THUNDER BAY — Some Thunder Bay residents may take issue with MoneySense magazine's 2018 ranking of Canada's "best places to live."
The city is ranked 233rd on a list of 415 communities across the country.
The top position goes to Oakville, Ontario, while Colchester County, Nova Scotia brings up the rear.
The magazine compared population centres in 10 categories, including such areas as wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, crime, weather, culture and health care.
City residents who have struggled to sign up with a family doctor will be surprised to read that MoneySense calculated that Thunder Bay ranks third in the country for health accessibility.
The score is based on family doctors and specialists per 100,000 residents, doctors' offices, hospitals, and surgical wait times.
Thunder Bay also scored well for being transit-friendly and for the availability of amenities.
The categories were given different weights, with more importance, for example, given to economy, affordability and health,
Curiously, Thunder Bay ranked 263rd for its climate, 77 spots worse than Winnipeg and 32 spots better than Guelph, Ontario.
In an article accompanying the rankings, the magazine concedes that some people might feel it's impossible to rank the quality of life on the basis of statistics, but says many things that make a community a good place to live are measurable.
