Canada’s Best Places for Arts & Community 2017

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Canada is said to be a friendly nation, but some communities are a little more open than others.

To get a sense of what life is like in a community we look to two key metrics. First, we rely on the percentage of the population who work in the arts, sports and recreation sector as a proxy for how focused a community is on cultural activities. The higher the percentage, the richer the cultural offerings.

Photo gallery: Top 25 Best Places to Live in Canada »

This year, we also consider the community involvement index provided to us by Environics Analytics. To build this index, a sister firm of Environics conducts a wide ranging survey of residents. Their answers help determine how engaged residents are in their community. The base value is 100. If the index is above 100, it indicates a more active community. An index of 110 indicates that the people of the community are thought to be 10% more active in their community than what you’d find in the average Canadian city.

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Rank	Name	Province	% of Pop. Working in Arts	Community Index
1	Niagara-on-the-Lake	Ont.	4.0%	127
2	Westmount	Que.	3.5%	122.1
3	Chester	NS	2.8%	121.3
4	Whistler	B.C.	5.5%	115.6
5	Oak Bay	B.C.	2.6%	119.6
6	Tiny	Ont.	2.5%	121.2
7	Stratford	Ont.	3.0%	116.6
8	Brock	Ont.	2.2%	123.4
9	Prince Edward County	Ont.	3.1%	115.5
10	Centre Wellington	Ont.	2.3%	119.9
11	North Vancouver DM	B.C.	4.3%	113.4
12	Brant	Ont.	2.0%	121.9
13	West Vancouver DM	B.C.	4.1%	112.9
14	Wilmot	Ont.	2.5%	116.7
15	Squamish	B.C.	2.8%	114.2
16	Orillia	Ont.	2.3%	115.6
17	Owen Sound	Ont.	2.2%	116.1
18	Delta DM	B.C.	2.7%	112.9
19	St. Catharines	Ont.	2.0%	117.9
20	Midland	Ont.	1.9%	120.2
21	Fort Erie	Ont.	2.0%	117.4
22	Lincoln	Ont.	1.9%	120.7
23	Guelph TP	Ont.	3.0%	110.9
24	Meaford	Ont.	2.6%	111.1
25	Mississippi Mills	Ont.	2.0%	115.2
26	Erin	Ont.	2.3%	112.7
27	Norfolk	Ont.	1.6%	131
28	North Saanich	B.C.	1.9%	116.5
29	Belleville	Ont.	2.1%	114
30	Victoria	B.C.	3.4%	109.2
31	Niagara Falls	Ont.	2.0%	114.9
32	Peterborough	Ont.	1.8%	116.7
33	Capital F (BC), RDA	B.C.	4.9%	107.9
34	Trent Hills	Ont.	1.5%	133.7
35	Scugog	Ont.	2.1%	112.6
36	Wasaga Beach	Ont.	1.6%	123
37	Collingwood	Ont.	2.5%	110.1
38	Wellesley	Ont.	1.5%	129.4
39	Welland	Ont.	1.6%	119.9
40	King	Ont.	2.6%	109.1
41	North Perth	Ont.	1.5%	127.8
42	Kingston	Ont.	3.0%	108.1
43	Grimsby	Ont.	2.3%	110.4
44	Mont-Royal	Que.	1.9%	113.8
45	Abbotsford - Mission	B.C.	1.9%	113.4
46	Quinte West	Ont.	1.5%	119.7
47	Saanich DM	B.C.	1.9%	112.7
48	Greater Napanee	Ont.	1.8%	113.5
49	Lethbridge County	Alta.	1.4%	137.4
50	Salmon Arm	B.C.	1.8%	114.9
51	Mission	B.C.	1.8%	114.7
52	Port Colborne	Ont.	1.5%	122.4
53	Port Moody	B.C.	4.3%	105.9
54	Huntsville	Ont.	1.7%	115.3
55	Nelson	B.C.	3.3%	106.5
56	Whitehorse	YT	2.4%	108.5
57	Haldimand County	Ont.	1.4%	122.7
58	Charlottetown	PEI	1.9%	111.5
59	Wetaskiwin County No. 10	Alta.	1.3%	138.7
60	Fredericton	NB	2.8%	106.8
61	Severn	Ont.	1.7%	114.3
62	Pelham	Ont.	2.5%	107.7
63	Saugeen Shores	Ont.	1.4%	121.1
64	St. John's	NL	2.6%	107.2
65	New Glasgow	NS	1.5%	117.4
66	LaSalle	Ont.	1.8%	112.2
67	Woolwich	Ont.	1.7%	113.5
68	Vancouver	B.C.	5.2%	102.7
69	White Rock	B.C.	4.0%	103.7
70	Hamilton	Ont.	1.8%	111
71	Brantford	Ont.	1.7%	113.2
72	Langley DM	B.C.	2.0%	109.2
73	Portage la Prairie	Man.	1.4%	119
74	Tay	Ont.	1.5%	115.8
75	Port Hope	Ont.	1.5%	115.4
76	Oro-Medonte	Ont.	2.0%	108.6
77	Adjala-Tosorontio	Ont.	1.8%	111.5
78	Maple Ridge DM	B.C.	1.9%	109.7
79	Mount Pearl	NL	2.0%	108.6
80	Pitt Meadows	B.C.	1.8%	110.9
81	Mapleton	Ont.	1.2%	137.6
82	Cobourg	Ont.	1.7%	111.8
83	Port Alberni	B.C.	1.4%	118.2
84	Foothills No. 31	Alta.	1.9%	108.7
85	West Grey	Ont.	1.2%	124.8
86	Waterloo	Ont.	2.5%	105.4
87	Pickering	Ont.	2.6%	104.9
88	Winnipeg	Man.	1.8%	110.2
89	Mountain View County	Alta.	2.0%	106.8
90	Toronto	Ont.	3.4%	99.2
91	Surrey	B.C.	1.7%	109.9
92	Steinbach,	Man.	1.1%	124.1
93	Beaconsfield	Que.	1.7%	110.3
94	Norwich	Ont.	1.1%	142.6
95	Yellowknife	NWT	2.3%	104.8
96	Clearwater County	Alta.	1.1%	131.6
97	Thunder Bay	Ont.	1.3%	116.9
98	Canmore	Alta.	3.0%	99
99	Kelowna	B.C.	2.1%	105.7
100	West Kelowna	B.C.	1.6%	110.8