Canada's smartest cities 2010: overall rankings

This year’s bragging rights go to . . .

by macleans.ca on Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:00am - 131 Comments

Is your city one of Canada’s smartest, a place that has what it takes to help you get ahead? Or is it falling behind? Check out how Canada’s major cities stack up, and whether they’re improving (Regina, for instance, has shot up from 17th to fifth in three years) or slipping down the list. While some of the results were to be expected (Victoria is a regular contender for the top spot), others may come as a surprise (Halifax beat Toronto). Those near the top of the Canadian Council on Learning’s annual list do, however, have one thing in common: opportunities for lifelong learning.

Smart Cities 2010: Get Your Score

CORRECTION: The results that appeared in this chart earlier did not reflect the true ranking and scores of Canadian cities. The table has been updated with the correct data. We apologize for the error.
(Up Down indicates the 2006-2010 trend)

Community Name Overall Score
Learning to know Learning to Do Learning to live Learning to Live
Victoria 95 Up 6.2 7.6 7.0 7.6
Saskatoon 90 Up 4.5 6.9 7.1 7.4
Calgary 88 Down 6.0 7.2 5.7 6.8
Ottawa 87 Down 6.2 7.6 5.0 6.5
Regina 84 Up 4.0 6.1 5.8 6.9
Halifax 83 Up 4.1 6.8 4.9 6.5
Guelph, Ont. 83 Up 5.2 7.3 5.6 5.9
Edmonton 83 Down 5.8 7.4 5.8 5.6
Kitchener, Ont. 82 Up 5.6 6.8 5.4 5.9
Toronto 81 Up 6.1 6.9 5.6 5.4
Hamilton 81 Up 5.2 6.7 5.5 5.6
London, Ont. 81 Up 5.5 7.2 5.7 5.4
Winnipeg 81 Up 4.4 7.0 6.1 5.5
St. John’s 80 Up 4.7 6.3 5.0 5.9
Oshawa, Ont. 80 Up 5.3 6.4 5.9 5.5
Mississauga 80 Up 6.0 6.9 5.3 5.4
Brampton, Ont. 80 Up 6.0 6.7 5.3 5.4
St. Catharines, Ont. 80 Up 5.0 6.7 5.4 5.7
Gatineau, Que. 79 Down 4.8 7.0 4.7 5.4
Windsor, Ont. 79 Up 5.6 6.9 5.6 5
Barrie, Ont. 79 Up 5.3 6.3 5.4 5.6
Kelowna, B.C. 79 Up 5.1 5.4 5.7 5.9
Fredericton 78 Up 3.3 6.6 5.3 5.5
Kingston, Ont. 78 Up 4.9 7.3 4.8 4.8
Thunder Bay, Ont. 77 Up 5.0 6.2 5.1 5.2
Vancouver 77 Down 6.1 6.5 4.7 5.1
Charlottetown 75 Up 3.2 6.7 4.3 5.1
Abbotsford, B.C. 75 Down 5.3 5.9 4.8 5
Québec City 74 Up 5.0 6.5 4.8 4.6
Saint John, N.B. 72 Up 3.1 6.8 4.5 4.3
Sudbury, Ont. 72 Up 4.8 5.8 3.8 4.9
Moncton, N.B. 71 Down 2.9 5.8 5.2 4.4
Laval, Que. 71 Up 5.2 6.0 4.6 4.1
Longueuil, Que. 71 Up 5.3 6.1 4.6 4.1
Montréal 70 Up 5.3 6.0 4.5 4
Sherbrooke, Que. 67 Up 4.8 4.6 4.1 4.2
Trois-Rivières, Que. 65 Down 4.6 4.4 3.5 4.2
Saguenay, Que. 63 Down 4.3 4.7 2.8 3.8

Source: Canadian Council on Learning’s 2010 Composite Learning Index

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  • http://www.sk8rgrl-chakita.blogspot.com Chaki_s

    Whooo! Go Calgary! I'm 13 and I love Calgary!!! The best place on earth! We're third.

  • Tony

    Does someone get paid for this garbage?

    • Tony

      I want to move to the dumbest city in Canada – less competition, maybe I could even be the mayor

  • Johnny Boy

    This list is a joke.

  • Alex

    HAHA thats too funny, it would seem the french are kinda dumb.

    • wester15

      Dumb like fox. 'Member in the '70's a francophony (sic) in Winnipeg got out of a ticket because the stop-sign was not bi-lingual?!? INTERSECTION, RED OCTAGON, FAH-Q. If u can't figger dat owt you choulnt av a leeecense to drive, non? Situational ethics………………..Wolfe screwed up!

    • François

      Again, not the French, but the Quebecers who believe they speak French…

  • Roger

    I'd like to know where Waterloo is on this list, it was number one a couple of years ago and know it's drop out of the ranking entirely.
    Owen Sound isn't on there, I'm not surprised.

  • Cindy

    Where is Sault Ste Marie I do believe it is in Canada

  • Brad

    totally unreal, I,m from Kitchener ont, and Waterloo should be top 3 U of W is one of the leading tech schools in the WORLD!!!

  • pat

    It would be nice if some of you won't allways put Quebec down.
    Some of us here love Canada very much and we consider ourself Canadians. Don't allways insult us. It is only a few Quebecers thal like to make troble for the whole Country.

