Prince George Named Canada's Most Dangerous City

Western Canada is greatly over-represented on Maclean's annual rankings.

For the second year in a row, Prince George, B.C., bears the ignominious distinction of being Canada's most dangerous city, according to Maclean's magazine. The magazine determined that Prince George, which is at the centre of the drug trade in the B.C. interior, as well as the Highway of Tears, from which 18 women have disappeared since the 1960s, has a crime severity index that's 114 per cent above the national average. The city of some 73,000 has a homicide rate nearly five times the national average, while auto theft was double the national average. However, the rankings are based on statistics from 2010. In 2011, Prince George has not seen a single homicide within its borders, so it's unlikely that the city will be at the top next year. Victoria, B.C., came in second, while Saskatoon, Red Deer, Alta., and Regina rounded out the top five. Nearly every city in the top 20 was in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba, with Belleville, Ont. (11), Saint John, N.B. (13), and Thunder Bay, Ont. (17), being the only exceptions. The safest city on the list was found to be Caledon, Ont., where not a single aggravated assault was recorded in 2010.