I moved from New York to Canada for my husband’s job; I didn’t expect to like it

This as-told essay is based on a conversation with Erin Smith, a 47-year-old freelance marketer and founder of the travel blog. Gluten-free globetrottingwho moved to Montreal in 2024. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in New York and spent my last twenty years in Brooklyn. I just didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Not even in 2016, when I moved with my then-boyfriend, now my husband, to Santa Cruz. Even though it was beautiful there, I just wasn’t happy. I had to go back to the city, to New York. So we moved after only two and a half years in California.

I thought I wouldn’t move anymore, but in 2024 my husband got a very good job opportunity in Montreal. He is an agronomist who works in indoor agriculture. He had the opportunity to help start a greenhouse division for a national company there, which was a perfect fit for him.

As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot of agriculture in New York. I’m a freelance marketer and can work from anywhere, but for my husband, it really was the perfect job at the perfect time.

I hired a relocation coach to help me with the move

We had to wait for my son to finish the school year in New York, so from January to July we focused on planning the move.

The idea of ​​leaving New York was really difficult. I mean, all my friends and family are there. And even though Canada is not geographically far from New York, it is still a different environment – ​​especially Quebec, which is a French-speaking province.

I kept thinking about our move to California, which didn’t suit us. “Oh my God, it’s going to happen again,” kept running through my mind. This, coupled with the overwhelming feeling of how much we would have to learn about Quebec, led me to hire a relocation coach.

She’s a digital nomad who has lived all over the world, and she’s helped me a lot – not so much with the logistics of moving, but more in realizing that the things that were important to me in New York would still be important to me in Canada, and that there are ways to incorporate them into my new life.

We pay less for accommodation in Montreal

We visited Quebec a few times before our move to scout out neighborhoods and schools. It was important for me to come here during the winter because it’s very cold and snowy here, which I wasn’t used to experiencing in New York.

Our last visit before the move was in April and we literally had a week to find a place to live. Unlike New York, where you can find a rental at any time of the year, in Montreal, many leases begin on July 1 and end at the end of June of the following year.

My husband works in rural Quebec and we couldn’t live there for several reasons, but we are very happy with where we ended up. We live in a beautiful neighborhood in Westmount, in the southwest of Montreal. We are right next to a metro station and can reach downtown Montreal on foot from our apartment. I feel very lucky.

When we moved, our goal was to spend less on rent than in New York. In Brooklyn, we lived in a duplex with a backyard, which is pretty rare there: we were very lucky during COVID-19, when everyone was leaving the city. We paid about $3,500 there; here I pay about $1,000 less. Even though we lost our outdoor space, we gained a washer and dryer, a luxury I’ve never had in 20 years of living in Brooklyn.

We had to make new friends and open new bank accounts

The main language of Quebec is French, so navigating the region’s bureaucracy and school system is difficult.

In Montreal, there are two main school boards, one English and one French. We needed specific documents to benefit from the English system. My son now attends an English school with a French immersion program.

Making friends here hasn’t been easy either. Because I work for a company based in New York, I’ve really had to push myself to meet people. Most of my community comes from meeting other parents through my children’s school organizations and connecting with our neighbors.

The biggest challenge we faced was getting our finances in place. Since we had no financial history in Canada, we had no credit. Even basic things like getting a credit card or opening a bank account took about six to eight weeks to sort out.

The cost of living here is quite comparable to New York. We spend about the same on groceries, and while we save on housing, my husband spends more on gas because he commutes and drives further out of town. However, I work from home.

The healthcare system is affordable but difficult to navigate

I have lived with celiac disease for over 40 years. In Canada, it is much easier to eat gluten-free due to the country’s food regulations and labeling laws. And thanks to my work with gluten-free restaurants and brands — and my blog — I already had a built-in gluten-free community when I moved here.

I have never lived in a place where health care was socialized. So there was a huge learning curve in finding doctors and managing prescriptions. I have to use Google Translate for everything.

Health insurance is affordable here. We no longer pay out of pocket for coverage, which is a big change: In New York, health insurance for a family of three costs almost as much as rent.

It differs from one province to another, but in Quebec, you must have a regular family doctor. Since moving here, I have had to see a few specialists for checkups, and the service has been covered. Sometimes I still find myself waiting for a bill to arrive, and it never arrives.

Another thing that surprised me about the medical system here is that you can make an appointment with a pharmacist, and they can prescribe medication for you if you have correct test results.

Montreal now feels like home

I really love Montreal and I’m happy here. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. Life seems calmer: the city is beautiful, cleaner and safer. The people here are so much nicer; they have this polite, laid back attitude.

Our Canadian visas last three years, but we hope to extend them. For now, I would like to stay as long as possible.

A year ago, I probably would have wanted to go back to New York. But now, especially with our child at school, I don’t want to disrupt that. I also don’t know if we could afford to go back.

I will always consider myself a New Yorker first and an American second; It’s my identity through and through. But in New York, I never really felt like I could slow down. In Montreal, we are no longer in this constant and exacerbated state. Life here is simply different.