Victoria and Kelowna, BC Ranked in Canada’s Top 2 Small Towns | Globalnews.ca

Three of Canada’s top small cities are in BC, according to a new ranking from a global marketing company.

On Wednesday, Resonance Consultancy offered the inaugural list of “Best Performing Canadian Cities Under 200,000 Populations,” based on 32 factors ranging from culinary experiences to flight connections and Instagram mentions to rank cities.

Victoria and Kelowna took the top two spots respectively. North Vancouver was the only other BC city on the list and came in sixth place.

“As our cities and borders reopen, it is clear that the pandemic has changed cities, and so have Canadians,” Resonance President and CEO Chris Fair said in a press release.

“Headline-grabbing anecdotes about an urban exodus became tangible patterns of migration and real estate appreciation. The collective trauma of the last two years has Canadians following those who have already sought a change from their pre-pandemic status quo.”

Fair explained that Victoria, from an economic perspective, is doing slightly better than Kelowna, in part due to the percentage of the population that has a bachelor’s degree or higher.

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It also has a larger number of people working in the creative class, another measure.

“But based on the growth that we see in terms of Kelowna’s population growth, that could change in the next few years,” Fair said.

Kelowna stands out in large part because of its parks and outdoor activities, nightlife, theaters, shops and restaurants, Fair said.

The number of direct connections Kelowna Airport offers relative to other small cities also makes it quite competitive, and a relatively large portion of the population cycles to work.

Those metrics, according to Resonance, map which cities are positioned to thrive and why.

Based on how each city performed across the 32 factors analyzed in 2022, these are the top 10 cities in Canada:

1) Victoria, B.C.
2) Kelowna, BC
3) Kingston, ON
4) Niagara Falls, ON
5) Waterloo, ON
6) North Vancouver, BC
7) Burlington, ON
8) Guelph, ON
9) Fredericton, N.B.
10) Lethbridge, AB