Toronto the most miserable city in Canada: Study

[Electrify]

b) Low marriage rates (Torontonians have a lower probability of being married or common-law, marriage apparently= happy)

You know how I know this survey is full of crap?

 

[picard102]

I can't imagine Toronto being more misserable then ThunderBay or Winnipeg. Where did those end up on this list?

 

[UrbanVigor]

I was doing pretty well until I saw this study.

I appreciated that!

 

[PinkLucy]

This "study" is getting way too much press. I'm seeing it everywhere.

 

[CDL.TO]

This "study" is getting way too much press. I'm seeing it everywhere.

This study was clealy going to be a huge exercise in confirmation bias for the rest of Canada.

I expect to still be hearing about it years from now.

 

[PinkLucy]

I know, I'm just annoyed. Not miserable though.

 

[OttoSchloss]

This study was clealy going to be a huge exercise in confirmation bias for the rest of Canada.

I expect to still be hearing about it years from now.

I really don't expect the ROC will be happy until Umbrella Corp. drops a nuke on the city. And if we had a 9/11esque tragedy, about half the country would feel bad and the other half would flood the T.O. Star and G&M with comments about how we deserved it.

 

[junctionist]

I'm not so cynical on the rest of the country's feelings towards Toronto. It may be that a vocal minority are getting the the spotlight and that most people simply don't know that much about Toronto and have little conception of what diverse, interesting, and vibrant place it is. There's too little Toronto in popular culture where people see the city and it's diversity and have a chance to be fascinated. Toronto can certainly make an effort to change this.

 

[GraphicMatt]

I think there's been an active push to define Canada as some sort of exurban wilderness thing with canoes and drive-thru Tim Hortons and hockey (with fighting!). Toronto's not a part of that.

The G20 was the biggest indicator of this I can remember in recent years. The federal government did nothing to celebrate Toronto during the event. Instead, they tried to make the Convention Centre look like Muskoka.

 

[picard102]

people simply don't know that much about Toronto

Having lived the first 23 years of my life in the ROC, I can say there is no shortage of exposure to Toronto. When I moved here, outside of learning the geography, my ideas of what Toronto was via popular culture were only confirmed.

 

[lafard]

b) Low marriage rates (Torontonians have a lower probability of being married or common-law, marriage apparently= happy)

You know how I know this survey is full of crap?

In the full report they even show a graph of time married vs happiness. If "Single = 0" then just married = +30, married 5 years = 0, and married 10 years = -20. But being divorced makes you unhappier so tread carefully. It's not exactly a precise science.

I can't imagine Toronto being more misserable then ThunderBay or Winnipeg. Where did those end up on this list?

Full list:

Sherbrooke QC
Brantford ON
Trois-Rivieres QC
Quebec city
St John's
Calgary
Peterborough ON
Saguenay ON
Sudbury ON
Halifax
Guelph ON
Victoria
Saskatoon
Saint John NB
Ottawa-Gatineau
Barrie ON
Kelowna BC
Hamilton
Kingston ON
Kitchener ON
Regina
Edmonton
Montreal
London ON
Oshawa ON
Thunder Bay
Moncton
(Canadian average)
Winnipeg
Abbotsford BC
Windsor ON
St Catharines ON
Vancouver
Toronto.

 

[Irishmonk]

I think our low standing in this highly dubious "survey" is partly due to the fact we have 4 daily newspapers, 3 of which are, for the most part, local whingfests. We also just had one of the whiniest mayoral races in our history, which was won by the whiniest candidate, chosen by the whiniest voters, and endorsed by the whiniest news groups.

Face it folks, we're in the era of the endless whine and whing, and the places with the loudest and most plentiful whingers will be at the top (or bottom, depending on how you look at it) of these increasingly pointless lists.

On a side note, I was born in Little Current, Manitoulin Island and had, so I'm told, the happiest 5 months of my life there.

 

[junctionist]

Having lived the first 23 years of my life in the ROC, I can say there is no shortage of exposure to Toronto. When I moved here, outside of learning the geography, my ideas of what Toronto was via popular culture were only confirmed.

What ideas were those?

 

[Bogtrotter]

Apparently I moved (in the 90's) from the happiest city in Canada to the most miserable. Gosh what a mistake that was!

 

[CN Tower]

For purposes of this study I will assume that miserable=stressed out.