Sudburians are happy, and the National Post is shocked

Canada's happiest people live in Sudbury! According to Statistics Canada, Vancouverites have the lowest life satisfaction in the country, while residents of Saguenay, Que., have the highest. Sudbury reported the highest percentage of people rating their life satisfaction as nine or 10 out of 10.

That's according to "How's Life in the City," a report on life satisfaction in cities across the country that was released by Statistics Canada this month.

The report, by Chaohui Lu, Grant Schellenberg and John Helliwell, found the highest level of average life satisfaction among Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) in Saguenay, which rated a score of around 8.2, while Vancouver and Toronto were closer to 7.8.

Scores were generated using 340,000 responses to the General Social Survey (GSS) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) between 2009 and 2013.

Each respondent was asked: "Using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means 'very dissatisfied' and 10 means 'very satisfied,' how do you feel about your life as a whole right now?"

Areas including as Peterborough, Guelph and Brantford had approximately 1,400 to 1,700 responses considered, while cities such as including Kelowna, Greater Sudbury and Saguenay had between 1,800 and 2,000

While the stats shine a positive light on quality of life in the city of Greater Sudbury, with high reports on life satisfaction, National Post editor and blogger Kelly McParland seemed to take issue with the results.

McParland poked fun at Sudbury and Saguenay in the fashion of urban intellectuals who rarely, if ever, drag themselves from the concrete valley they inhabit to see the wider world. They can't figure why anyone would want to live a de-urbanized life.

Too bad, Kelly, you're missing out. That's OK, though. Given the tone of this piece, we really don't want you around here anyway.

McParland — granted with tongue planted in cheek — questioned the legitimacy of the findings, and went so far as to suggest that the statisticians responsible for the study must have dipped into "happy sauce."

The article expresses utter disbelief right off the bat that anyone would want to live in either community with its less-than-subtle headline, "Tuesday's reason to fear for humanity: Canada's happiest people live in ... Sudbury?"

Forget the natural beauty and urban communities scattered around 330 lakes, the article's accompanying photograph is one taken from the ROC-6 Rover Sudbury Lunar Analogue Mission testing site which was chosen specifically to depict the surface of the moon, i.e. desolate and barren — the stereotypical view of Sudbury that hasn't been true for decades.

Don't worry though, he doesn't restrict his disdain to Sudbury. McParland bashes residents of Saguenay for having the highest level of life satisfaction and expresses disbelief that, "people who live 200 kilometres north of Quebec City, where it only warms up long enough for the bugs to come out, couldn’t be happier."

Alright, McParland, get some happy sauce.

Mallika Viegas is a new media reporter for NorthernLife.ca.