[RabidRat]

I lived in Toronto for 3 years.

Too late to chime in (looks like you've already moved), but I would've said that 40 years later, would you rather look back on a portion of your life lived on the other side of the fence, really getting to know the culture out east, or would you rather have maybe an extra $30k in the bank because you lived in Calgary, with the lower living expenses?

I would've said that you don't get to know a place and its culture by visiting on vacation the same way that you do by settling down somewhere and making new lifelong friends. While this is true for both Toronto and Calgary, I think there's a lot more to get to know in one vs the other. And then there's the fact that Ottawa, Montreal, and NYC are all close by enough that you can spontaneously head out there for a weekend.

I would've said that you've had easy access to snowboarding and all the best that the west coast had to offer, all your life. But now you have the opportunity to experience something completely, wildly different than what you're used to, not just more of the same by moving one province over to Calgary.