Midland squeaked into the top 100 as one of Canada’s best communities in which to live, according to a recent survey.
The nationwide assessment conducted by Maclean’s magazine ranks 415 communities in a number of different categories, determining scores based on how each community compares to its peers.
Ranked 98th this time around, Midland had a number of top features highlighted including ‘community involvement’ and improved on its 2019 assessment where it were ranked 247th.
While Penetanguishene didn’t appear on the list, neighbouring Tiny Township ranked 373rd while Tay Township ranked 384th.
Overall, the Maritimes led the way, garnering the top three spots in the bi- annual ranking.
Halifax and Charlottetown finished tied for first with Fredericton placing second. Ontario municipalities cracking the top 10 included St. Thomas (third), Belleville (fourth) and Cornwall (eighth).
Closer to home, Collingwood came in at number 89, followed by Barrie (107), Wasaga Beach (136) and Orillia (271) on the full ranking list found here.
Midland Mayor Stewart Strathearn called the move into the top 100 fantastic news.
“As people and businesses continue to re-evaluate what is important to them through this pandemic, we are finding much more interest in communities like ours,” Strathearn stated.
“To be highly ranked in the country reinforces the hard work the entire community has embraced to make this a special place. We live our motto of Persequi qualitatem vitae, meaning ‘in pursuit of quality of life’ and welcome this recognition.”
According to the survey, Maclean’s set out to create a post-pandemic version of its Best Communities ranking while using data provided by Environics Analytics and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), as well as publicly available figures from a variety of sources.
“We weighted a range of categories based on how important we think each would be to the average person and ranked each municipality accordingly,” an accompanying article stated.
“This version of our ranking, like past ones, considers housing affordability, population growth, taxes, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and community engagement.”
And because it’s challenging to work from home without a reliable internet connection, Maclean’s decided to add a new category rating broadband performance based on data from CIRA that had never before been released to the public.
“Our post-pandemic version, however, eliminates incomes and unemployment rates (since remote workers don’t need to look for a local job); distance to post-secondary institutions (since remote education was expanded and refined during the pandemic); and commuting methods,” the magazine noted.
