February is the month of love and with less than 2 weeks to go until Valentine’s Day, where’s the best place to go to find love if you need a little helping hand from your city?
We’ve put in the hard yards so you don’t have to, seeking out the Canadian cities that power their passionate citizens with the highest concentration of singleton-supporting shops and services!
Romance comes in many forms, but there are some things that are a sure to boost your odds of meeting your match. That’s why we looked at how many of these things existed per 100,000 people in cities across the nation:
- Number of jewellers
- Number of florists
- Number of chocolatiers
- Number of cinemas
- Hectares of urban parkland
After lots of number crunching, it turns out that Vancouver has it all. With more than enough florists and cinemas to help anyone find love this February, the stunning West coast city scored a huge 79 points, twice that of Toronto and Montreal.
| Rank | City | Score out of 100 |
| 1 | Vancouver | 79 |
| 2 | Kitchener | 66 |
| 3 | Hamilton | 43 |
| 4 | Toronto | 38 |
| 5 | Montreal | 36 |
| 6 | Edmonton | 32 |
| 7 | Calgary | 27 |
| 8 | Quebec City | 23 |
| 9 | Ottawa | 19 |
| 10 | Winnipeg | 9 |
Vancouver is the best city in Canada to find love!
With the top score in 3 of the 5 categories, it’s no surprise that Vancouver may be a luckier location for those looking to be lucky in love. If you’re interested in being showered in romantic gifts, this is the place for you.
However, Vancouver did score the worst out of any Canadian city when it came to greenery, so if long romantic walks are your dating MO, there are other love-ly locations on our list/.
Our podium is rounded off by two Ontario cities. Kitchener is the second-best city to find love in Canada and Hamilton should be the third choice of any singles prepared to travel to find love.
Let’s find out why this trio of citries rose to the top!
1. Vancouver
Vancouver is an incredible city, full of romantic locations to either take your partner or for a show-stopping first date. There are lots of amazing spots to stop for a snack if you have a sweet tooth such as Beta5 Chocolates, famous for their beautifully designed cream puffs.
If you do find yourself in Downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park is a must-visit. The picturesque space is surrounded by the beautiful waters of the English Bay and Burrard Inlet.
2. Kitchener
Kitchener scored highest in both the greenery and the cinema categories. This didn’t come as a surprise as the city has some stunning locations to visit and lots of outdoorsy activities to take part in.
The famous Victoria Park, situated in Downtown Kitchener is the oldest park in the city and with 11 hectares of beautiful land with a lovely river running through it, it is the perfect place for a romantic stroll. However, if you have higher expectations Kitchener’s hot air balloon rides may be more suitable for you!
Kitchener also scored highly in the cinema category because it has 12 cinemas per 100,000 people. One of the best cinemas in the area is the Cineplex Cinemas Kitchener and VIP Theatre, which is the perfect place for a date night.
3. Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario is the third most romantic city in Canada. Hamilton was one of the strongest all-rounders in our list, scoring well in all of the categories. Despite its industrial history, it’s a beautiful place with stunning parks and over 100 waterfalls located throughout the city.
It is certainly a city of culture and is the perfect place if you are a movie lover, the Playhouse Cinema is a beautifully restored 1914 cinema, which makes for a simple but sophisticated date night.
4. Best of the rest
Toronto came a surprising fourth in this list, as you may have expected Canada’s most populated city to be the ideal place to find your soulmate. It turns out there are fewer date night options and opportunities for romantic gestures in Hogtown than others on our list.
Winnipeg, Manitoba is the worst city in Canada to find love, only managing to score a total of 9 out of 100. Winnipeg scored the lowest out of all of the cities in four out of the five categories. However, it did score well in the greenery category, making it a nice place for a romantic walk or an outdoorsy get-together.
Canada’s capital city Ottawa also finds itself making up the bottom three along with Quebec City. So if you reside in either of these two cities you might be best advised to look further afield in your search for love this Valentines Day.
-ENDS-
Methodology
Each of the five categories was given a normalization score. The overall score for each city was calculated as the mean of these normalized values. Each city was then scored from a range of 1-100. Cities were then ranked based on this final score.
