[Christien]

Montreal, while somewhat a shadow of its former self, is still one of the greatest cities in the world, IMHO. Of course it depends on what you're into, but it's got most things covered. And the economy is on an upswing, which is nice. Toronto is very multicultural. The city itself tends to be mostly working and upper class, with all the middle class moving out to the burbs (yours truly). Both Montreal and Toronto have an extremely large weather range - very cold winters (regularly hits -30 in Jan/Feb) with plenty of snow, very hot summers (regularly hits +30 in July/Aug). Vancouver is a very beautiful city, with an amazing downtown waterfront. Much more temperate climate, rarely dips below 0 in winter. Toronto and Vancouver are stupid expensive for housing, Montreal is more moderate but climbing. Montreal has easily the best transportation system and least traffic of the 3 (though admittedly I've only visited Vancouver, not lived there).

Halifax is apparently also a great city - smaller (300K I think?) with more moderate cost of living. Calgary as someone said is a boomtown and housing prices are going through the roof. Edmonton is better, but also colder. Winnipeg is a really cool city as well, though they get nasty winters. Lots of history there.

Taxes are high, maybe not as high as Finland, but I get the impression that you don't get as much for your taxes here as you would in northern Europe.

Overall, I think you would probably find Canada similar. Canada and Scandinavia have generally always ranked very high on the UN index for overall quality of life. Much higher than the rest of Europe and the US.