Canada's Provinces Were Just Ranked From Best To Worst & One Got Serious Flak

"The people" and "it's boring" were reasons given for the least-favourite province.

A cobbled street in Montreal. Right: A main street in Vancouver, B.C.

A cobbled street in Montreal. Right: A main street in Vancouver, B.C.

Associate Editor

A new survey has delved into Canadians' favourite provinces and territories and it found some interesting results.

The study — conducted by market research and analytics company Leger — found that when it comes to the most-loved place in Canada, B.C. comes out on top.

In fact, it gained a whopping 30% of the overall vote, with fans of the region citing its landscapes, nature and wildlife as reasons why it's their favourite.

Alberta came in second with 12%, while Nova Scotia and Ontario raked in 10% of the overall vote each.

While Alberta and Nova Scotia ranked highly on most of the same factors as B.C., Ontario was a popular choice because respondents had "personal connections" to it and praised the opportunities the province presents.

They were followed by Prince Edward Island (8%), New Brunswick (7%), Quebec (6%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (5%).

Ranked at the bottom were Saskatchewan and Yukon with just 2% each. The Northwest Territories and Manitoba had only 1% each and per the survey results, 0% picked Nunavut as their favourite. Ouch.

There were a number of factors that Canadians say helped them decide which part of Canada is their favourite. This includes things like landscapes, culture and arts, history and wildlife.

Other reasons were things like which cities are there, how laidback and relaxed an area is, how affordable it is and what the people are like there.

On the flip side, when asked about their least-favourite province or territory, 21% of respondents said Quebec. That's got to sting!

So, what do people have against Quebec specifically? Well, according to the survey, the biggest factor was "the people," followed by a vague "something else" and "it's expensive.

However, respondents reported that their main reasons for choosing their least favourite province or territory overall were "the people," "it's boring" and "it's too far away."

The dislike is widespread too, with 34% of Atlantic Canadians, 26% of Ontarians, 25% of B.C. residents, plus 31% of those in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan choosing Quebec as their least favourite place in Canada! Now, that's a lot of shade.

Alberta, which came second when it comes to least-favourite regions, got only half of that vote at 10%. Nunavut, in third, got 9%.

The research was collected via an online survey, with a majority of the respondents being from Ontario (39%) and Quebec (23%). Individuals were not able to choose their own province or territory when selecting their favourite and least-favourite regions.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

  • Associate Editor

    Janice Rodrigues (she/her) was an Associate Editor with Narcity Media. She's a lifestyle journalist who swapped the sandy shores of Dubai for snowy Toronto in March 2022. She's previously worked with newspapers Khaleej Times in Dubai and The National in Abu Dhabi, writing about food, health, travel, human interest and more, and her byline has also appeared in blogTO in Toronto. She has a master's degree in media and communications from the University of Wollongong in Dubai. Since arriving, she's been busy exploring Toronto and is excited about everything it has to offer (with the only exception being the snow).

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