Amos, love to have you in BC, but if you're hoping to escape the rat race and take up something creative with pinecones, forget Vancouver, you can't get there from here. Vancouver was a very liveable city 20 years ago, but keep hoping that your US dollar remains high, because the amenities that once made it liveable are going to cost you big time if you wish to plunk yourself down in the Big Smoke. If you manage to get set up on some areas Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands/Sunshine Coast or in some places in the Interior, those options still exist.

Vancouver is a hard, tough, driven, city with very little soul left, compared with its former incantation. The setting is still the same, beautiful, but the character has changed. The politics are polarized and strident, based on ideological knee-jerk reactions and little thought given to the consequences. Very few vote for anything, they use their vote to punish incumbent perpetrators. Yet, in spite of seeing an old friend go down a path that one doesn't agree with, there is still much to love, but damn, it's bittersweet.