Toronto vs Vancouver vs Montreal vs Calgary- Which Is the Best?

Toronto vs Vancouver vs Montreal vs Calgary- Which Is the Best?

Geography

Here is the picture to summaries the comparison of Toronto vs Vancouver vs Montreal vs Calgary  based on their geography.

geography comparison

Location

  • Toronto is towards the south of Ontario.
  • Just an overnight journey from Toronto is Montreal towards the south of Quebec.
  • Vancouver is there towards the south of British Columbia.
  • Calgary is located over there in the province of Alberta.

Here is the map to give you better idea of location of each city.

toronto vancouver calgary location.png

City size

  • Toronto is the largest city of Canada which makes it obviously the largest city of Ontario as well. 
  • Montreal is the second-largest city of Canada but the largest city of Quebec.
  • Vancouver is the third-largest city of Canada but the largest city of British Columbia. 
  • Calgary is the fourth largest city of Canada but the largest city of Alberta.

River or lakes

  • Toronto is actually surrounded by lake Ontario, Humber, don, and rough rivers.
  • Montreal has saint Lawrence and  Riviere des Prairies rivers.
  • Vancouver is surrounded by English Bay, Burrard inlet, and Fraser river.
  • Calgary has got bow and elbow river.

Land

  • The land of Toronto is mostly flat.
  • While Montreal is flat and holly
  • Similarly, Vancouver is also flat and hilly.
  • While in Calgary it’s quite hilly and not very flat.

Beaches

  • Now if you’re a beach person you’ll definitely love Toronto because of its lovely beaches.
  • Montreal hasn’t got any beaches
  • But Vancouver definitely has got beautiful beaches.
  • And Calgary hasn’t got any beaches either.

Mountains

  • Talking of mountains if you’re a mountain person then Toronto will disappoint you.
  • But Montreal won’t and has beautiful mountains.
  • Vancouver and Calgary also have beautiful mountains.

Lifestyle

All the cities are urban cities but rich with natural beauties as well.

  • While Toronto has got a huge lakeshore.
  • Living in Montreal you can enjoy the French lifestyle and architecture.
  • While Vancouver is supernaturally beautiful.
  • Calgary is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

So you can actually enjoy the urban lifestyle and the natural beauty in these cities as well.

Cost of living

Let’s talk about the cost of living. I’m sure many people would be interested in this section.

Many people would be interested to know which city is the most expensive out of the four. And which city is the more affordable one?

For that, I’ll take you to this lovely website numbeo.com where you can find the details of the cost of living for each and every city around the world.

Toronto: monthly cost, rent and expenses

  • Family of four estimated monthly costs are 4,534.05C$ without rent.
  • A single person estimated monthly costs are 1,248.87C$ without rent.

Rent per month:

Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre2,132.23 C$1,850.002,500.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre1,765.87 C$1,500.002,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre3,471.86 C$2,900.005,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre2,708.11 C$2,100.003,700.00

Distribution of expenses:toronto living expenses

Montreal: monthly cost, rent and expenses​

  • Family of four estimated monthly costs are 3,936.39C$ without rent.
  • A single person estimated monthly costs are 1,074.60C$ without rent

Rent per month

Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre1,284.84 C$995.001,650.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre838.08 C$700.001,200.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre2,257.26 C$1,800.003,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre1,464.71 C$1,100.002,000.00

Distribution of Expenses

montreal living expenses

Vancouver: monthly cost, rent and expenses​​

  • Family of four estimated monthly costs are 4,352.32 C$ without rent.
  • A single person estimated monthly costs are 1,181.52C$ without rent.

Rent per month

Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre2,055.28 C$1,800.002,500.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre1,576.88 C$1,200.001,900.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre3,706.09 C$3,000.005,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre2,855.26 C$2,400.003,500.00

Distribution of expenses

vancouver living expenses

Calgary: monthly cost, rent and expenses​​

  • Family of four estimated monthly costs are 4,243.61C$ without rent.
  • A single person estimated monthly costs are 1,193.93C$ without rent.

