City official says it may be due to stereotypes
Regina topped a survey of Canada’s least attractive cities to move to, followed closely by Whistler and Windsor.
Finance planning website Finder.com asked 1,200 Canadian adults to rank the cities they would consider moving to. According to respondents, Regina is the city they are least likely to want to move to (2.67%), followed by Whistler (2.75%), Windsor (3.5%), Saskatoon (3.58%), and Oshawa (4.08%).
Read more: Regina’s low-key profile belies its enviable housing affordability
On the opposite end of the scale, 10% of respondents said they’d move to Toronto in order to be able to buy a place. Halifax was the second most popular choice (9.67%), particularly among those aged 35 to 44 (16%). Saint Catharines/Niagara came in third place (8%), followed by Ottawa (7.83%), Kelowna, London, and Kitchener (all 6.92%). Ottawa was particularly popular among young folk, with over a fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds saying they’d be willing to move there to buy.
John Lee, chief executive officer of Economic Development Regina, told Globalnews.ca that that Regina’s poor performance in the survey could be because most people don’t know that much about the Prairie provinces beyond stereotypes.
“We’re a pretty humble community,” said Lee. “What we do a poor job of is actually telling our stories and all the great quality of life we have here, the great entrepreneurial ecosystems we have here. Studies like this remind us that we must do a much better job of telling our stories.”
