Cheer up Canada!

Given its less-than-dazzling display at London 2012, you’d think Canada would leap at the opportunity to shout about achievements in other spheres.

So I’m baffled as to why the Canadian press seems to have ignored the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest annual survey on the world’s most liveable cities, which was published today and places three of this country’s cities in the top 10.

Granted, the top slots haven’t changed much since last year, with Melbourne basking in pole position, followed by Vienna, then Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Adelaide, Sydney, Helsinki, Perth and Auckland. The top five places haven’t budged at all.

However, it’s a strong return to form for Canada after an experimental metholodogy, in a separate EIU survey last month, saw Toronto drop to eighth place and Vancouver fall out of the runnings. This blog explains some of the potential weaknesses of July’s survey, in which Hong Kong was placed first.

It all got me thinking about the good and bad aspects of living in Toronto – based on my very limited experiences so far. Just for fun, I’ve incorporated my thoughts into a Prezi, which you can also see below (best viewed on fullscreen):

I’d be very interested to know other people’s take on Toronto’s ranking – does it deserve such a high accolade? What are your favourite things about the city and what needs to improve? If you’re from a different part of the world, does your hometown deserve to be in the top 10?

16 August 2012: Update: The liveability story finally made it to the Canadian newspapers yesterday – but not until the evening. I’m intrigued; is the delay due to a staggered international embargo? Surely such a concept has been made redundant by the internet? Please enlighten me if you know the answer.