You’ll be happier living in Atlantic Canada … but fatter too
NB, NF, NS, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Saint John Add commentsEarlier this week in the news, CBC reported that Saint John was the happiest place to live in Canada. Both Chris Nadeau and Harold Jarche commented on this as well this week. As both mentioned, everyone is feeling positive about some of the great technology coming out of Atlantic Canada (visit the blog roll). PropelSJ stays on top of business technology and events happening in the SJ area. The regular news updates show that the Saint John area is becoming a business hub. And of course there’s no doubt that Atlantic Canada has some of the most beautiful vistas in the world.
This recent news is fortunate because for the past year Saint John and the Atlantic Provinces have mostly receiving failing grades in Health and Academic matters. In October of this year, Saint John was considered one of the fattest cities in Canada, likely attributed to poverty. People living in Saint John have the highest obesity rate, at 24.4 per cent of the population over 15 years old. The report card style study tracked the quality of life of Canadian communities in relation to poverty gaps, health, housing and the environment. Saint John was not marked on track for any of these items.
NB also has some of highest caesarian rates in Canada. According to WHO (World Health Organization), 15% is the average c-section rate, yet in NB it is close to 29%. With northern NB having twice as many c-sections. Women’s groups wonder if it is about a lack of health resources or health professionals to deal with long labour. And certainly if looking at Northern NB where many hospitals were shut down, emergency rooms closing earlier, it would seem likely that is the case. This coupled with general long hospital waits compared to the rest of Canada also leads to a lack of resources.
In education, students in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick all performed significantly below average in science and math.
Again, does this come back to poverty/lack of resources due to low funding?
So if that’s the case, how come we’re so happy in Atlantic Canada?
Maybe because money really can’t buy happiness.
December 30th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I think most people would say money didn’t hurt being happy. But there as at least as many rich people who are unhappy as there are poor people.
But people confuse their environment and peer pressure with happiness.
Lisa,
I apologise for the blatant plug here, but it something I am genuinely passionate about, and the thing I mention here is 100% free with no strings and no after sale.
In the free 7 part “7 seconds to change your life” dialogue, I try to explain how to achieve happiness, with or without money.
Tall order? Impossible hogwash?
There’s only 1 way to find out!
Can YOU be truly happy?
It’s a great shame that in these times of IM, that people will think this is a rouse to flog you something else.
For just the once, it is not.
No wonder the world is an unhappy place sometimes…
Peter
December 30th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Many can’t buy happiness and standardized tests don’t tell the whole story about education. Now I better get back to skiing so that I can keep our average weight down
Happy New year!
December 30th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
You’re very right about the standardized tests. I’m on the PSSC for two schools in Fredericton and I know they’re skewed for many factors. Demographic area being one factor with poverty being an influencing variable. Atlantic Canada is rich with family connections, community and traditions and I think that’s why we’re happier.
I think I’ll head off to ski today as well. The weather is perfect:)
December 30th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
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December 31st, 2007 at 10:01 am
I’ve tried to come up with a witty comment for the past ten minutes, but it’s just not coming. Interesting info, but not sure that it’s wise to try to draw too many conclusions. The small personal experience that I have with Saint John suggests to me that it certainly has some fun and friendly pockets, plus a cool arts scene.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:51 am
No, we can’t draw conclusions at this point and there are many more variables than I brought up. However, according to the CBC report “suggests a correlation between lower levels of life satisfaction in some of the country’s most affluent cities — Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary among them — and the lower levels of trust among neighbours in those cities.”
Research has already shown that people in crowded cities tend to be more stressed, more at risk for depression and so on. I think making the jump to happier people in a smaller place versus a big city isn’t difficult to accept.
Saint John, Moncton, Charottetown, Halifax and Saint John’s all made the top 10 of the happiest places in Canada. What I wonder about is what happened to Fredericton?