maybe the resident donkey osiol can give you a perspective as he has been there
I've only visited a couple of times, but that won't stop me from having an opinion.
I like big cities, but only a bit. I'm not particularly keen on very small places though. It seems to have enough going on to make things interesting enough. If you want to go out and enjoy yourself, you don't have to go to the next big city, but then it all depends on your idea of fun. I've been to a handful of pubs there, all quite nice, especially the open air one in the main square. This had been replaced by a mini ice-rink on my last visit, but who wants an open-air bar in late December anyway?
I wouldn't know how to compare £omża with anywhere in Canada, but there are one or two places in England I could compare it to.
Now I've said that, I can crack on with reading what this thread is actually all about.