The Rudest Cities In Canada Were Ranked & Quebec Did Shockingly Well
Ontario is extremely rude, it seems.
Someone looks angrily at their phone.
Canada's known for apologies, but it's worth wondering what exactly we're all apologizing for. According to a recent survey by online tutoring website Preply, it might be related to how rude some Canadian cities are. The survey ranked, among other things, how self-reportedly rude many towns in Canada are, presenting them for your entertainment and basically nothing else.
The survey canvassed 1,518 people across Canada, asking them about how often they witness certain rude behaviours in their cities, and also how often they themselves commit them.
Who's the rudest of them all?
Cities were graded out of 10, and the average rudeness score ended up at a solid 5.22, with the rudest metropolitan areas scoring far above that mean (pun intended). The single rudest city in all of Canada, according to the survey, was Vaughan, Ontario with a score of 8.05 out of 10 rudeness points. Yikes!
Coquitlam in British Columbia took second place with 7.85 rudeness points, and Brampton brought the bronze medal to Ontario with a score of 7.05 out of 10.
Unsavoury public behaviours
The survey also asked Canadians to rank a set of behaviours on a 1-10 scale of commonness, with 10 meaning very common and 1 meaning exceptionally rare. The most commonly reported rude behaviour was "being absorbed by phone in public," a curious subject that might be explained by the prevalence of navigation apps and also, like, texting. Anyway, the next most common rude activity in Canada is apparently "being noisy in public," so it seems folks just really don't enjoy other people existing out in the open in this country.
These two behaviours were most common in Vaughan and Winnipeg, respectively, so if you hate strangers being on their phones and also being loud, avoid those two cities and you should be fine.
Cut that sh#t out (of your vocabulary)
If you're a fan of swearing, though, you should head on down to Burlington, where residents report swearing an average of 15 times daily. Guelph comes in second place with 14 swears per day and Chatham-Kent ties with Gatineau and Regina at 13 swears per day.
It's perhaps a shock that Quebecois cities didn't make it to the top of that list but with a methodology like "tell us how many times you swear every day and we'll believe you," maybe it's surprising that any data came out of this survey at all.
For those hoping to be forgiven for their sweary ways, try visiting one of Canada's apologizing hubs, where "sorry" is said upwards of 15 times daily, according to a similar self-reported metric. Burlington won this battle yet again with 18 sorries-per-day. If you're keeping track, you'll notice that this means more apologies than swears in Burlington on average, a satisfying little coincidence that might explain why Burlington didn't make it high on the list of rude cities — everyone's too busy apologizing for each swear they say.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.