This spring’s issue of Moneysense Magazine’sBest Places to Live feature, which ranked 154 cities accross the country, put Victoria, B.C. in first place. In order, the other cities of the top 10 were Ottawa, Kingston, Burlington, Vancouver, Moncton, Fredericton, Winnipeg, Peterborough and Brandon. Of the other cities with more than 500,000 people, Toronto was 79th, Montreal was 100th, Calgary took 26th place, Edmonton was 18th, Mississauga was 33rd and Hamilton was 59th.
In any ranking there are those that come first and those that come last. So we took the 25 elements in the list and grouped them into the categories of: walk/bike to work, housing, income, sales and income taxes, population growth, crime, health providers, unemployment, weather/pollution, transit and buzz. Next we picked which cites were at the top and bottom of each of these categories. In some categories there are multiple firsts and lasts. For population growth, all cities with negative growth were placed last. In transit, several cities placed first due to the robust usage of their transit systems. Taxes were done provincially, so all cities in New Brunswick placed last.
We found that if you get sick, do so in Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld which has the higher proportion of health care providers to it’s population. Brooks, Alta. placed last here. If you are worried about crime, Petawawa, Ont. has the lowest overall crime rate and Thompson, Man. has the highest. The most affordable housing, based on house price and time to buy a house is in Bathurst, N.B. Canmore, Alta. and Burnaby B.C. tie for last.
If you want to see the entire list of firsts and lasts, email me at phil.froats@canadianbusiness.rogers.com. I’ll send you both firsts and lasts and a list of the ranking of all cities for 2009.
Blogs & Comment
First and Last Cities
By CB Staff
This spring’s issue of Moneysense Magazine’sBest Places to Live feature, which ranked 154 cities accross the country, put Victoria, B.C. in first place. In order, the other cities of the top 10 were Ottawa, Kingston, Burlington, Vancouver, Moncton, Fredericton, Winnipeg, Peterborough and Brandon. Of the other cities with more than 500,000 people, Toronto was 79th, Montreal was 100th, Calgary took 26th place, Edmonton was 18th, Mississauga was 33rd and Hamilton was 59th.
In any ranking there are those that come first and those that come last. So we took the 25 elements in the list and grouped them into the categories of: walk/bike to work, housing, income, sales and income taxes, population growth, crime, health providers, unemployment, weather/pollution, transit and buzz. Next we picked which cites were at the top and bottom of each of these categories. In some categories there are multiple firsts and lasts. For population growth, all cities with negative growth were placed last. In transit, several cities placed first due to the robust usage of their transit systems. Taxes were done provincially, so all cities in New Brunswick placed last.
We found that if you get sick, do so in Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld which has the higher proportion of health care providers to it’s population. Brooks, Alta. placed last here. If you are worried about crime, Petawawa, Ont. has the lowest overall crime rate and Thompson, Man. has the highest. The most affordable housing, based on house price and time to buy a house is in Bathurst, N.B. Canmore, Alta. and Burnaby B.C. tie for last.
If you want to see the entire list of firsts and lasts, email me at phil.froats@canadianbusiness.rogers.com. I’ll send you both firsts and lasts and a list of the ranking of all cities for 2009.