A Californian says they achieved the American dream by moving to Canada: 'It's a game-changer'

• Erin Ventura and her husband moved to Canada following a two-year long-distance relationship.
• The couple bought a four-bedroom, two-story house in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Erin Ventura grew up in Los Angeles, and she describes herself as "a California girl" through and through. So her path over the past few years, after she met her husband, Justin Chiang, threw her family for a bit of a loop.

Probably the most surprising change? They gave up on sunny Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia, where he grew up, and she moved 3,000 miles northeast to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After an election season when searches for "move to Canada" spiked, Ventura talked with Business Insider about the culture shock of moving to a small city on Canada's eastern seaboard — and about how the move meant she and her husband could make a lot more money, buy a house near the ocean, and achieve the "American dream" in a different country.

Big cities like Los Angeles and Vancouver were too expensive to live long-term

Ventura, 32, and Chiang, 31, met at graduate school at Indiana University.

They both have fairly unusual jobs in the music industry. He plays the euphonium, a brass instrument that looks a bit like a small tuba. She's a professional luthier, or someone who makes or fixes stringed instruments.

They met in 2014 and got married in 2018. But since Chiang was a Canadian citizen and Ventura was American, they had to choose which country to live in.

At first, they tried a long-distance relationship. Chiang moved back to Burnaby, British Columbia, where he stayed with his family and worked at a job in arts administration.

Meanwhile, Ventura lived with her mom in the San Fernando Valley and got a job in a high-end violin-repair shop in Pasadena.

"We were kind of going back and forth between both countries," Ventura told Business Insider, "because his job was really flexible and mine was fairly flexible. So we were kind of living in two countries for two years."

Looking for a long-term place to live was difficult. Moving to one city or the other would mean one of them would lose their job. And their salaries — Ventura said she was making "somewhere in the 30s," while Chiang was making less than 50,000 Canadian dollars — wouldn't go very far in Los Angeles or Vancouver.

"They're just two really expensive cities," Ventura said.

But then her husband auditioned for a job as a musician with the Canadian military and was offered a place in the Stadacona Band, in Nova Scotia.

"Those jobs are really hard to get, and they don't open up very often," she said. "And we're thinking, like, you know what? Let's try it. Now's the time."

They bought a four-bedroom, two-story house with a view of the ocean

As the spouse of a Canadian citizen, Ventura was eligible to apply right away for permanent residency, and they moved to Halifax together in June 2019.

It took a few months for her paperwork to come through, so at first she was technically just visiting, but she started looking for work as soon as she was able to.

It might not surprise you to learn that there are not a lot of openings for a luthier in Nova Scotia; there was only one shop in the area, and it wasn't hiring. So Ventura wound up opening her own shop in a spare room in the house they rented.

"It just completely took off," she said. "I'm so lucky, because I was trained in a nice shop. I do really good work. There's the symphony here, and I've been lucky enough to have some members as customers. I'm very thankful."

Ventura said her husband was making a bit over 60,000 Canadian dollars a year playing in the military band. He actually had to join the Canadian navy for the job, so employment security is high.

In her first year of being self-employed, Ventura said, she made a bit over 50,000 Canadian dollars.

The result is that they're making more money together than they were in cities with a much higher cost of living — and that meant they could buy a house together this past summer.

"It's a game-changer," Ventura said. "Honestly, one of my favorite things about moving here is we have this four-bedroom, two-story house with a basement suite, with a view of the ocean. To put a little disclaimer: It's the part where the ships come in, not the pretty part, but I still love it. I love being able to smell the ocean. And our mortgage is around 340,000 Canadian.

"I just can't believe it. We come from two of the most expensive cities in North America. So the fact that we could even get a house at age 28 or 29, I'm just blown away."

It's less stressful in Halifax — but also less diverse

Of course, moving from a big US city to a much smaller, fairly remote one in Canada (Halifax has a population of about 425,000 people) has involved some significant surprises.

"It's actually a pretty big culture shock," Ventura said. "It's kind of funny, considering the US and Canada are so similar. But I think in this case it's more of a 'big city, small city' kind of thing. Just the mentality is a little bit slower. And I think people here are not as receptive to outsiders and immigrants as some bigger American cities and bigger Canadian cities would be."

The big changes she's noticed include less stress — but also less diversity, both in the people who live around them and in their daily lives.

For example, Ventura said it was jarring to move from diverse cities like Los Angeles and Vancouver to Halifax, which is heavily white.

"My husband's Asian, and it's funny — we have this area in Halifax where we're really comfortable, like the area we live in and the downtown area with all the students and immigrants," she said. "There, it feels totally great. But I notice sometimes, even if we drive, like, 30 minutes outside, people kind of give me a stare or give him a stare, like, oh, you're different. You're probably not from here. Especially like a white woman with a Chinese-Canadian man. I think that's pretty unique here especially. It's just uncomfortable."

She said she's also noticed there are fewer choices, from where to shop to where to get health insurance.

"I miss Trader Joe's. I'm a typical Californian," she said. "I miss Trader Joe's so much. I miss the food trucks. That was another one of my favorite things about LA was that the food is just phenomenal. And I miss that about Vancouver too."

But at the same time, she said, there is a lot less stress in her daily life — even with things she hadn't noticed she was particularly stressed about, like the potential for gun violence in the United States, until she was living in Canada.

"I think a lot of Canadians really take for granted — like, I feel so safe here. It's amazing," she said, adding that gun violence seemed rare enough that the few times it's happened in Canada are still commemorated each year.

"Like, there was a mass shooting in Quebec at a technical college 20 years ago, and they still talk about that in the news, where in the United States we have something like the Pulse nightclub or Las Vegas and we just kind of forget about those things."

Another big change? She said she was used to having men make unwanted comments when she went outside in the US, but that doesn't happen anymore.

"I have not been catcalled since I got to Halifax. I should point that out," she said. "I have never felt, like, any kind of aggressive, inappropriate energy from any man here, which is amazing. It's much more polite. It's an issue everywhere [in the US], but it was especially in Bloomington."

Of course, one of the biggest changes is the weather — going from sunny California to chilly Canada is a big deal.

"Canadians are so funny with their winters that they think if it's slightly not terrible, it's the nicest day ever. I'm a California girl, used to nine months of summer," she said. "I adapted, though. You have to get a whole new wardrobe. There was one day last year we got about a foot of snow, and that was the most I've ever seen. I'd never shoveled a driveway before."

Despite the weather and the adjustments, Ventura said it's starting to feel a bit more like home.

"I don't think anybody in my family had ever even heard of Halifax before I mentioned that I was considering moving here. It is so new for them," she said. "We were saying we'd try it out for a year, and if we didn't like it, we'd go somewhere else. But it's working out so well for us. We're really happy here. So yeah, we're going to stay here for a while."

This story was originally published on December 30, 2020 and most recently updated on December 7, 2023.