Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Best Places to Live - Canada

Canada


We've spent a bit of time looking at the best places to live in the US and to be honest it is a lot easier to do. There are just so many more options to write about because there is so much more country! Many Americans don't realize that the United Sates has ten times the population than our cousin to the north. Canada has a population of around 34 million people and yet it is the second largest country in the world. It has a total area of almost 10 million square kilometers or about 4 million square miles. It is bordered by 3 oceans: Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific.  Toronto is the largest city at 4.3 million people followed by Montreal at 3.3 million, Vancouver  at 1.8 million people and Ottawa at 1 million people. Despite the fact this is one huge place -  90% of the population is found within 160 kms (100 miles) of the U.S. border and most of the people love between Windsor and Montreal in the east-central part of the country. (Source: www.nationsencyclopedia.com)  So, although Canada is big the places to chose for living are small - at least in number.

Best Places to Live for Singles


For single's its no surprise that Canada’s largest cities typically top the international best of lists. Vancouver has been named "the most livable city in the world" by the Economist magazine for the past two years.   Toronto ranked the 15th best place to live by AskMen.com. Montreal was Ranked 13th. But don't rule out Canada’s smaller cities. The new livability rankings from the Martin Prosperity Institute name Ottawa, Guelph, and Victoria right up there with their bigger sisters in terms of livability. For singles and couples these small cities have joined the larger ones among Canada's most livable places.

CreativeClass.com offerred this ranked list for the best cities in Canada for singles:

  1. Calgary
  2. Ottawa - Gatineau
  3. Victoria
  4. Edmonton
  5. Guelph
  6. Montréal

Top Places to Live


As we discussed in a previous post the MoneySense Best Places in Canada suggests the following as the Top Places to Live in Canada:

#1 Ottawa
#2 Kingston
#3 Burlington
#4 Fredericton
#5 Moncton
#6 Repentigny
#7 Brandon
#8 Victoria
#9 Winnipeg
#10 Lévis

Best Places to Live in Canada


These give us some idea for selecting a place to live in Canada but no list tells the whole story. As we've said over and over it's almost completely subjective. One persons 'best' may be another's 'worst'. A young professional single with money to burn may love the big city and have no concern for expenses while a retired Canadian maybe be counting their pennies and looking for the cheapest place to live.

Best Place to Live Poll


So our solution has been to throw it back out there for you to give us your opinion. Please look to the left sidebar and you'll see our poll for the best place to live in Canada. Place your vite and let's see what our readers come up with by the end of the month. We'll post the results next week.

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