A new survey on public safety perception in Canada’s urban centres finds that Quebec City has the strongest net perceived safety score in the country, while Winnipeg has the weakest.
asserted
Winnipeg → find → weakest
But the survey, updating a previous version of the study conducted almost a decade ago, also recorded a big change in several large municipalities.
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survey → update → municipalities
Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto were all perceived as much less safe than they were in 2017.
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they → perceive → 2017
Those cities are clustered at the bottom of the list, along with last-place Winnipeg.
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cities → cluster → Winnipeg
The survey, conducted by Liaison Strategies, asked respondents whether they consider each city very safe, somewhat safe, somewhat unsafe, very unsafe, or whether they did not know enough to say.
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they → conduct → enough
They were also asked what most shapes their impression of city safety, including news coverage, personal experience, stories from friends or family, social media, crime statistics or a city’s general reputation.
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what → ask → friends
“Net safety” is the percentage who say a city is very or somewhat safe minus those who say it is somewhat or very unsafe.
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it → say → those
By that measurement, Quebec City leads the 15 cities tested with a score of 57, followed by Ottawa at 56 and Charlottetown at 51.
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City → lead → 51
Five of the cities ended up with a negative score.
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Five → end → score
Saskatoon had a net safety rating of -5 followed by Edmonton and Vancouver, both at -8, then Toronto at -18 and finally Winnipeg at -28.
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Saskatoon → have → -28
The firm found that Quebec City has changed the most since it did a similar study in 2017, rising from 7 to 57.
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it → find → 57
Edmonton and Vancouver, meanwhile have moved sharply in the other direction, each falling from positive net scores in 2017 to -8 today.
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each → move → today
Toronto and Winnipeg were the bottom of the list in both surveys, but their numbers also fell.
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numbers → fall → surveys
Toronto had a score of -12 in the first survey and -18 in this one, while Winnipeg dropped from -18 to its current score of -28.
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Winnipeg → have → -28
“We brought this study back because city safety has a long memory” David Valentin, Principal at Liaison Strategies, said in releasing the data.
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Valentin → bring → data
“Quebec City now leads on net safety, Ottawa remains very strong, and Winnipeg and Toronto remain at the bottom.”
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Winnipeg → lead → bottom
“Winnipeg is the clearest safety concern,” Valentin added.
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Valentin → add → ?
“It ranks last on perceived safety, with only 31 per cent saying it is safe and 59 per cent saying it is unsafe.
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it → rank → safety
It also has the highest official Crime Severity Index among the cities tested, so in Winnipeg the perception problem and the official data are pointing in the same direction.”
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problem → have → direction
“Toronto is different,” said Valentin.
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Valentin → say → ?
“Toronto is perceived as almost as unsafe as Winnipeg, but the official crime-severity data does not put Toronto in the same category.
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data → perceive → category
That is why Toronto stands out as the clearest reputational penalty in the report.”
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Toronto → stand → report
He added: “Only 12 per cent say crime statistics are the main thing shaping their impression of city safety.
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statistics → add → safety
That matters.
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That → matter → ?
If people are mostly relying on news coverage, personal experience, and word of mouth, then city safety is not just a policing issue.
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safety → rely → mouth
That reputation can take years to build, and years to repair.”
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reputation → take → years
The survey also noted a clear gender gap, with women seeing a sharper safety problem in several major cities, including Winnipeg, Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto.
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women → note → Winnipeg
“A city can have one national number, but the lived meaning of safety is not the same for every audience,” said Valentin.
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Valentin → have → audience
The survey contacted 1,500 Canadian adults between August 30 and 31, 2026.
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survey → contact → August
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