I’ll add in my pennies worth

Canada is a nice country to be middle class in, its a bit highly taxed in my opinion for the wealthy, so any decent talent seems to head south. The place is a god forsaken dump to be poor in, and when you’re there the guns, drugs and crime aren’t the soft European style either!

I find in Canada (North America) that it’s much easier to stay away form the troubled areas than in Europe. The rough bars and drop outs rarely find their way into downtown, often the dumps for some historical reason tend to be on the east side, or maybe its just a coincidence with the ones I’ve seen?
The key upside is its much easier to avoid or even pretend it doesn’t exist. The down side is if you get caught up in this web of poverty then you’ll find that it much harder to run from. It’s a deep rut that when you get stuck you’ll find little or no help to get out..

IMHO the secret to living the good life in Canada isn’t about location but about a good job. So much of Canada has beautiful scenery if you can afford it, but that count’s for sh1t if you're working two jobs down town east side, and living in a rented one bedroom condo because the money ran out before the decent job turned up.