Canada’s major cities typically score highly in “best city” rankings. Vancouver is frequently named among the ciudades más importantes del mundo para vivir, y Toronto also ranks high on many “best of” scales.

Sin embargo, el reciente Scorecard para la Prosperidad informe, compiled by the Toronto Cámara de Comercio (the city’s chamber of commerce), reached a different conclusion: basado en la competitividad económica as well as overall quality of life, el “mejor ciudad del planeta” es…Calgary.

¿Por qué Calgary? The report noted that:

Calgary’s blistering economy over the past five years may have powered it to the top, pero its overall favourable environment provides a solid basis for attracting and keeping people. En el dominio de Economía sola, Calgary gana siete "A" de los grados, coming in as the top performer in five indicators: employment growth, crecimiento de los ingresos, unemployment rate, non-residential building permit growth y índice total de impuestos (TTI). On measures of Labour Attractiveness, Calgary fuerza proviene de su low incidence of low-income population, low homicide rate y, somewhat surprisingly, its relative housing affordability.

Clasificación justo detrás de Calgary fueron Dallas y Hong Kong, en #2 y #3, respectivamente. Fourth-place was a four-way tie between Toronto, Boston, Londres, y Nueva York. Cerrando la parte superior 10 eran Vancouver y Seattle (empatados en el #8) y Ciudad de Quebec en #10.

Sin embargo, the data for this report was compiled when the economy was still flying high, leading the authors to conclude that “Calgary’s continued domination is currently under threat, as weaker energy prices and tighter credit conditions have slowed oil and gas activity in the province of Alberta.”

La full report is available as a PDF file or in an abbreviated online presentation version.

Foto © Carolyn B. Heller