Victoria's plentiful sunny days, reasonable cost of living and multitude of post-secondary institutions are some of the factors that make it the best place to live in Canada, according to rankings released Monday by MoneySense magazine.
Victoria took the top honours for the first time in the magazine's annual list of best places to live, which included 154 cities across Canada with a population over 10,000.
Criteria included what is important to people who live in a city, rather than to tourists, such as income potential, the likelihood of finding a job, housing costs and weather.
MoneySense features editor Rob Gerlsbeck said that Victoria has a lot of positives.
"I defy you to find a better city in Canada for weather," Gerlsbeck said Monday on CTV's Canada AM. "It's warm, only goes below 0 Celsius for 50 days a year, which is incredible for Canada. It doesn't rain too much. And the unemployment rate is incredibly low."
Ottawa-Gatineau fell to second place after two straight years in the top spot.
The cities that round out the top 10 are:
3. Kingston, Ont.
4. Burlington, Ont.
5. Vancouver
6. Moncton, N.B.
7. Fredericton, N.B.
8. Winnipeg
9. Peterborough, Ont.
10. Brandon, Man.
Other factors that make these cities great places to live include the fact that each of them, with the exception of Burlington, has a college or university and many of them are capital cities, Gerlsbeck said.
"Universities have a very calming effect on a city's economy," Gerlsbeck said. "You add in well-paid university staff, who tend not to get laid off, and then you add in students, it really makes a city an interesting place to live."
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin said the city's residents are "pretty pumped" by the news.
"For those of us that live in Victoria we know it's a beautiful city and we always look forward to inviting people to come as guests or stay and become residents," Fortin told Canada AM.
Fortin credited the city's vibrant downtown, museums and three universities as factors that contributed to the number-one ranking, not to mention the weather.
"It's certainly hard to beat 2,100 hours of sunshine every year," Fortin said.
Cities such as Toronto, which ranked 79, didn't make the top 10 because of higher crime rates and higher cost of living, Gerlsbeck said.
Cities that ranked near the bottom, such as 154-ranked New Glasgow, N.S., tend to be one-industry towns that have fallen on hard times and have declining populations, Gerlsbeck said.
