The worst places to live in Canada

So, this news we're going to tell you, using the same data set and tools that we used, where the worst place in Canada is to live, or the worst places depending on how you look at it, because there's going to be a list of them here.

So, let's start off with all the contestants and then we'll get into the data to find out where is the worst place to live in Canada.

Okay, first up we have Langley, BC.

 One of Canada's tougher places to live. High housing costs, brutal traffic from sprawl, elevated property crime and homelessness, and lagging infrastructure rank it below more livable cities like Colona or Calgary. Constant rain, overcrowded schools, and limited amenities add to the daily grind. So, pretty depressing there it sounds like in Langley, BC. But, uh, yeah, that's the first on the list.

Next up, we have Siri, BC. And we think this was a top one for a lot of people when we asked on X. Uh, but anyway, Suri, BC, located in Metro Vancouver, offers cultural diversity and proximity to jobs, but it's one of Canada's worst places to live. High housing costs, high crime rates, including gang violence and autotheft, brutal traffic congestion, and lagging infrastructure rank it below more livable livable cities like Colona and Victoria. Constant rain, overcrowded schools, and visible homelessness also add to the reasons it's one of Canada's worst places to live.

Now, the next one's on the smaller side. We didn't want to go too small because you could choose some faraway place in the Northwest Territories. It's depressing and it has like, you know, a couple thousand people, but we wanted to keep this above a certain limit. We didn't really have a number, but this one's got like 30 something thousand people in it. One of the smallest places, but anyway, it is Lloyd Minster, Alberta.

So, the quirky little Alberta, Saskatchewan border city boasts affordable housing and oil jobs, but it's one of Canada's tougher places to live. One of the highest crime rates in the country. Soulcrushing minus 40 degrees Celsius winters. Remote isolation with limited amenities.

Next on the list, in no particular order, is Regina, Saskatchewan. The Queen City of Saskatchewan boasts ultraaf affordable housing and blissfully short commutes, but also has stubbornly high crime rates, soul freezing minus 40 degree Celsius winters, just like Lloyd with howling prairie winds, endless flatness that breeds boredom, and limited cultural perks. Sounds like a beautiful place to live there. Wow. Sign me up.

Next up, Winnipeg, Manitoba. The friendly heart of Manitoba boasts ultraaf affordable housing and quick commutes, but also has stubbornly high crime rates, bone chilling minus 45 C winters, even colder than the other places. Infamous mosquito swarms that earn it bug capital status and flat, windy isolation rank it below more lovable cities.

Moving on to Ontario and specifically Windsor, Ontario. On this list of Canada's worst places to live, thanks to chronically high unemployment tied to the volatile auto industry leading to poverty and stagnation, it struggles with elevated crime in some areas, poor air quality from Detroit's industrial pollution and municipal corruption, and a declining downtown core, earning it a rust belt underdog reputation.

Wow. Sounds like we wouldn't want to live in any of these places so far for various reasons. But the next one we actually do live in and we added this just to make things fair cuz uh you know Niagara Falls isn't the greatest city in the world. It is a tourist town. But anyway, we added it just to see how it compares with the rest of them. Um a lot of people do make fun of the region especially from the GTA think saying there's nothing really going on here. It's a tourist trap and all the rest of that.

So let's see uh when we put the numbers to the test how Niagara Falls fares. But anyway, ranks low among Canadian cities for livability due to its heavy dependence on tourism, which brings seasonal low-wage jobs, high poverty rates, and economic vulnerability. Beyond the iconic falls, many areas feel rund down with social challenges like homelessness, while constant tourist crowds create traffic chaos, congestion, and a tacky, overcommercialized vibe that prioritizes visitors over residents.

And we can attest to most of that stuff. We live here. Nigara Falls has changed. It's actually worse than it was. It always was like this tourist town with was kind of depressed in the winter, but uh now it's changed a lot. There's it's been used and abused by far too many people and uh and speculators and foreign students and the list goes on and on. And of course, you do see more homelessness and drug abuse now than you used to. And we think that's fair to say for a lot of Canadian cities. But uh anyway, We live here, so we notice it.

And this list would not be complete without including Bmpton, Ontario. So Bmpton frequently tops the list for Canada's highest auto insurance rates, plagued by rampant fraud, staged collisions, autothefts, and carjackings, brutal traffic gridlock, aggressive driving, and dangerous roads compound daily stress. While unchecked sprawl has spawned overcrowded homes, strained infrastructure, deteriorated services, and rising crime in certain neighborhoods. We would have to say that is fairly accurate.

