Here comes the rain again

Today was an amazing day. The sun was shining. Big, bright and yellow! I was driving around lunch time, window down, on a 11th of January. For me, this is so cool! I like it so much, I was laughing in my car. Probably because I know back in Quebec it is at least -10C. Here is a picture of today, at 1pm.

Photo from www.katkam.ca - great webcam site

I was so happy that I had to post a quick status update of Facebook about it.  Quickly I got jokes about the rain from east coast friends.  Yes, it does rain a lot during the winter saison and fall... and spring... and even summer.  Some people prefer the cold days of winter with more sunlight, some prefer warmer temperature with rain.  In the end, it is a question of preferences.

But I prefer Vancouver weather for 4 main raisons

Less extreme temperature

Over a year the temperature is more constant. Some people joke that Vancouver has only 3 saisons: summer, fall and spring.  It's kind of true. When you look at the Vancouver climate charts, you see that the temperature varies on average from 0C to 22C.  Where the Montreal climate chart shows a variation over a year of 42C (27C - -15C). I prefer less heat and less cold. 

Less drastic change of temperature

It seems like we see more wide change in temperature within 24 hours during winter in Quebec than it used to.  It could rain at 0C and the next day it would be -20C. Then it is icy everywhere. Terrible for roads and structure. Here is an example of the temperature over 24h the day we move from Quebec this past December 28th 2011.  I tried to find statistics to back this up, but I couldn't, except that TripAdvisor.ca mention 'Québec City is one of the top world cities for the variation in temperature observed within the same day in wintertime'.

Less humid during the summer

I hate humidity! All sticky and sweaty. Yuk! There is an average of 4.5 days with humidex above 30 per year in Vancouver compare to almost 45 days in Montreal. Way too many for me!

I go to the snow.  It doesn't come to me
I like snow and I don't mind the cold that much. But I definitely prefer going to the snow when I feel like skiing or snowshoeing rather that having to deal with it everyday.  When I want to have fun in the snow, I go to the North Shore mountains like, Cypress, Grouse or Seymour for some nice snow conditions or to Whistler for some amazing!

And to put things in perspective in regards to the rain, some interesting facts and statistics about the rain

• Montreal has a constant average of 80mm of rain throughout the year.  While in Vancouver the average is under 100mm, but it has 4.5 months, under 80mm, with 2, July & August, below 40mm, which make Vancouver's summer dryer than Montreal!
• There is also on average 1928 hours of sunlight per year in Vancouver, compare to 2028 in Montreal.  So there is only 5% more hours of sunlight in Montreal.

In the end it is a question of preferences and what is more aligned with who we are, what we like. And the older I get the more I know who I am and what I like.

A question of numbers

I'v been asked often how many people is there in Vancouver, how big is it, how does it compare to Montreal, Quebec or Toronto. So here are some numbers and statistics.

Let's look at the population of the city. Not the metro area or greater area, but the city.

Rank	Municipality	Land Area (km2)	Population 2006	Density
1	Toronto	630.18	2,503,281	3,972/km2
2	Montreal	365.13	1,620,692	4,439/km2
8	Vancouver	114.71	578,041	5,039/km2
10	Quebec City	454.26	491,142	1,081/km2

(the complete 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population)

Toronto is the most populated city followed by Montreal. Vancouver is 8th, just a bit before Quebec City. But the Greater Vancouver is over 2.3 million residents which is the 3rd most populous metropolitan area in Canada after Toronto (5.1 millions) and Montreal (3.6 millions). The greater Quebec City area is 0.75 million, which puts it in 7th place for greater/metro area.

What is interesting is that Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian city with 5,039 people per square kilometre. It is the 4th most densely populated city in North America among those with a population above 500,000 — after New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City. Vancouver is characterized by high-rise residential with commerces of the 1st floor. People do actually lives in the downtown areas, where often in cities, downtown is empty at night. Here is a very nice picture of downtown Vancouver at dusk from Magnus Larsson of Malmö, Sweden. Magnus is a Technical Art Director at Ubisoft Massive.

Vancouver has been debating "ecodensity" a lot recently. Ecodensity are ways in which "density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability." For example bylaws have changed in 2009 to allow laneway housing.

Vancouver is a city composed of a lot neighbourhoods, which is ofter refer to communities. Each communities a distinct character and/or ethnic mix. There are 23 communities in Vancouver. Some of the more known communities are, Downtown, West End, Kitsilano and Grandview often refer as Commercial area or The Drive. This is where I used to live. We are hoping to find a place in this area.

The other thing I would like to talk to you about is the population age. In statistic we use the median age. The median age is an age "x", such that exactly one half of the population is older than "x" and the other half is younger than "x".

	Median age 2001	Median age 2009	Variation
Toronto	35.8	37.8	1.9
Vancouver	37.0	39.0	2.0
Montreal	37.6	39.2	1.6
Canada	37.2	39.5	2.3
Quebec	39.3	41.9	2.6

Here is the complet table for median age for metropolitan area at July 1, 2001 and 2009 and its graphical representation.

What you notice is that Quebec City is older than Canadian median, but not that different from the other major cities. After looking at those numbers it wasn't explaining to me why I feel like Vancouver is a lot younger than Montreal and even more than Quebec City. The answer came from that chart in the article about the age profiles on the City of Vancouver web site

As you see the curves for Canada, BC and metro Vancouver are fairly similar, but the one of the city of Vancouver shows a lot more people in the 20-40 age groupe with a spike at 20. So the city itself has a lot more younger people.

All I want for Christmas is a transporter

After the public announcement of our departure with the 1st blog post, I realized there were plenty of relatives and friends I wish I could have taken the time to tell in person instead of via a blog post.


I wish I had the chance to visit everyone. Go see them at their new house, newly renovated apartment, see their kids, or sit down in a coffee shop, around a nice meal and a great bottle of wine and talk. But I couldn't get to it. Busy personal/professional life, schedule conflicts and different cities. 


We were living in Quebec City and most of my relatives and long time friends are in or around Montreal. It has been a pleasure to tease them about the Habs, the mayor Tremblay or the road conditions, but even an easy 3 hour drive is just enough to make it think twice about a quick back and forth the same day.  You can't go just for a coffee and come back.  It has to be an entire day thing. It's frustrating because it's so close.  You don't need to take a plane. When I think about it. I saw my mom 4 or 5 times this year, compared to 2 or 3 times when I was living in Vancouver.  So then why not live in Vancouver?


The other main reason why I couldn't tell earlier is that as a team manager I wanted to make sure I was leaving my current company and my team in a good condition.  Making sure they where in good hands and on a good path.  So I had to tell everyone just a week before my last day. I'm sure my friend Liza Wood know what I'm talking about. She has a good blog about management, process and leadership.  And now these days the only way to keep something out of the public is not to tell anyone.  Because soon enough it ends up on Facebook.  


So all I want for Christmas is a transporter