Maclean’s top 10 stories about Canadians moving coast to coast
Stories of house hunts and cross-country moves
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COVID might’ve first kicked the great Canadian real estate scramble into high gear, but in 2023, the mass movement continued. Feeling the squeeze in their square footage and the pinch in their wallets, Ontarians offloaded their overpriced rentals and postage stamp–sized lots in favour of bigger backyards, cheaper mortgages and first-time homeownership out the Atlantic way. Unsurprisingly, affordability seemed to top everyone’s lists of property priorities, but some Canucks were pulled west and east (especially east) by their senses of adventure, too. Many even became the proud new owners—and, in some cases, refurbishers—of general stores, bed-and-breakfasts and century-old parsonages. Read on for a review of Maclean’s biggest Moves of the last year.
10. The Move: We’re retirees who bought a granny flat to live near our daughter and save money
The backstory: In April of 2020, Cathy Rivoire’s daughter, Caitlyn, was thinking about selling her home. She’s a teacher who lived in Smiths Falls with her three dogs; she wanted to get away and settle down on a larger rural property with some acreage. Cathy and her husband, Gord, have lived on a 50-acre property in Lombardy, Ontario, for the past 40 years. Jokingly, Caitlyn suggested that her parents could apply for a land severance to create a separate lot for her to purchase. To her surprise, they were both on board.
9. The Move: Why two pilots willing to put down roots anywhere in Canada landed in Calgary.
The backstory: Sylvie and Riley are originally from opposite sides of the country—her from Ottawa and him from Squamish, British Columbia. In 2020, they met somewhere close to the middle, while working as air-ambulance pilots in La Ronge, a remote community in northern Saskatchewan. They were used to airlifting victims of ATV and snowmobile accidents to hospitals, but during the pandemic, they serviced more and more patients afflicted with COVID. “It was nice to be in the same field at that time,” Sylvie says. “When we needed to rant after a long day, we each had someone who could understand us.”
8. The Move: From Toronto’s rental grind to a quaint corner store in Quebec
The backstory: Throughout his late teens and early 20s, Hamza worked part time at his father’s corner stores, first in Kingston, Ontario, then in Winnipeg. He didn’t mind the work, which included stocking shelves, paperwork and manning the counter—he just couldn’t imagine making a life of it. After finishing his undergraduate degree at the University of Winnipeg, Hamza moved to Toronto, where, three years ago, he met Tatjana on Tinder. It was a whirlwind romance, and the couple married after less than a year of dating. At that point, they both had steady jobs in marketing—him for American Express, her for the Toronto Star—and they were thinking about buying a home together.”
7. The Move: Two working parents trek from B.C. to N.B. in search of affordable childcare
The backstory: Until recently, Billie Jean and K.C. had only ever called British Columbia home—she’s originally from the Sunshine Coast and he hails from Vancouver Island. In 2018, when Billie Jean got pregnant with Asher, the couple’s first child, they moved out of the two-bedroom townhouse they shared in Courtenay and bought a four-bedroom split-level detached model located on a family-friendly suburban cul de sac, an ideal spot for their growing brood. (They banked on having at least one more kid.)
6. The Move: After a cancer diagnosis, this Ontario couple headed to P.E.I. to retire (and relax)
The backstory: Doug and Teri spent their lives in St. Catharines, the southern Ontario city where they met in 1982 through friends. They raised their kids, Arlington and Olivia, in the same three-bedroom bungalow that Teri grew up in. Prior to the pandemic, the couple had been making plans for their retirement—which, they hoped, would include a prettier property with more land. “The bungalow wasn’t our dream home,” Doug says. “It was close to a busy road and our neighbours were right there.” Initially, the Johnsons were aiming to retire in 2024, but they reprioritized when Doug was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020. “That made me say, ‘It’s time to relax and enjoy life,’ ” Doug says.
5. The Move: From a postage stamp–sized lot in London to greener pastures in Moncton
The backstory: Like many millennials, Hayley Burrell wanted to be a homeowner by the time she turned 30. (She was 28 at the time of this revelation.) She took a portion of her earnings from her job as a security guard at a London, Ontario hospital and funnelled them into an RRSP, hoping to take advantage of Canada’ first-time home buyer incentive. By 2013, just after her 29th birthday, she’d managed to save enough money to purchase a recently renovated three-bedroom semi detached home in London, Ontario for $158,000. She met Mike on Tinder the following year.
4. The Move: This couple moved from a downtown Toronto condo to a sprawling Nova Scotia B&B
The backstory: After two years of dating, Marty moved into Stefan’s one-bedroom, 450-square-foot apartment in downtown Toronto in May of 2019. The place was small but a real steal. Together, they paid a combined $1,450 a month thanks to rent control. It wasn’t long after Stefan and Marty started cohabitating that they began talking about how long they saw themselves staying in the city. At the time, Marty was mid-way through a master’s degree in nursing at the University of Toronto, so they figured they’d postpone moving—or talk of moving—until after he graduated.
That timeline accelerated dramatically when Stefan and Marty found themselves cooped up inside with their cat, Arthur, during the pandemic. “I was in one corner of the living room at a desk and Marty was in the other corner, on the edge of the couch, trying to study,” Stefan recalls. “Our plan switched from talking about leaving in June of 2021 to, ‘We want to be gone by June of 2021.’
3. The Move: From downtown Toronto to an artist’s escape in rural Newfoundland
The backstory: Laura Dawe moved into her bare-bones two-bedroom apartment in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood in 2011. At the time, she could barely afford the $1,200 monthly rent, so she opted to split the cost with her then-partner and a roommate. As the city’s housing market exploded around her, Dawe watched as her apartment went from nothing special into an affordable hidden gem. “It transformed from a hovel to a castle by sheer inertia,” she says. In 2019, Dawe secured a part-time job teaching drawing and painting, a regular paycheque that allowed her to continue renting the space even after her roomies moved out. She also converted the second bedroom into a studio, where she began teaching still-life classes.
2. The Move: Two die-hard digital nomads finally settle at a former parsonage in Nova Scotia
The backstory: Dalene and Pete were digital nomads long before it was cool. Back in 2007, the couple were living in a 2,100-square-foot detached house in Okotoks, Alberta. Every day, they commuted an hour each way to Calgary to work corporate jobs they didn’t love—Dalene in supply-chain management and Pete in accounting. Then, within a few short months, two of their close family members died and they found out they wouldn’t be able to conceive a child without substantial medical intervention. Dalene and Pete had always talked about taking an extended trip, but life kept getting in the way. “At that point, we’d run out of reasons not to travel,” Dalene says. They decided to quit their jobs, sell their house and see the world, initially planning to return to Alberta within a year. They were gone for nearly eight.
1. The Move: A former Toronto renter becomes a first-time homeowner—in St. John’s
The backstory: In October of 2019, the Toronto-based public relations agency where Shaughnessy was working decided to hold its next company retreat in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The city’s overwhelmingly friendly vibe impressed Shaughnessy right away. During a pub night, Shaughnessy mentioned to a few locals that she was keen to check out nearby Bonavista and Trinity, two popular, affordable weekend getaway spots, when the retreat was over. One patron handed her his number—to connect her with friends in town who could recommend places to eat and hike. There was also the small matter of the ocean. “I went on a hike to Freshwater Bay and picked blueberries off bushes,” Shaughnessy recalls. “You just don’t get that in Toronto.”