Most liveable

I have previously made mention within these meanderings of the fact that The Girl and I do not routinely read print newspapers here in Canada – a definite and somewhat unexpected change from our previous practice in the UK. Yes – I still read The Guardian and The Observer online – but sitting up in bed of a Sunday morning with an iPad on one’s lap is just not the same as having the multiple sections of a paper strewn around over the duvet.

However – just the other day The Girl returned from a few days in Vancouver where she had been attending an Engagement (what you and I might call a conference) bearing a copy of The Globe and Mail that she had picked up on the ferry. Now – if we did read a paper here regularly it would probably be The Globe and Mail – of which Wikipedia says thus:

“The Globe and Mail is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada’s most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it falls slightly behind the Toronto Star in overall weekly circulation because the Star publishes a Sunday edition, whereas the Globe does not. The Globe and Mail is regarded by some as Canada’s ‘newspaper of record'”.

Irregardless…

The reason for mentioning this at all might just be discernible from the accompanying image – of the front page of this particular issue. The piece referred to concerns the 2023 Canada’s Most Livable Cities survey – in which good old Victoria came out as the overall number one city.

Yaay Victoria!

If one is to accept that the data is accurate (and can indeed be interpreted in the way the the Globe and Mail survey does) Victoria comes out top in many categories – with the notable exceptions of the cost of housing, (which is uncomfortably high for many folk) and healthcare (where, as I have previously noted, there is a continuing shortage of doctors). There are those who gripe about such studies and one should certainly not overlook the problems that many localities face, but I believe that the great majority of those who live here are aware that they are inhabitants of a beautiful city and that to be so is a considerable blessing.