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Okanagan city high on Macleans’ list of best places to live in Canada

Vernon ranked No. 30, fifth-highest in province and best ranking outside Vancouver Island; Halifax No. 1
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The City of Vernon has placed 30th in Macleans.ca’s poll of the 415 best communities to live in Canada. (Jennifer Smith - Morning Star)

Vernon has cracked the top 30 out of 415 communities to live in Canada, according to a survey conducted by macleans.ca.

Vernon comes in at No. 30, and is the fifth-highest city in British Columbia – and the first outside of Vancouver Island – to make the list.

The North Okanagan’s biggest city’s top three features, according to the list, are internet access, health and amenities.

Vernon moves up from No. 62 in 2020 when its top features were listed as taxes, weather and wealth and economy.

In the magazine’s inaugural edition of the ranking, Maclean’s gathered data on 415 communities across the country and compared them based on categories it thought would be most important to the average person. Then the pandemic hit, and people’s priorities changed.

Maclean’s is now assuming remote work is here to stay, allowing people to move if they’re not tied to an office and a lengthy commute.

The magazine eliminated categories assessing local economy and added assessing internet quality.

Points were given to communities based on housing affordability, taxes, crime, weather, health, specialists, doctors’ offices, hospital nearby, amenities, airport nearby, restaurant and bars nearby, population growth, community involvement and, as mentioned above, internet quality.

How the rankings were achieved can be found here.

The Top 10 are:

1 - Halifax;

2 - Fredericton;

3 - St. Thomas (Ont.);

4 - Belleville (Ont.);

5 - Edmonton;

6 - Winnipeg;

7 - Moncton;

8 - Cornwall (Ont.);

9 - Brooks (Alta.);

10 - Charlottetown

Coming ahead of Vernon in the top 30 are communities all found on Vancouver Island: Langford (No. 18), Central Saanich (No. 22), Sidney (No. 23) and Saanich (No. 29).

Vernon finished ahead of Calgary (No. 31), Ottawa (No. 36) and London, Ont. (No. 40).

Other B.C. centres cracking the top-50 were Kamloops (No. 37), Comox (No. 38), Penticton (No. 41), Delta (No. 48) and Courtenay (No. 49).

Salmon Arm was in at No. 56, Victoria, the provincial capital, was No. 59, Kelowna came in at No. 65 and Vancouver is ranked No. 174.

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roger@vernonmorningstar.com

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