the world. Canada’s universal healthcare is the most admired and envied healthcare system around the global stage. Canadians are used to public healthcare provided and funded by the government. It is managed on a provincial level and subject to adjustments of separate provinces, but it remains uniform for the most part. Access to health care based on need rather than ability to pay was the founding principle of the Canadian health-care system.  

A Canadian citizen does not have to worry about hospital costs. There are no fees associated with medical tests, x-rays, emergency treatments, and receiving medication in the hospital. There are no costs if they must see multiple doctors or are hospitalized for several days. Also, most Canadians have extended health as part of their company’s perks and these cover dental, eye care, and prescribed medication.

Best neighbourhoods in North America! They say that a city is judged by its diversity and culture — Vancouver takes top honours in those categories! When Maria and her son first moved to Vancouver, they lived inside the University of British Columbia endowment lands, a chic neighbourhood located in the west of Vancouver, surrounded by sea. Their condo was walking distance to Maria’s work and her son’s elementary school. It is a quiet and great neighbourhood to live in if you enjoy being outdoors, with beaches and forest trails all within walking distance.

When Maria changed jobs after five years, they relocated to Coal Harbour in order to be close to Maria’s new work and her son’s new secondary school. Despite the fact that Coal Harbour is right downtown, it’s a surprisingly calm little neighbourhood, right on the water’s edge. The area starts at Canada Place and stretches west to Stanley Park, and is bordered by Burrard Inlet to the north, West Georgia Street to the south. Coal Harbour is a charming mix of business and residential, being home to both the Vancouver Convention Centre as well as condo towers. You’ll find locals and visitors mingling on the Seawall, neighbourhood cafes and restaurants, a popular marina, and the odd harbour seal bobbing around and greeting passersby.

Two years ago, Maria moved to a new neighbourhood to be with her partner, at the Kitsilano/Granville Island neighbourhood. Granville Island is both a locals’ favorite and a huge draw for visitors. Technically a sandspit and not an island, the neighbourhood sits just south of the downtown peninsula, right under the Granville Bridge. The Granville Island Public Market acts as a hub of activity, but it’s also one of the city’s most important cultural districts with theatres, artisan workshops, and craft studios.

On the other hand, the Kitsilano area is Vancouver’s hippy hangout, drawing comparisons to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. Its residential area is now occupied by young urban professionals and families who enjoy a modern version of that relaxed atmosphere – this is the birthplace of the global yoga brand, Lululemon athletica and the Ron Zalko Fitness and Yoga fitness centre.

Other notable neighbourhoods in Vancouver are West End, an incredibly diverse area, home to the city’s gay community (centred around Davie Village), heritage homes, and around 40,000 people living in high-rise apartments. The parks and beaches are the main attractions, but the people-watching and dining come in close behind. There’s Yaletown, one of the city’s chicest neighbourhoods, filled with residential loft spaces, sidewalk cafes, cool restaurants, unique shopping, and leafy parks. Sitting along the south side of the downtown Vancouver peninsula, Yaletown is bordered by Homer Street, Robson Street, and False Creek.

A haven for parks and urban green spaces. Vancouver’s Stanley Park is one of the world’s largest (1,000 acres) and most beautiful urban green spaces. Unlike other large urban parks, Stanley Park is not the creation of a landscape architect, but rather the evolution of a forest and urban space over many years. Stanley Park is about one-fifth larger than New York City’s 340-hectare (840-acre) Central Park and almost half the size of London’s 960-hectare (2,360-acre) Richmond Park. Stanley Park was named the best park in the world in 2013, according to website TripAdvisor’s first ever Travellers’ Choice Awards.

There are many more parks scattered through the city, including the VanDusen Botanical Garden with its Elizabethan hedge maze, and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, inspired by the gardens of Suzhou.

It’s a vibrant city surrounded by mountains and water. Flying into Vancouver, the first thing that will catch your eye is its surrounding water. Inlets, bays, rivers, and creeks penetrate deep inland. At the end of every  downtown street, you will glimpse an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The whole of Downtown and adjacent to it, is completely encircled by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, and False Creek.

It is a great scenic city built around the majestic snow-capped mountains of Grouse, Seymour, and the distant mountains of Washington State. From Downtown Vancouver, it will only take you 20 minutes to drive to the cable cars that climb more than 4,000ft up Grouse Mountain, from where you can see the island-speckled ocean, the wilderness on the city’s doorstep.

Epic adventures await you in Vancouver! Do a 9km captivating walk or bike ride along Stanley Park and the seawall. Walk along the cobblestone streets of Gastown and marvel at its steam clock. Shop along the finest designer shops around Robson Street and Alberni Street. Have Dim Sum in Chinatown. Ski and snowshoe at Grouse mountain. Do some kayaking around False Creek. Visit the Telus Science World and the nearby Olympic village. Go to the Vancouver Art Gallery and admire the amazing works of Canadian artists such as Emily Carr, Tom Thomson, et al.

Take a day trip to nearby Victoria Island — visit the House of Parliament and have an afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Drive to the Okanagan and do some wine tasting. Surf at Tofino. Go for a weekend escapade to Whistler and do some serious skiing. Shop and have a gelato at the Granville Island Public Market. Take a drive towards Sea to Sky and marvel at waterfalls, jaw-dropping vistas, stop by at a stunning cultural center and walk the suspension bridge along the way.

In Vancouver, you can shop, dine, relax, hike, ski, swim, and many more!

A Foodie’s top culinary destination. Vancouver is arguably North America’s best foodie city. It is heaven on earth for the discerning foodies! Vancouver has embraced the farm-to-table philosophy with gusto. Totally. Vancouver’s chefs can source seafood landed 10 miles from the city centre, vegetables from the Fraser River valley plus orchard fruits and ever-improving wines from the Okanagan Valley. In Vancouver, you can find the best and freshest sushi and sashimi, just go to Miku or Minami. For real Italian cooking, eat at either Giardino’s or Cioppino’s. For French fare, dine at Le Crocodile or Bacchus. For traditional Canadian dining, stop by Bishop’s. For seafood, go to Bluwater Cafe. If you are craving Chinese, go to Dynasty Seafood or to Richmond for the best dim sum. There are also plenty of innovative hole in the wall places.

Diversity and inclusiveness. Vancouver is a cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse city! Over the years, Vancouver has become home to a broad range of ethnic groups who have each contributed to this city’s vibrant and distinct assemblage of cuisines, heritage, belief systems, and artwork. It is a mix of different religions, ethnicities, and cultural groups from all over the world and Canada’s Indigenous communities. Vancouverites value this diversity because it is a source of the city’s strength, vitality, and prosperity.

Everyone wants a piece of Vancouver: rich families from Hong Kong and Shanghai; the hard-working immigrants from the Philippines and Vietnam; the tech entrepreneurs and high achievers from Mumbai; film makers from L.A.; CGI designers from London, and the list goes on. Do you know why they’re attracted to Vancouver? There are no Ontario blizzards, no LA smog, none of the New York density, and no Hong Kong chaos. In Vancouver, you are spoiled with picturesque snow-capped mountains, vast and clean oceans, big skies and wide colourful streets. And the icing on the cake? Polite and welcoming Canadians!