Winnipeg seen as Canada’s least safe major city, while Ottawa ranks safest: poll

Winnipeg has again ranked last in Canadians’ perceptions of safety, and its reputation has worsened since a similar survey in 2017. A Liaison Strategies poll found that 38% of respondents considered the city somewhat unsafe and another 21% considered it very unsafe.

The survey asked 1,500 people to assess the safety of 15 Canadian cities. Toronto, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver joined Winnipeg among the five cities perceived as least safe. David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, worked on the earlier study and said Winnipeg had already performed poorly in that ranking.

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Winnipeg was always doing badly in this ranking, but now it’s doing even worse, just objectively.

“Winnipeg was always doing badly in this ranking, but now it’s doing even worse, just objectively,” Valentin told Global News. He said the city faces real crime challenges, citing Statistics Canada data, and needs to bring crime under control.

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Obviously, there are some real challenges in terms of the amount of crime that’s taking place there, and we’re seeing that not from this survey, but from Statistics Canada. There really is a need to get that under control.

The poll found that people form views about safety through several sources, including news coverage, personal experiences and stories from family and friends. Twenty-eight percent said news reports informed their perceptions. Valentin cautioned that repeated coverage of a high-profile robbery can distort how people judge crime levels. A single incident may appear in numerous videos and circulate for weeks, creating the impression that similar crimes are happening constantly.

Ottawa ranked as the safest city in the survey. Quebec City came second, just one percentage point behind Ottawa, with 74% of respondents describing it as very or somewhat safe. Valentin suggested that Ottawa is often presented in the news as a setting for parliamentary politics, while Quebec City is more commonly associated with winter events. Those limited portrayals may shape how people view each city.

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If you’re hearing about high-profile robberies or high-profile crime, that can really colour your view of what is going on out there.