Just finished my trip in Vancouver, Canada (not Vancouver, Washington); and what an interesting comparison to compare that to Sydney (Sydney, Australia not Sydney, Nova Scotia). The names themselves are so confusing..lo.

Many have compared Canada & Australia as likely cities, both have made themselves to most livable countries in the world; I am not going to comment on the ranking as frankly speaking, I think the ranking works on some some strange system that nobody understands.

However, Canada has a number unique advantages to Australia. First, I am not afraid of cold, and it’s not really that cold in Vancouver anyway, it did go down to -7 while I was there, and that was as cold as you can get!

Canada, being right next to the big USA has so many advantages (and maybe some disadvantages); on the way coming over from USA; we could see lots of ships lining up, and we are talking about RECESSION!! The scale of economy is amazing; I had counted number of cargo ships arriving; it was a huge line; and Canada had benefited a lot because of the transportation cost from US is bugger all as they say in Australia. This advantage has helped Canada to source goods at reasonable price, the general cost of living in Canada is much lower than in Australia.

You may say property is very expensive, but it’s comparable to Sydney, I will say the property price in Vancouver is somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney, but not as expensive as Sydney, in some areas; it is more like Brisbane price. It has gone up a lot, which means, a lot of folks in Vancouver would rather rent, but if you look at the interest rate, it is much lower than Australia; and bank fees are also lower than in Australia; it is quite easy to switch banks, and quite a few folks here also do lots of business with USA, which means they can get loans from USA which are typically lower than Canada.

Economy wise is very interesting, Australia has been on spotlight for 2 reasons worldwide: 1) Better employment rate, but many do feel that it is a Government’s show, and real unemployment rate in Australia is probably around 9% to 10%; as a lot of jobs accounted for are basically contractor jobs. I think Canada’s unemployment rate is comparable to Australia, it has been impacted more bacause it;s major customer is USA. 2) But inflation in Australia is getting out of control, inflation is not a problem in Canada and USA, and in fact, it has never been a problem in North America; at least not for essential goods and consumer goods. This makes living in North America much easier for families especially.

Australia is a lovely place to live, but cost has gone up beyond one’s imagination! I am very shocked when I arrived in Canada & USA to see the price had hardly changed since 10 years ago when I lived here! People are complaining in Vancouver that bus fare had gone up from $1.00 to $2.00 over the past 8 years! Ha! How about in Australia? Bus fare had jumped 3 times last 8 years! You can’t even find a place to eat-out in Australia for a family for under $30!!! (apart from fast foods), you can have a nice Dim Sum or Japanese Meal in Vancouver for under $30!

So comes to the bottom, why did Australia become so expensive?

The biggest problem is we are being hit by the Climate Change, the drought had destroyed Australia’s agricultural industry. It means we are facing shortage of food supply; plus Australia is very remote, the transportation cost is double if not more compared to from Asia to North America (even though the distance is actually shorter to Australia) - this is hurting Australians.

The 2nd problem is the market size; where we have many duopoly or monopoly industries such as supermarkets and telecommunications; average supermarket item in Australia is one of the most expensive in the world; and telco charges is amongst the world’s top 20 most expensive, and definitely the most expensive in developed worlds. Banking fees in Australia is also the highest in the developed worlds.

Although income maybe slightly higher in Australia, it does not make much difference after tax and all the hidden taxes in our goods and services.

Therefore, out of all these comparions, it seems Vancouver has a reason to beat Australian cities as the world’s most livable cities from the cost point of view; and also lower crime rate, and more culturally harmonious society.

Sydney & Melbourne are also great cities; but when people are struggling to pay grocery bills everyweek; they will not find these cities as attractive as before, it’s a real shame, and we really hope more competition will be allowed in Australia so that they can make these cities more affordable.