Rent per month

Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre1,217.99 C$1,000.001,500.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre1,022.84 C$850.001,200.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre2,148.77 C$1,750.003,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre1,625.79 C$1,400.002,100.00

 

Distribution of expenses

calgary living expenses

 

Weather

It is one of the most crucial factors when deciding about the city you want to live especially in Canada. Canada is famous for its harsh and cold weather. In this table, I’ve got the temperatures for the last one year for all four cities.

weather canada cities comparison

Weather in Toronto

  • Starting with Toronto, you can see that from November to February the temperature is very low. It can go even to minus 20 degrees Celsius. 
  • And the month of July it can even go up to 35 or 36 degrees. 

Weather in Montreal

  • The climate of Montreal is even harsher because when it comes to winters you can see this year in February it went down to around minus degrees Celsius. 
  • And when it comes to summers you can see in may it was 37 degrees Celsius. Such a big transition of temperature in just a couple of months’ time.

Weather in Vancouver

  • Vancouver gets probably the best temperature out of all of these four in winters. The normal temperature in Vancouver is around zero degrees or minus one, minus two.
  • The general temperature in summers the temperature is around 24 to 26 degrees generally.
  • You can see the maximum temperature is not even 30 degrees. It’s such lovely weather in the summers.

Weather in Calgary

  • Alberta where Calgary is located; is famous for its cold weather. You can see how brutal it can get in the month of January and February.
  • In the month of January, it was minus 32 degrees.
  • Similarly starting October to march it is super cold there in Calgary.
  • However, in summers, you would see some really good weather.

Transportation

It is so important for a city to have a great public transportation infrastructure. If the city’s got really good transportation infrastructure then the people would actually use public transport instead of their personal cars or other vehicles.

Infrastructure

All four cities have got really good infrastructure. They’ve got trains they can take you in and out of the cities and to other cities in Canada. Then they’ve got local buses as well.

All these four cities have got real-time updates over apple maps, google maps. Actually, you don’t have to worry too much about the timings they give real-time updates.

Metro service

  • Toronto has got a very old metro service but is the lifeline of Toronto. 
  • Vancouver has got sky train which is a very automated service. 
  • Then in Montreal, they’ve got metros as well. 
  • In Calgary, they’ve got C train which is actually a metro service

Streetcars

  • Toronto has got a really good streetcar system which covers almost all of Toronto and it’s really fun to travel in that streetcar. And also drive along with that streetcar on the roads of Toronto.
  • While Vancouver and Montreal haven’t got any streetcars
  • Metro service or C trains in Calgary also serves as a streetcar as it goes underground and on the streets as well.

Water transport

  • Toronto’s got ferries that can take you from downtown Toronto to the Toronto Islands.
  • Similarly, Vancouver has got a sea bus which can actually take you from the coastal area to various islands of Vancouver.
  • And Montreal has also got a ferry for its rivers
  • but there’s no water transport in Calgary.

Popular job sectors

let’s talk about the popular job sectors in the four cities. Because these are for urban cities and the top-level cities of Canada; they’ve got a lot of job sectors. But I’m just listing out some of the key job sectors which actually drive the economy there.

job sectors in canada cities

Jobs in Toronto

For Toronto, the famous job sectors are as follows:

  • Finance,
  • Technology,
  • Media,
  • Tourism, and
  • Life sciences.

Toronto is actually the economic hub of Canada and contributes to around 20% of the GDP of Canada. Now, you can understand the economic significance of the city.

Jobs in Montreal

The key industries in Montreal are

  • Aerospace,
  • Pharmaceuticals,
  • Technology,
  • Textile Manufacturing,
  • Tourism and
  • Transportation

Jobs in Vancouver

Vancouver is also another hub and has got key industries like

  • Technology
  • Trade
  • Film
  • TV
  • Tourism and
  • Construction

Jobs in Calgary

The famous job sectors in Calgary are as follows:

  • Air space,
  • Agribusiness,
  • Energy,
  • Financial services,
  • Life sciences and
  • Technology

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