    • wester15

      That should read: It would be nice if some of you WOULD'NT ALWAYS put Quebec Down. (!) Some of us here love Canada very much and (we) consider OURSELVES Canadians. (Please,) don't ALWAYS insult us. It is only a few Quebecers THAT like to make TROUBLE for the whole (c)ountry.

      HOWEVER, I appreciate your comment. There are B.C. Lions fans in Kwee-bec and we should be able to agree to disagree. BUT, it would be nice if the nex' time I drive tru Kwee-bec an' stop to hask directions (in hinglish, s'il vous plait) I don' get looked at like hi am a stoopid westerner (the poll proves I am not). I do not speak "les Francais" BUT I treat those who do not speak l'Anglaise a lot better than I have been treated when in Kwee-bec. Stop looking at me for the discrimination; look at you!

      • Gus

        That should read: I do no speak le français, but I treat those who do not speak l'anglais…

  • pat

    I don"t know where you come from I don"t think that you are a Canadian with stupid remarks like that. You are not speaking for all Quebecers if anyone is dum it must be you.

    • lol

      dumb*

  • mimi

    I love Montreal and Gatineau I wish I could speak french more fluently so I could Live there its so nice I love the feeling when I go there every summer for a small trip as I have no relatives there its just awkward cause I am unable to communicate freely when Im there its sad they wont give you the time of day if you cant speak french but none the less most of the people i do encounter are friendly I am sick of the us the rest of Canada bashing them we must try to stand together just as we are Proud Canadians

    • wester15

      I wish you could speak (F)rench more fluently too 'cuz you sure as s**t can't type English!!!!!

    • wester15

      Hey Mimi – I apologize – my previous post was a cheap shot. BUT! You are not wrong: In my experience, English Canada treats Kwee-bekkers a lot better than Kwee-bek treats English Canada. As long as that is the case we will never stand together as "proud" Canadians. The same is true for many First Nations communities.

    • Olive

      ever heard of punctuation?

  • George

    Seriously? Montreal is at the bottom of the list? I did a little more research and it seems this ranking of intelligence is measured by PhD's per capita, what a load of crap. If this is the case, then it should be "Canadian cities with the most PhD's per capita" not "Canada’s smartest cities".

  • Mr. J

    Odd that when you search the official source of the information there are cities mentioned that do not appear in the above list. Checkhttp://www.cli-ica.ca/en.aspx . As an example Aurora, Ontario has a CLI total score of 80 and the EPPY trend is +0.3pts – not on the list in the article….come on…….

  • Ya right

    These polls are ridiculous. Brampton? SMART people? Someone mis-calculated on these rankings….

  • One2work

    What does this survey mean? Who was polled? When? What were the questions? Did it take into consideration the new Canadians whose English might not be very advanced? Language barriers and length of time in the country will skew results. How many people were polled? And after all, what does it matter? There are "lies, damned lies and statistics." I think this must be one of the silliest surveys ever.

  • wester15

    Y'know…………………I'm not sure I disagree with you except that I t'ink its' "Cris caulis moi d'se du tabernack", nest'ce pas? Or have I spent too much time in Saskaflat?

  • arnold

    what you talkin' bout willis?

  • Damien

    As a foreigner who's lived in Montreal for 9 years, it's no surprise to me that cities in Quebec would score badly…
    Most things are a joke in Quebec.
    When the (infra)structures and organizations exist, they're run so poorly that they might as well not exist.
    For example, I was at Montreal's Musée des Beaux-Arts last week…
    At best, it looked like a glorified European regional museum.
    I really was not impressed…
    And that's symptomatic of everything in Québec.

    Another hint: People argue that they speak French here…
    Well, then, how about they try and explain to the rest of the world, Frenchspeaking or not, why on Earth other French speakers need subtitles to understand what they say in their broadcasting (except for Radio Canada's presenters… and even then…)?

  • albertarich

    thats funny the bottom 6 are from quebec,im not surprised though

  • Let Ye Entertain Me

    Let's see: 7 of the top 10 are decidedly conservative. Most of the national university cities score below 10, and Quebec rounds out the bottom six. Only question remains, how did Toronto get to #10? Anybody have an idea how to analyze these observations.

    • george

      well maybe because toronto deserve that rating .

  • http://intensedebate.com/profiles/jgzeger John Zeger

    One doesn't need to see survey results to find out that Kelowna isn't a particularly smart city. One only needs to look at who the residents elect to city council.

  • naesal

    Who cares anyways, Macleans Magizine isn't good enough.

  • cpt qc

    of course… the test was in English and we all know about Quebec's english community….

  • Rocket

    We were all smart enough to stay out of the war in Iraq… we should be proud to be Canadian and quit comparing brains. Who cares…

  • Rocket

    AND P.S The HST (which is a bull#*$t ploy to grab even more money from the pockets of those who pay enough taxes already) is upon us… and that alone makes everyone in BC and Ontario the fool… who's the smartest now?

    • OliverClosov

      still the rest of us you dumb fucking frenchman :OP

  • Steve

    Vancouverites are too busy trying to find an affordable place to live to bother about anything else…….

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