Paul Wildy

It seems there are lots of posts from people planning to emigrate to Canada but are not quite sure where is the best place to settle. Its completely valid question as its such a huge country and so varied.

I cam accross some new research today that eveyone might find useful (not totally new actually it was published in May '07) - A List of the Best Places to live in Canada - all 123 cities with populations over 10,000 are rated and ranked. Here are the top 10:

1. Ottawa, Ont.
2. Halifax, N.S.
3. Québec City, Que.
4. Guelph, Ont.
5. Fredericton, N.B.
6. Kingston, Ont.
7. Moncton, N.B.
8. London, Ont.
9. Victoria, B.C.
10. Gander, Nfld.

I was personally really please to see Halifax (where I moved to last year) ranked 2nd out of the whole country! I'm sure Halifax is one of just many places that gets completely overlooked by most would-be immigrants. Nearly 80% of immigrants settle in just the 3 biggest cities - Vacouver, Toronto, Montreal. Why? Canada is a big beautiful country with a lot to offer but imho its biggest cities are not the best bit.

Check out the full survey results at: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/rank...olive/list.jsp

dbd33

The topic's been done to death but this is the first time I've noticed number ten. Plainly the document is some kind of a wind up.

bazzz

Because that's where most of the work is.

burton bunch

Looks as though it is biased to the East side of the country as there is no where in BC or Alberta - strange

But Bazzz

Alberta has one of the largest shortages of skilled trades in the country

Paul Wildy

yeh but thats also where most of the othe candidates are too

Paul Wildy

Victoria, B.C. is no. 10

Notiaink...honest

Think about it, yes more jobs, but also far more newbies chasing them. Its actually easier to get a job further away where there is less competition from all the other newcomers.

Its really because most immigrants are family class, and thats where most families are. Beats me why they want to stay there though.

Notiaink...honest

Property cost to pay ratio was factored in among other things. Weather was another factor, its cooold out in AB.

burton bunch

sorry about that missed it haha

Paul Wildy

That's right - amoung other things they looked at how many years it too for an avage salary to cover the cost of an average priced house - in Halifax it was 2.9 but in Vancouver it was about 6

Notiaink...honest

In Gander its 1.3, but I wouldnt want to live there. Its not clear how much weighting is given to each factor, buggerall to do in Gander but make snowmen. In June.

dbd33

It's not though. Number 10 is Gander. Gander is no kind of place, there's no entertainment at all, just an airbase and a few houses so the "analysis" must just be a crude valuation of income against housing costs. Since the Canadian military are famously badly paid for a military base to place tenth implies great weighting was given to low property values.

Paul Wildy

They publish the methodoligy on the site if your're really interested in knowing what weightings each bit got. Lots of factors though from weather to crime rates. The thing is everyone likes different things so a study like this isn't designed to tell you where you should live but it should give you a few possibilities to consider that you might not have thought of. Also you have to think carefully before moving to somewhere that is way down the list - there must be at least some reasons for a really low rank

Daedra

Anyone else notice Calgary AB way down on the list but has an average household income of over $100,000 population growth of 13 and homocide rate of 1.7%... to me it looked way better then Montreal, Toronto or Ottawa with the stats listed

montreal mike

Going back to that chart, what I find most interesting is that if one clicks on the 'homicide rate' column and lists these places in decreasing order, a distinct pattern emerges: The western part of the country seems to be the most violent and the eastern part would appear safer (see next para).

But the homicide rate is computed based on relative populations so it is hard to really figure where one is safer. Montreal is still a relatively safe city, especially if one takes into account the lawlessness and madness currently being experienced in some parts of Toronto.