<p>As a McGill student who knows virtually no French, I can tell you that you can do just fine at McGill only knowing English (it is an English language university) and virtually all people in the service industry that I have met have at least a working use of English, so you can acess pretty much all the amenities of the city without French (I have a friend who has been at McGill for 4 and 1/2 years and still doesn’t know a word of French). However, if you do go to McGill, I wold encourage you to make an effort to learn a bit of French (as I am trying from some books i bought) because I think you might get a little more out of the city if you are bilingual, it is however by no means a requirement to having a good experience living in Montreal though.</p>
<p>As to UVic, I dont know much about the university itself, but I know that living on Vancouver Island would be a real treat (I never lived on the Island but I lived in Vancouver for 3 years), with huge forests containing giant redwood trees, beeches and tidal pools full of sea life. Your right too that the Vancouver/Victoria area of the West Coast has significantly warmer winters than Montreal, however it is NOT sunnier. That area is actually classified as a “Temperate Rainforest” environment ([BC’s</a> Rainforest Coast Region](<a href=“http://www.spacesfornature.org/greatspaces/rainforest.html]BC’s”>BC's Rainforest Coast Region)), and coming from Vancouver I can tell you you get a lot of rain throughout the year (think like Seattle). This gives the area a beautiful misty brooding atmosphere sometimes (have you ever watched the X-files?), but it also means you should definitely bring an umbrella.</p>