According to Wikipedia:
A snowbird is a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter. The southern locales include the Sun Belt and Hawaii in the United States, as well as Mexico and the Caribbean. Snowbirds used to primarily be retired or older, but are increasingly of all ages.
And the reason that so many Canadians are snowbirds should be clear from the picture above. That shot was taken from our front doorstep just a few days before starting our 2025 trip to the Caribbean. And we live in Greater Vancouver, which the rest of Canada claims never experiences real winter. (Check out this Facebook Reel.)
It is true that BC’s Lower Mainland gets a lot more rain than snow in a typical winter, and residents of the area frequently say about the rain “Well, at least you don’t have to shovel it.”. But the snowbirds’ reply is “You don’t have to shovel sunshine either!”. And that’s why we frequently plan our trips to be in a different hemisphere, or at least someplace warmer (and hopefully drier!) during the Canadian winter.