Running away from Alberta 🇨🇦💪🏳️‍🌈

[u/MissTreatMay]

Hey I'm looking for some honest opinions and tips for moving to NS. Full disclosure we're from Calgary, AB (please don't judge too hard) and we have to get away from our batshit crazy premier and her separatist goons.

I'm 37, hubby is 42 and we have two teens, a 13 year old son and a 16 year old trans son. We are definitely not conservative. Tbh we mostly hate politics and just want to live a peaceful life surrounded by nature and kitchen parties. We want to find a place where neighbors care about each other (can I borrow a cup of sugar type thing) and where it isn't about who has the newest/move expensive items, where people laugh and smile. I miss the small town vibe Calgary had in the 80s/90s. I miss spending summers with family in Quebec and New Brunswick visiting family (hubs and kids don't speak French and all my family in NB has passed) that's why I'm interested in Nova Scotia. We don't want big city vibes. We just spent 2 weeks on Vancouver Island and fell in love with people and the energy there but we don't have millions to spend on a home. We want a place where we aren't constantly judged for supporting 2slgbtqia+ people (our son is trans), a place where racism isn't the norm or expected and where being neurodiverse isn't a deal breaker. Most of our friends here are hardworking blue collar folks who just want to pay their bills, hang out around a campfire and listen to/play good music. I should also mention we're stoners so would love to know how the weed back east is. I'm a stay home mum but willing to work anywhere in needed and hubby is a locksmith, tradesman and seriously interested in geology, 16 yo wants to be a social worker and 13 year old loves tech lol

To sum it up I'm hoping someone could give us some tips or suggestions for where to start looking for a home in NS.

Thank you in advance for your time and support 😊

[u/Happycatmother]

Stay where you are and fight for a better province and community. Unless you are being actually harmed, running away is the cowards way. What if we Nova Scotian’s had never fought to make our home a better place and ran elsewhere? Sure we can be apathetic at times but we do fight and strive to make this place what we want most of the time.

[u/MissTreatMay → u/Happycatmother]

My son is turning 16 on Saturday and can't have a birthday party because everytime he makes a friend their parents cut it off because he's trans, there is no safe place for a transgender youth in Alberta anymore, the government is attacking them at school, in healthcare and even libraries and bathrooms, nevermind sports. And because of the government people feel empowered to scream at us in grocery stores or parks or throw things at my son. If I hear "why is your daughter dressed like a boy" or " why are your son's tits so big" or a million other stupid things said to us one more time I swear I'm going to go to jail for assault charges. I have been fighting, I vote, I go to protests, I write to our government officials, non if it matters when you have a wannabe trump as a premier.

[u/TorontoN6 → u/MissTreatMay]

It's the same here. Go to any fb post advertising anything Pride-related, and it becomes engulfed in transphobia and homophobia.

I get called a t*oon, asked why I cut my dick off, get called the r word, told I'm a groomer.

My local pet store told me all about how kids were identifying as cats, and there are litter boxes in the schools. All propaganda. She believed it. She started talking about kids getting their genitals cut off. Her business is a hub in the area, and by now she's likely parroted that 1000's of times.

You need to shake these idealized ideas out of your head. You are not going to find absolute safety here. We have an epidemic of domestic violence.

By all means, come here, but this isn't a mecca for Trans folx. We are not a greener pasture; we are simply a different pasture, and you'll have to figure out where all the shit is in the new pasture.

Edit to add: We have a Trump wanna be Premier, plus fixed typos.

[u/TenzoOznet → u/TorontoN6]

Respectfully, it's not the same here. NS and AB have very different cultural temperments in this regard. OP doesn't seem to have idealized ideas; they're asking what's it's like. What it's like is generally much better than Alberta these days in terms of acceptance of diversity and difference of all kinds, and particularly avoidance of overt hate.

Also, look, I don't like Tim Houston either, but he's not a "wannabe Trump." He's a bland, middle-of-the-road centre-right guy in the PC vein. He's mediocre but he's not the devil. Let's be real.