We moved last year (after several years of attaining Canadian permanent residency) from Florida to Nova Scotia.
The dominant reason for us was the kid. Our daughter was starting kindergarten, and we didn't want her to go to school in Tampa where 1) schools are kind of lousy, 2) they have active shooter drills on the regular and 3) the standardized test prep culture is insane. Secondarily, DW and I were sick of living in a place where confederate flags and Trump flags were pretty common, where there was a gun show every weekend, etc. We initially started looking at places like PNW or NH, but we realized that some of those same issues would continue to apply. Then DW raised the idea of Canada (full disclosure, I have previously lived in England, Taiwan and China, so she knew I would be game). I suggested New Zealand instead (because weather) but she didn't want to be that far from family. I also briefly suggested places like Thailand or Costa Rica (because weather and COL) but she felt strongly that she wanted DD to grow up in a place where she could truly feel that she was of. And, I think my wife was right about this (for us). I have a lot of expat friends in Taiwan (for example) and there kids are always treated as outsiders, despite having been born there and being fluent in Mandarin.
So we chose Nova Scotia. It's relatively moderate weather-wise (for Canada), cheaper than BC, and very pro-outdoor activities (although most of Canada is). I got a job working from home, which meant we weren't bound to Halifax, so we chose a small town in the Annapolis Valley. We visited a few places that were within ~1.5 hours of Halifax (mainly for airport access) and we loved it here. We love being in a small town, but also that we're in a "city" that provides services (like plowing, water, sewer). Being both city folk and warm weather folks, we didn't feel comfortable spending our first Canadian winters somewhere rural. And, having gone through our first winter, it was great!
We can walk to a grocery store, hardware store, library, post office, etc. There is a hospital in town (which isn't true in many Canadian small towns). The next town over has big box stores. And the town after that has a university (where DW can potentially work) and the restaurant / culture scene. And between these three towns, there are only about 30,000 residents, so there's no traffic or crowds or anything. There's tons of great hiking, lots of free / cheap recreation, and people have been super friendly. There is a general air of helpfulness / community concern that is really cool and totally foreign to me. We absolutely love it (we've been here exactly 1 year today). Oh, and another big perk (for us) is not having to worry about health insurance as we transition to working less (or not at all).
DD did her first year of school mostly face-to-face (we were closed basically for May) and she's doing French immersion. There's no gifted program in Nova Scotia, but French keeps things interesting for her (so far) and there is a very cool private school about 15 minutes away if push comes to shove. There's also IB for high school.
Oh, another thing I remember being a factor was earthquakes -- DW isn't interested in being near them. Personally, I've been in some big ones (I was in Taiwan for 921) and they don't really worry me. Getting away from hurricanes (as we both expect them to become more frequent and stronger) was a plus as well. And we did intentionally pick a place that could handle some sea level rise -- at least, in terms of where our house is. Nova Scotia will undoubtedly be impacted, but the government believes it is real and is actively planning for it (unlike, say, Florida).
Without kid, I think we might have done something very different. DW and I are both (historically, at least) English teachers. So I think we might have chosen to vagabond around for a while, living places that were interesting, comfortable, and relatively cheap. If we had a bunch of kids, we might have done this anyway, but with just the one we really wanted her to be able to make deep, long term connections with her peers so we were looking for more of a forever home.
And, for better or worse, family wasn't a big consideration. DWs parents are in Florida, but our relationship with them is complicated. She's fine seeing them a week or two a year. My mom died 4 years ago, and she was the real glue for my family. My dad, siblings and I all get along well, but we have never spent a lot of time together -- I left St. Louis (where they all live) in 1999, so I'm used to just seeing them once a year or so. And there was no way we wanted to live in St. Louis (for much the same reasons we didn't want to live in Tampa).