Canadian perceptions of safe cities don’t match reality
Posted Aug 16, 2016 8:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
When it comes to crime in Canada the perception does not always match the reality.
A new survey from Mainstreet/Postmedia finds Canadians see Ottawa as the safest and Winnipeg as the most dangerous, in a ranking of 15 major cities.
But actual crime stats show Ottawa is third safest and Winnipeg is eighth.
Calgary came in tenth overall, with 54 per cent of Canadians saying it’s a safe city while Edmonton came in eleventh.
That number is even higher when Albertans are separated out: 62 per cent of Albertans think Calgary is safe, ranking the city seventh overall.
David Valentin, executive vice president of Mainstreet Research says the actual crime rate shows Calgary in fact has the seventh lowest crime rate of the 15 cities.
“Edmonton is actually the third most dangerous city in Canada and the crime rate has actually gone up, it’s up 12 per cent over last year,” he said.
Calgary saw a 25 per cent increase in crime between 2014 and 2015. Only Moncton, New Brunswick saw crime increase at a rate even close to that at 21 per cent. Prince Edward Island saw a decrease of 12 per cent over the same time.
Valentin believes media coverage of large cities may play a role in how people perceive different parts of the country.
“There’s more media covering the events in Calgary and Edmonton than there might be in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,” he explained. “We’re hearing about more and more the things going on out west than maybe somewhere else.”
Even though Canadians think Winnipeg is the most dangerous city, Saskatoon actually has the highest crime rate.
Toronto was voted fourteenth safest, when crime data shows it has the lowest overall crime rate in the country.
Valentin says all it takes is a high profile incident or two to change people’s perception.
“Tragic stories where children are abducted by different individuals, we’ve seen different murders especially affecting children in Winnipeg this year,” he said.
For whatever reason, 70 per cent of Albertans believe St John’s, Newfoundland is the safest city in Canada.