On to Toronto, Ontario. So, Toronto, of course, we'll put this right at the top. Let's just give them the prize right now. We're not a big fan of the big city of Toronto. Uh we know the people could be great, but we just hate driving in there. And we don't know. We're just not a big fan. We don't care how many things there are to do there. Um there's just the drawbacks are worse than the benefits in our opinion.

But anyway, Canada's largest city has undeniable vibrancy and economic opportunity, but it's one of the worst places to live. Unaffordable housing, endless gridlock, elevated property crime, and a crushing cost of living put it well behind more livable cities like Ottawa and Quebec City. And Quebec City actually won the best place to live in Canada. Harsh winters and intense urban density only make the daily grind worse. So, yeah, well said there.

Thunder Bay, Ontario. All right. We don't know if you've ever been to Thunder Bay. You might have driven through it. There's only one way to get across Canada if you're staying in Canada and not going through the US. It's through Thunder Bay, Ontario. Maybe there is another northern road, but uh that would be the road most people take through Thunder Bay.

Repeatedly tops Canada's lists for the highest homicide and violent crime rates, earning the grim title like murder capital amid surging drug addiction, overdoses, and widespread homelessness. Deep socioeconomic struggles, poverty, and issues disproportionately impacting indigenous residents compound the challenges in this remote northern city where harsh winters and isolation intensify a pervasive atmosphere of danger and despair.

Wow. Sounds like something out of like Grand Theft Auto or something, this place. Uh we stayed there actually when we traveled through it and uh nobody broke into our car and it seemed okay, but uh yeah, living there is a whole different story, I guess.

And lastly, Moncton, New Brunswick. The city struggles with high violent crime and breakin entering rates that have at times surpassed larger metropolitan areas. This is compounded by an intensifying housing crisis, soaring rental costs, and a dramatic visible increase in homelessness and addiction. With wages that often do not keep pace with the cost of living. Nearly half of New Brunswickers earn below the living wage. Many residents face immense financial pressure.

So pretty depressing so far looking at this list. But after this news, at least you know where to avoid if you want to have a happy life, a happy wife, happy life maybe. But uh yeah, we're going to go through this data here and put these in order and see which is the worst and other places you might want to avoid also.

Okay. And just like last time we we used the data certain sources for certain data. We have the quality of life indicators. This is from stats Canada and uh it gives a rating there. But any we used this for one of the data sets. We also used the crime severity index to get the crime and the safety data. And we actually quantified the weather data using sites like this. So there was a method behind the madness.

But now let's get into the data to see where is the worst place in Canada to live.

All right. So here is the criteria. Again, we're going to go through these individually. So, there's a screenshot of them. Housing affordability, of course, is an important one. It actually wasn't the main thing in this one. Last time we think it was, but uh this time it's not top of the list, of course, but it is one of the more important things I look at as that's why it's highlighted in black there.

But we did put this out to people on X and people on YouTube. So, we're going to look at those real quickly here. Just a minute or so. Where's the worst place to live in Canada? And we said, you know, based on these things, and this is the general responses of what we got, replies overwhelmingly target greater Toronto suburbs like Bmpton and Scar Bro for crime and overcrowding, and Winnipeg cited for safety issues aligning with urban density complaints.

Now, the responses did ma name many other cities, small towns and whatnot. Some of the towns are a little bit too small to include, but uh generally speaking, you have Winnipeg and the GTA uh from the responses from the comments.

Now, let's look at the YouTube ones.

All right, so just a few quick YouTube ones here. And we have now for now, it looks like all of Canada is the worst for living. All Canada. And if you remember when we put the best place to live, they were like, "Not in Canada." A lot of people, the entire country is unaffordable. So all of it, high crime, lol. You've been to the US. Used to be worth putting up with. Affordable, cohesive, nation pride, good healthcare opportunity. Much more harder to make it in Canada now.

Canada. All of Canada. Canada. The entire country. We can't believe this. Like, give us a give. Oh, here we go. Toronto and Vancouver for housing. Oh, of course. Yeah, Toronto and Vancouver. We don't like big cities, so we say yes for both of them. Time to send Carney out on a spaceship. Bmpton. There we have Bmpton there. Yeah, but we are basically a heart-c centered people who have been taken advantage of by the corrupt British. And anyway, it goes on there. Winnipeg for crime. Regina or Winnipeg. Uh, the man makes no sense or the that map makes no sense. We think it was an AI generated map. Anyway, got to be Moranto. It's It's in the name Morato.

