I saw a little blurb on Canada but thought maybe people would like specific cities.
Vancouver, BC
First Hand Experience - 25 years
Cost of Living - 1 - Very expensive.
Rent a 1br 250sq ft for $850/mo. Min wage here is $10/hr. However if you are willing to go 30mins outside of Vancouver you can get reasonably priced places in New West or Surrey and the Skytrain will take you right downtown.
Recreation - 8 - Tons of outdoorsy stuff to do. Beaches, forests, hiking trails, mountains for snowboarding, etc. Nightlife is okay. Downtown stays open till 3am where the rest of the lower mainland is open until 2am. However, skytrain stops running at 1am so if you don't live downtown you need to find an alternative way home. Going up to the interior or Whistler is great as well.
How Scary? - 3 - We've had escalating problems with gang related shootings but nothing too serious. If you keep to yourself, people will leave you alone. Like anywhere, keep out of the scuzzy areas and you won't have any issues.
Poker Playing - 10 - Lots of cardrooms to choose from. A total of 7 casinos, 5 have poker rooms and the other 2 have been approved to get poker rooms in 2012 + underground games for higher stakes. You can find very soft live omaha downtown and crazy pineapple if you travel 1hour east to Langley. Tourney scene is average, I'm not a fan of most of the blind structures here but I'm a nit. Online poker is legal and many grinders have worked their way up here to live and play online poker.
How Easy to Get There and Stay There? - 7? - As far as I know there shouldn't be any issues, we don't seem to deport anyone and we're flooded with different ethnicity's. This question is better suited for someone who has traveled here, rather than someone like myself who was born here haha.
Hope this is helpful, if you have any questions about Vancouver or the surrounding area, feel free ask. FTR, I live in Surrey about 30-40min east of Vancouver.