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Best Cities to Live In

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Ottawa Tops List Of Best Cdn Cities To Live In, Toronto Plunges In Rankings
Monday April 28, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff

High housing prices and crime are among the reasons for Toronto's plunge from #12 to #51 in an annual survey of the country's most liveable cities.

Ottawa topped MoneySense magazine's third annual list of Canada's Best Places To Live, which studied 154 communities and ranked them on a range of factors, among them economic, environmental, and social.

Six cities made the top ten list for the second year in a row - Ottawa, Ont., Victoria, B.C., Fredericton, N.B., Kingston, Ont., Moncton, N.B. and Halifax, N.S. - while four - Levis, Que., Winnipeg, Man., Burlington, Ont., and Vancouver, B.C. are new additions.

MoneySense also ranked the cities on what they had to offer in terms of weather, places to retire, and affordability.

"We look beyond pretty scenery or hot restaurants to find the places that deliver the best quality of life to residents," says MoneySense editor Ian McGugan. "Our methodology spans everything from home prices and weather to crime rates and the availability of medical care."

Toronto was one of the biggest sliders on the list, due to its flat population growth, relatively high crime rate and soaring housing prices in relation to income. On the flip side, Swift Current, Sask. jumped from #61 to #22, and Estevan, Sask. climbed from #68 to #34, their rise due to strong local economies and lower crime rates.

As far as how other GTA-area communities ranked, Burlington was tops overall at #8, Mississauga and Guelph came in at #11 and #12. Oakville made it to #26.

Overall winner Ottawa didn't actually make the top 10 in any of the individual categories, but fared quite well in all the categories, which is what put it atop the heap.

Top 10

1. Ottawa-Gatineau
2. Victoria B.C.
3. Fredericton, N.B.
4. Kingston, Ont.
5. Levis, Que.
6. Moncton, N.B.
7. Winnipeg, Man.
8. Burlington, Ont.
9. Halifax, N.S.
10. Vancouver B.C.

For a detailed description of the study and how other cities finished, see the complete rankings at www.moneysense.ca.

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It's pretty obvious they never visited the Okanagan Valley.


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~~Get our troops home...now!!~~

TO will raise to #1 next year when the Leafs win the Cup...or hell freezes over or which ever comes first....

reply to The Flash
Toronto is only 51st? Would suspect lower myself.

reply to The Flash
I see London ranked 14, too high in my opinion.
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...A bitter ray of sunshine

reply to The Flash
Have these people ever been to some of these places. I wonder how Vancouver is rated only 10 given it is consider one of the best cities to live in the world, not just the country.

Winnipeg and Kingston are kind of dumps too

reply to The Flash
I can't believe that Winnipeg is on that list. Give me a frickin' break!

reply to pat_lc2000

reply to The Flash
I wish studies like this would stop including Gatineau Quebec with Ottawa Ontario.

Gatineau is its own city as is Ottawa. When combined as in this study, a distorted picture of the economy, housing and employment does neither city any good. This is probably why, while Ottawa-Gatineau came out on top, we didn't come out on top on any individual measurement.

Gatineau is pulling us down, man.

-Bob

reply to pat_lc2000
Vancouver is also ridiculously expensive to live in. Which is also why I suspect Calgary didn't make the top 10.

reply to The Flash
When comparing income to cost of living, that's what hurt Vancouver, Toronto, and many other major urban centers. The article says that "percent of income left after cost of living" was a much bigger factor than just income or unemployment rates. That's why here in Kingston we scored so high - the "average family income" was almost $70k/year, but the average house prices here are just over 200k -- as compared to somewhere like Vancouver where family income might be 30% or 40% higher, but housing prices are 200% higher. Kingston would have been higher - perhaps close to Ottawa - if we had more doctors. Our health care situation here is the one strike against us - there's something like 20,000 people on a waiting list for a family doctor here - and wait times for procedures at either of our local hospitals is "longer than average". But if you don't need a doctor - it's a great place to live - tons of affordable new housing, jobs aren't hard to come by, a nice downtown waterfront, etc. (and even a new arena downtown with some decent concerts now!).

reply to The Flash
Levis??? and not Quebec City???? What's to do in Levis? it's right on the other side of the river from QC, doesn't make much sense at all. I would say that %99.9999 of the population of Levis work and do activities in QC.

That's why it's a great place to live - you get the benefits of Quebec City and don't have to live in QC... (The cost of living, availability of housing, etc.) - at least that's how it reads to me.

reply to The Flash
Hmm #1 eh.. someone didn't look at everything in our city.

Surely they must take climate into consideration? Ottawa is hot and humid in the summer and ungodly cold in the winter.

I want to retire to Langley BC or Northern Florida!

reply to The Flash
I'm pretty sure The National on CBC just had a story about how Ottawa is getting really bad with crack fiends and prostitutes..

reply to The Flash
Fredericton #3 ? I love that city, great place to live- however I will need to read how they rate each city to see how they came to #3 overall.

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Fredericton #3 ?

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reply to shaner