Looking down the main boulevard of Port Alberni. beautiful natural setting didn't count in the survey.
Photo Credit: West Coast Aquatic

Worst and best cities in Canada to live in, 2014

Once again, a small port city on Canada’s Pacific has been placed at the bottom of the list of best places to live in Canada.

Port Alberni came in last of the 2014 list of the 201 best cities compiled by MoneySense magazine.

Red dot indicates Port Alberni, at the head of a long, very scenic fjiord to the Pacific (CLICK TO ENGLARGE)

Red dot indicates Port Alberni, at the head of a long, very scenic fjord to the Pacific (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Of the communities studied, St. Albert, a suburb of the western city of Edmonton, Alberta, was declared the best place to live in Canada.

Indeed, the magazine points out that some of the best places to live according to their criteria, are now suburbs around major cities, which they say offer some smaller town advantages, with big city resources nearby.

The top three cities were all in Alberta, in spite of the bitter cold the prairie province can experience in winter.

MoneySense methodology uses 34 data categories to make their determination, including  unemployment rates, household income, and crime rates.

Port Alberni, at the top of a long inlet to the Pacific side of Vancouver Island has been at or near the bottom of the list for a few years in the annual survey,

The mayor of Port Alberni disagrees with the ranking saying there’s good quality of life in the town, which is dominated by its paper mill.

“We’re no longer a one-industry town”, he said, adding that the town has affordable housing, and great infrastructure.

Certainly not considered in the survey categories is natural beauty of the setting.  Port Alberni has the ocean on one side, and the snow capped mountains in the background.

MoneySense methodology

Annual report ranking 

Port Alberni- video vignettes

West Coast Aquatic

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