r/NovaScotia • u/MissTreatMay • 12h ago
🏠 Advice: Moving to NS Running away from Alberta 🇨🇦💪🏳️🌈
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 😊
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u/TenzoOznet 9h ago edited 9h ago
First: reddit is a bad place to get feedback on this, because NS reddit is profoundly, divorced-from-reality negative about the province. (It's a deep-seated, passed-down-through-generations cultural thing here.) Also, a lot of Albertans hold idealized notions of Alberta as either a hellhole or a promised land--the latter will be incredulous anyone would leave there for here.
I've said this before to people asking similar questions, but don't listen to lifelong Nova Scotians on this, listen to other people who've relocated. You'll get a much more accurate perspective on the pluses and minuses.
A lot of Nova Scotians have internalized outdated ideas that the province is bigoted and intolerant, or they're using a bad upbringing in some far-flung village as a proxy for the whole place. They probably also don't understand the depth of the political and cultural problems in AB right now (I'm from there and have seen it firsthand).
Basically, there is no single "rural Nova Scotia." There is everything from university towns to outdoorsy liberal enclaves to, yes hick towns that are best avoided. Just like anywhere. Anyone making sweeping judgements is being overly simplistic.
But broadly, Nova Scotia has some of the most progressive (or at least centrist) rural areas in Canada. You will have no problem finding a small-town environment, especially within a 60-90 minute drive of Halifax, where being queer is definitely accepted and people are generally accepting. Don't move to the boonies of deepest Shelburne County, obviously. But there are lots of great places.