All right, so starting with safety, we have Lloyd takes the cake for this. The lowest number is what counts here. We're looking for the lowest score, which will make it the worst place. So Lloyd, yeah, it's it's got the worst. And uh from reading that description there, it said it had one of the highest crime rates, we think, in Canada. But uh yeah, that's uh that that takes the cake on that one.

Next, we move into happiness and community. And you know what? These are always from the four to six range. So, uh, Canada doesn't, you know, it's the most not the most miserable place in the world, but it's not the happiest. And we think that they need to redo their scale stats Canada there because, uh, they all they're all in that 40 to 60% range, which translates to these.

So, uh, the miserable the most miserable places out of these, uh, areas are Langley, BC, Niagara Falls, Ontario. Community and happiness. We guess it's not that happy here. And Toronto, Ontario, which doesn't surprise us. Sorry for all you people from Toronto.

Next, we have the weather. So, this was from that one website. So, we rounded them off to the nearest .5 here to make it a little easier to use this data. And we have Lloyd. Again, Lloyd has the worst weather. We think Winnipeg was minus 45. But overall, we think they have more snow and more clouds and whatever else. It's not just the temperature that matters here on this one. So Lloyd takes that one too uh with the lowest score.

Moving on to proximity to major city to a major city and that would be Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay is up there. There's nothing going on in Thunder Bay. They get a one out of 10 for that. Uh other places like Windsor. Now Windsor, they earn some points because they are close to Detroit and uh yeah, it's the US, but it's still a major city there. And uh yeah, you can still drive to Toronto or Hamilton or somewhere like that uh within a few hours. Whereas in where you're in Thunder Bay, you're you're like out there. There's there's nothing out there.

Amenities. So, uh yeah, Lloyd, and this is just things like anything, schools, hospitals, not just, you know, all all the shopping stuff. It could be shopping also, but uh yeah, Thunder Bay and Lloyd Minister score low on the amenities. Uh 7 out of 10 still pretty good because they still have the schools and they still have all the rest of that stuff, but uh yeah, Toronto obviously 10 out of 10. Siri, BC, 9 out of 10. Langley, BC, a little bit further out, 8 out of 10. Anyway, so that's how that scale goes.

And uh moving on to scenery. Yeah, the scenery again. Lloyd minster. We guess there's nothing. It's just like you're in the plains out there. There's no mountains. There's nothing. It's like literally barren wasteland. Tundra. It's a tundra out there. And 3.5 out of 10 they get for the scenery.

Where's Niagara Falls where we're from? Nine and a half. Yeah, we got pretty good scenery. Toronto, Ontario, 6.5. Look at Langley 8. Sorry. BC only 7 and a half. We don't know. Oh, you can't see the mountains from there. We guess we think you can, but uh anyway, maybe you're going to see a lot of crime and gang violence, too. So, it's not really good the scenery.

And lastly, we have housing affordability. And of course, Toronto has the worst affordability. Now, we didn't include Vancouver in this cuz we had Siri, BC. Um, and we think Vancouver would have scored very similar to Toronto, so that's why we didn't include it. So, there's two places right near Vancouver. Langley, we guess it's a whatever, however far away, an hour or two. And uh Siri's one of the in the metropolitan Vancouver area.

So um but yeah, so Toronto, Ontario, one out of 10. And look at the top there, 10 out of 10 in Lloyd. You want a cheap house, go to go to Lloyd Mminster. You got high crime, you got crappy scenery and uh terrible weather, but you can get a house cheap in real estate. Location, location, location is the most important thing. And uh yeah, they don't have any of that out there.

So anyway, let's add up all these scores and find out where the worst place in Canada to live is. Where do you guys think it's going to be? We think it's pretty obvious at this point. Uh but let's check it out here.

And it is Lloyd Minster, Alberta. We and there's a lot of other small places that would rank high up there, too. So it seems like these small places in the middle of nowhere uh with no scenery like and high crime, they suck, right? They're depressing.

But look at Langley, BC. Thunder Bay is right behind uh that. Regina, Saskatchewan, Bmpton, Ontario, Windsor, Toronto. Toronto's, you know, it's for a big city. It's it's one of the worst places, probably one of the worst big cities to live in the world, that's for sure. And anyway, list goes on.

Look at Nagara Falls. We shouldn't even had Nagara Falls on this list. It is the highest one. It scored higher than some of the other ones on the best places to live, but again, the scale, the rating was a little bit different on this one, so you can't compare those actual numbers. So, don't go look at that video to compare them.