Alwin Huynh
Langley, BC > Calgary, 2023
After being raised, studying and living in Langley—a municipality in the BC lower mainland—his whole life, Alwin Huynh decided he needed a change. Huynh lived with his parents, but even then the cost of living was getting too high. So Huynh moved to Calgary in May 2023 for a fresh start. Although he didn’t have a job lined up, Huynh now works as an accountant and tutors on the side. He was initially planning to move alone, but knew he wanted roommates. After posting on social media that he was looking to live with someone, he connected with another person moving to Alberta from BC. “This guy messaged me on Facebook, and he said he was also from BC and he was looking to move around the same time I was,” he said. “We ended up just driving out here together, and we’re living together now.”
Maryna Mostova
Ukraine > Namibia > Edmonton, 2024
Maryna Mostova, her husband and her 13-year-old daughter had been living and working in Namibia for several years when Russia invaded their home country of Ukraine in February 2022. Looking at the political situation back home and in the rest of the world, Mostova and her husband needed to do what was best for their daughter. “We decided to come to Canada and just see if we could find more security and stability here.” Although Mostova felt it was the right decision, she was worried about her daughter adjusting to a new school, new country and new friends, all while adjusting to being a teenager. In the end it turned out Mostova had no reason to worry about her daughter, who has found her own community at school. The family’s biggest challenge is that Mostova’s husband, a physician, is still going through the licensing and qualification process before he can work. Until then, Mostova is yet to find the stability she and her family are looking for. In the meantime she has found support in the Ukrainian community in Alberta, which has allowed her to better adjust to life in Canada, while showing her daughter how things are done back home. In Namibia they were isolated from their culture and people. Now, Mostova finds comfort in seeing Ukrainians who just moved here alongside those who settled here generations ago. But Mostova doesn’t know if she and her family will stay in Canada forever, or if they’ll go back to Ukraine eventually. “Home is always home,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we have to think about safety first.”
Valentina Vives-Lopez
Toronto > Edmonton, 2022
In October 2022 Valentina Vives-Lopez’s now-fiancé—a member of the Canadian Armed Forces—was posted to a base in Edmonton. Vives-Lopez had lived and worked her whole life in Toronto and was apprehensive about the move. Friends and family members hated the idea the most, saying there was nothing in Edmonton and it was an industrial wasteland, which Vives-Lopez hears from Edmontonians too. But she found that Edmonton suits her better than Toronto ever did. After living here for two years, Vives-Lopez believes that no matter where you live, home is what you make of it. Now that she’s paying less in rent and grocery prices, she puts more toward exploring Edmonton. “There are opportunities for community everywhere,” she said. Vives-Lopez’s biggest challenge continues to be navigating the healthcare system. After two years in Edmonton, she still hasn’t found a family doctor. “We are basically asking our friends to ask their doctors if they have space,” she said. “I’m on a waitlist, but I don’t know. A lot of people are on a waitlist.” A few months ago, Vives-Lopez and her fiancé found out she was pregnant. She immediately applied for a midwife but didn’t hear back for two months. “I selected everyone, and the midwife that I got, basically at the last minute, had just moved a week before from BC. She was the only one with availability.” Vives-Lopez is from Colombia and frequently travels to visit family there. For her, she said, it makes more sense to pay for healthcare in Colombia than to wait for a doctor who may never be assigned in Alberta.
Brendan Canning
Toronto > Calgary, 2023
When Brendan Canning was attending the prosthetics and orthotics program at George Brown College in Toronto, Alberta is Calling campaign ads played during his labs. “My classmates would all joke, like, ‘Oh, Brendan’s just following the ads and going to Alberta,’ ” he said. “But I heard them after I had the idea to move here, just because moving out here was something that I was intrinsically interested in doing.” Canning had lived the majority of his life in Newmarket, Ontario, before moving to Calgary in August 2023. For him, the low cost of living, the high demand for his work and the proximity of the mountains made moving to Calgary a no-brainer. “Honestly, I’d say the first few months went quite well. I moved out here entirely alone, without knowing anybody.”
Interviews by Katie Teeling
Photography by Amber Bracken and Guillaume Nolet
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