Atlantic Canada is gaining incredible popularity

More and more Canadians are looking to settle not in Toronto and Vancouver as they used to, but in Canada's Atlantic provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador or in Prince Edward Island.

Lee and Rebecca Larabee are a case study of a family moving from Toronto to Springhill, a Nova Scotia town of less than 3,000 people that the couple had never been to. They had long wanted to leave the metropolis because of the ever-increasing prices, the small apartment, and the hustle and bustle, but the pandemic put the final stop.

"Every time Rebecca goes to work, I worry because she's literally putting her life at risk for a salary that's just above minimum wage," says Lee Larabee.

In 2015, Rebecca was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological condition characterized by inflammation of the spinal cord. Oil was added to the fire by Lee's tattoo parlour in Toronto, which had been closed since November. The couple sold it.

Lee says they've received many well-wishing messages from Springhill residents on Facebook communities. People have even offered to buy them groceries for the mandatory 14-day self-isolation period upon arrival.

Larabee is one of many Ontario families who travel to the Atlantic Provinces in the midst of the third wave of the pandemic.

Sandra Pike, a realtor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, shared that about half of the new clients for whom she's been conducting online real estate showings lately are from Ontario. That's a lot more than in previous years.

Clients cite the cost of living as the main reason, but the pandemic influenced the final decision. Concerns about COVID-19 are causing people to look for a place with a quieter lifestyle, and remote work allows people to move to any city. Pike also noted that she has seen on social media that people are unhappy about the number of new immigrants to Ontario. Residents fear another spike in disease and skyrocketing property prices.

Steve Jordens, a University of Toronto psychology professor who was born in New Brunswick, compares the urge to leave for quieter provinces to an instinctive response to a threat: fight or flight.

"The fight isn't working — the pandemic is coming back wave after wave," Jordens said. — So the next natural step is to flee."

Many people do indeed consider life in Ontario to be unsafe. While the number of infections has begun to decline, and conversely, increase in Atlantic Canada, the difference is still not comparable. Nova Scotia, for example, reported 133 cases on Sunday, compared to 3,436 in Ontario.

Nova Scotia recently tightened quarantine restrictions. Only essential businesses are operating in the province, and residents can only move around within their town.