Top 25 Cities to Live in Canada

[sergei_makarov]

http://www.moneysense.ca/2011/03/18/...laces-to-live/

1 Ottawa-Gatineau
2 Victoria
3 Burlington
4 Kingston
5 St. Albert
6 Fredericton
7 Brandon
8 Edmonton
9 Repentigny
10 Winnipeg
11 Moncton
12 Whitehorse
13 Levis
14 London
15 Saskatoon
16 Calgary
17 Laval
18 Guelph
19 Lethbridge
20 Thunder Bay
21 Halifax
22 North Bay
23 Regina
24 Newmarket
25 Quebec

MoneySense’s Best Places to Live 2011 rates all 180 Canadians cities with a population of 10,000 or more in a variety of categories to determine which urban areas offer advantageous settings to live, work and play. We base our research on cities and towns with populations over 10,000 people and rate each city in the following categories: weather, affordable housing, household income, discretionary income, new cars on the road, job prospects, population growth, health care access, low crime and the ability to walk or bike to work.


Being the best in one category does not improve a city’s chances — a city has to score well in all categories to come out on top. Where did your city place? Check out our top 25 cities, which are located from coast to coast and in the far north as well, and let us know what you think by commenting below.


For the full methodology on how we crunched our numbers, click here.

[Young-Sneezy]

3 Burlington - where?
4 Kingston - ontario?
5 St. Albert - ...why?
7 Brandon - cause...arctic manitoba is great...
8 Edmonton - .......?
9 Repentigny - is this china?
10 Winnipeg - polar bears. no dice.
12 Whitehorse - if you are into secluded ice fishing with no amenities
13 Levis - this is a persons name...
14 London - the center of the universe..
15 Saskatoon - OMFG A RIVER SO AMAZING!!!
18 Guelph - center of the university universe.
19 Lethbridge - ok..?
23 Regina - my home town...wow. no.
25 Quebec - this is an entire province...

[V]

St. Albert is an awesome place to live in. I can see why it's pretty high on the list.

[MacGruber]

Brandon?
Manitoba?

And I'm supposed to take this seriously?



Welcome to Brandon. We have a strip mall.

Honestly how bad is this whole piece?

edit #3..
Ranking both Regina and Winnipeg ahead of Calgary... nevermind Brandon.. I dont know. Is this an early april fools joke? Did they write this thing while they were high?

[getbak]

It's an odd list, for sure. Ottawa is ranked #1 overall, but it's not in the top 10 in any of the main categories. Its highest single ranking is 16th in New Cars (which is a weird category to even have in such a ranking).

It's also strange that a city seems to get penalized for being a city that people want to live in. No Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal in the top 25 really makes you question its rankings (although, there are a couple of suburbs of Toronto and Montreal).

Winnipeg and Brandon are both Top 10, but Victoria is the only Top 25 in the entire province of BC?

[FanIn80]

Vancouver: World's #1 Most Liveable City
(Except in Canada, where it's not even in the top 25.)

Toronto: World's #4 Most Liveable City
(Except in Canada, where it's not even in the top 25.)

Calgary: World's #5 Most Liveable City
(Except in Canada, where it's #16.)

[Beerfest]

Odd list for sure.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by getbak

Winnipeg and Brandon are both Top 10, but Victoria is the only Top 25 in the entire province of BC?

I dunno.....strong local economy, solid earnings, high housing affordability, access to public services, education and health care......I can see why these cities rate highly.

[DownInFlames]

How is the number of new cars on the road relevant to quality of life? I suppose it's an indication that people in the city are doing well financially, but isn't that already covered under other categories?

I also like how culture is an afterthought. Having discretionary income is worthless if there's f--- all to do in your city.

[Bigtime]

I don't think a single day goes by without another one of the "Top ##" lists coming out, each with enough different weighted measurements to give completely different results.

I don't pay any attention to these lists anymore.

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

I also like how culture is an afterthought. Having discretionary income is worthless if there's f--- all to do in your city.

To be fair......it's Moneysense Magazine, not Opera Aficionado Quarterly.

I'm a longtime subscriber and look forward to this list every year. I think its well researched, well presented, and completely reasonable.

People gotta take it for what it is......a base list from which to begin applying your specific needs, like cultural activities or city size or proximity to water etc. Eliminate all cities under 500,000 people......Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, etc all jump up quickly.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo

To be fair......it's Moneysense Magazine, not Opera Aficionado Quarterly.

I'm a longtime subscriber and look forward to this list every year. I think its well researched, well presented, and completely reasonable.

People gotta take it for what it is......a base list from which to begin applying your specific needs, like cultural activities or city size or proximity to water etc. Eliminate all cities under 500,000 people......Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, etc all jump up quickly.

I understand where Moneysense's focus is for this list, but they include criteria like the number of people who walk/bike to work, yet they ignore sports, restaurants and entertainment. These are things even the most career-focused people need.

I have no problem ignoring a list I disagree with when it's based on opinion, but to try to quantify the livability of cities without including what truly makes them great annoys me.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by V

St. Albert is an awesome place to live in. I can see why it's pretty high on the list.

I have to admit that I don't know anything about the city but the first thing that comes to mind is this letter that caused such a ruckus a while back:

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/artic...lberts-appeals

I guess they have a higher household income than the surrounding areas?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Burlington? BURLINGTON?


Wow. Just wow.

[chemgear]

And Saskatoon? Don't they have one of the highest murder, assault, sexual assault, violent crime and overall crime rates in the entire country?

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by chemgear

I have to admit that I don't know anything about the city but the first thing that comes to mind is this letter that caused such a ruckus a while back:

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/artic...lberts-appeals

I guess they have a higher household income than the surrounding areas?

I've lived in St. Albert the past 5 years, that letter was a source of embarassment for the city, but unfortunately reflects a lot of the mindset here. Still, St. Albert's a very nice town, it has lots of parks with a great pathway system in the summer, strong sports programs, virtually no crime besides petty teen stuff, and is very clean. Would be a great place to raise a family. My cousin came out to visit from Vancouver a couple years back and said this place reminded him of the town from Edward Scissorhands because its so eerily clean and well-kept here.

My only problem with this place (besides the ridiculously slow speed limits and the bored RCMP with nothing else to do but strictly enforce said limits - theres photo radar everywhere) is the douschey mentality you tend to run into here. Very nice people, but there's a ton of snobs here. Especially once you cross over St. Albert Tr from Boudreau into Giroux.

[Misterpants]

You'd think after they tabulated the list and looked at the results they would realize their methods were flawed. Most of those places are gawd awful. Regina? Yuck.

[troutman]

How is the Okanagan not on the list?

[YYC in LAX]

That list is just...a fail.

[peter12]

Big social science fail, right there. Although, I am glad to believe the delusion, as I am moving to Ottawa in the Autumn.