I live in Vancouver, its a love hate, you do have almost 6 months of grey skies and rain, which gets most of the city down by spring time but the summers are gorgeous. I like it because the tempatures are mild, it rarely goes below -5, infact that might be the coldest it gets, most of the winter we do not go below zero.
Vancouver itself is hard city to start in, the rents are unbelievably high, cost of living in general is high. We have the highest gas prices in Canada (due to transit taxes added on the gas). Food on the other hand is very reasonable, especially from markets that sell produce and goods made locally.
The job market is also a hard one, its a very popular city and can be quite the task to get employed here, the big secret is it has less to do with what you know then who you know, if make some good contacts then your golden.
Vancouver Island is alot more reasonable regarding housing, much cheaper, there is no real city there, Victoria is a just a big small town, everything closes at 6pm, very much a retirement community. But there are lots of great artisan communities all up and down the island. Again employment is limited as most people use to work in the Natural resource sector which has run dry in BC with Mills and mines closing all over the place.
So basically, its such a beautiful place to live, the ocean at your feel, huge mountains right there to explore, rain forests and wilderness, lakes, great fresh produce, mild tempetures but make sure you try and established a job or some finances before settling or you may be in for some hard months.
) Which is why we were leaning towards BC.
