Victoria Babylon
The magazine Canadian Business has another review of Canadian cities in its latest issue. The article is titled "The Best Places to do Business in Canada". Victoria finished dead last in this one. Unfortunate. I've been going on about how lovely my home city is and now I have to mention some of its drawbacks.Our cost of living is relatively high, probably because any Canadian with any sense at all will eventually pack his bags and move here. There's a very small available work force due to the aging population. The most damning comment on Victoria is the CRIME RATE! Victoria allegedly has the highest crime rate in Canada - 19,919 per 100,000 people, compared to Quebec City's 5,069 or Toronto's 7,630. I found that a little difficult to accept at first. We have very little crime in my community; our police behave more like cruise ship attendants. But 'downtown' Victoria, the tourist-y area of the city, is a mecca for every Canadian indigent. With the mildest climate in Canada the urban camper comes here. We also have a very benevolent welfare system that maintains people at a more affluent level than our ( generous) minimum wage would allow. Old vagrancy laws have been ruled unconstitutional and the police now seem powerless to control often aggressive panhandlers on the street.
Well, I don't care what they say - I'm not moving!
posted by Susan @ 3:51 PM
3 Comments:
It still sounds a mighty fine place to live, despite the statistics.
Yes, sounds good to me. I suppose it depends what sort of crime too...
You're quite right, ladies! They must be referring to petty crime of the shoplifting variety. I can't remember the last time any 'violent' crime was reported here.
I think it was Mark Twain who said "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics".
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