What's the best thing about where you live?

Question

A recent survey on the quality of life in 215 cities around the world ranked five Canadian cities in the top 25 places to live, based on a variety of social, economic, environmental, and personal safety factors. What has the biggest impact on your quality of life where you live?

Check the story out here:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/quality_of_life_ranking

Answer 1

I lived in Montreal and Toronto in the early 70's, went out west to Alberta for the next 20, followed by 6 in B.C. When my wife and I went to the bank in the Okanagan of B.C. with $10,000.00 down payment for a home and they told us to come back in a year, I came up with the best place in Canada to buy a home, raise a young family. As a trucker, I spent long stretches away from home so I moved my family to the Moncton area of New Brunswick, we were in our own home on 2 1/2 acres within 3 months, our young boys are fluently bilingual, go to a nearby French school. My wife has a great job a 10 minute highway commute away. I run the Maritimes to Ontario, home every weekend. Great beaches in summer, decent winters, enough work and you can still buy a decent home with some land for 100,000. Try doing that in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto or Montreal. Friendly people, cost of living is affordable, good schools, what else do you need? Crime rates are much lower here as well, violent crimes for sure.

Answer 2

I think some simple comparisons needs to be made.
Are the things that people say are great about Canada simply because it is a very young society and the infrastructure is still very new as are the houses.
I come from the UK and do find Canadian men around my age group(50's) a bit hard to take, but prefer the women !
Its a very distant society,difficult to make real close friends, it is still very family orientated and from that point of view you would do well if you fitted into that, I do not.
People work harder in Canada than the UK, and I am not convinced that it is all that cheap to live here.

Oh and government and politics are way too focussed on, everything is about what the government do.

Answer 3

I live in Hamilton Ontario and it is nothing but a dump. You go downtown Hamilton and you see garbage all over like cigarette butts tim horton garbage and so on pigs live in Hamilton, and Hamilton stinks so much also because of the factories. This year I am moving as far away from this dump city as I can. Most of the people living in Hamilton are on some type of substance like either smoking or drunks or pot and so on. You go downtown Hamilton you are asked for spare change I don't know how many times. To dirty and discusting city for me that is why I am out of here this year. The people are not even friendly. But Hamilton Mountain is way different here we have high class snobs but at least it is cleaner and no bums like downtown Hamilton, I rather the high class then the bums anytime. The downtown of a city means alot it should be the best area of any city but if it is not it doesn't look good for the rest of the city.

Answer 4

If you are fortunate enough to live in the Maritimes, there is no other place like it. Quiet, friendly, lots of forests and green space, all the water and beaches you could ever want, laidback lifestyle, and the lowest cost housing in the country.

Our biggest problem is lack of good jobs, and so many of our young people are heading for Alberta and BC. But they usually only live there a few years, until they have made enough money to move back home again. It's a wonderful place for retirees. And our friendly people are renowned.

I can live quite modestly in a lovely old house, on a private lake, surrounded by forest, and just 10 minutes from town. In the Maritimes, it's about family, there is nothing more important.

Answer 5

Toronto neighbourhoods make the entire city sing. It's the different faces, the different festivals, the foods, the restaurants, the music, the bounce of the feet as they move along the pavement in time to the beat. It's the overall safety and security I feel just being out and about, with the vibrancy of it smiling back, even in winter. It's the subway, the ease, the tastes at St. Lawrence Market, the universities, the entertainment, it's all there. Especially the boardwalk on a windy day.

Answer 6

I live in one of the five world ranked cities, Vancouver, and I absolutely love it here.

I would say that the environmental factor has the biggest impact on me. From my basement apt ... where views are often rather drab ... my view is of mountains, including two ski runs I can see from my kitchen window (Grouse Mountain and Mt. Seymour). Out my living room window I can see the Vancouver highrise skyline.

I don't think you can go anywhere in Vancouver without having an awesome view. Waterways, bridges, mountains, hills, so many parks. Vancouver has got to be one of the greenest large cities in the world ... both literally and figuratively.

As an added measure, I also feel relatively safe here, even living right in the City, I don't hesitate to walk where I need to, even at night (exercising due caution of course).

Answer 7

Congrads to Vancouver! I’ve spent last spring visiting family in Vancouver and it’s truly a beautiful modern Canadian city with a lot to offer.
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I live in the Region of Niagara along the Niagara Peninsula on the Beamsville Bench in the wine regions of Ontario. Were surround by orchards, vineyards great tourist attractions and a unique micro-climate which enables the locate farmers and wineries to produce the soft fruits that can’t be grown in other parts of Canada. We are within minutes from over forty wineries that offer great restaurants with season cuisine year round with a variety of B&B and spa’s. In the summer we bike along the wine route and orchards where we purchase our fruits, vegetables and wine from the local farms and wineries. Fruit just tastes better ripe.

In the winter we rarely get snow and if we do its melt that afternoon otherwise the whole region shuts down for a day and I get the day off work. I’ve lived in the Snow Belt north of Toronto and the winters are hard and long they get a foot of snow or more everyday and the people hibernate for 8 months of the year.

http://www.grapeandwine.com/map/wcomap.pdf

Answer 8

I've lived in many cities around the world, but Toronto is one of the friendliest I know. The people are just great, and there is a real environmental awareness there. Too bad about the increasingly polluted skies! Hopefully they will do something to remedy it. Also, the doctors are much better in Toronto than here in London (UK), and standard of living there is much higher in terms of it being possible to have a bigger house and more disposable income. I'd move back in a minute if the winters weren't so cold!

Answer 9

I live in a small city of about 80,000 people so it is still small enough that the only traffic jam occurs at the Tim Hortons drive thru.
We are on the southern most shore of Lake Huron and it is very beautiful here in the summer. We have 2 large parks in the city, both on the water, one is great for families and the other is geared more for entertainment. We have festivals almost every weekend all summer long. This year Aerosmith is even playing here. Awesome!!
Our housing prices are reasonable and so are the taxes.
We have an OHL team and can enjoy great hockey without getting gouged for ticket prices.

Answer 10

I live in Barrie, Ont. It is a population of 128,430 residents, but it is becoming one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. We are ranked 35th out of a national population rank (Out of 5,008):

I like my city because on the water front, the artifacts that are around the city, parks, and our schools. An abundance of parkland, totalling over 90 parks, comprising in excess of 300 ha. are scattered throughout the city. We also wont the 1st place for the International Division of Communtities In Bloom.

Our down town is being totally refurbished from head to toe, the cost is pretty good to live here, homes are springing up by the dozens. We are the gateway to the Cottage Country, Crime isn't bad. Jobs are coming in like crazy, with Park Place creating hundreds of jobs. We are close to Toronto, but also close to the northern cities.

Our lake is swimmable (A huge thing for a city this size), we have amazing ski resorts right on our doorsteps, like Horseshoe Resort, Snow Valley, Moonstone. Barrie is also home to the Mariposa School of Skating which has trained many world-class figure skaters, including Brian Orser and Elvis Stojko. We have the biggest out door water front art show in North America called Kempenfest, it atracts roughly 300,000 people a year. Kempenfest was once again selected as one of Ontario's Top 50 Festivals and events. We are like 30 minutes from Georgain Bay with 30, 000 Islands.

We have world known Georgian College's main campus right here in our city. What else do you need? It is all right here! Come on down!