This competition is close to my heart, literally, because as it turns out I live in one of the places that was recently named as one of the greatest places in Canada.
The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) annual competition to recognize Canada’s truly great places has announced this year’s finalists.
There are three categories: Great Streets, Great Neighbourhoods and Great Public Spaces. The finalists were chosen by Canadians from coast to coast who cast more than 104,000 ballots. Finalists for Great Streets included Courthouse Square (Goderich, ON), Lacombe’s Historic Main Street, (Lacombe, AB), 104 Street Promenade, (Edmonton, AB) and Bernard Avenue (Kelowna, BC)
Great Public Spaces finalists are: Manuels River Trail System and Manuels River Hibernia Interpretation Centre (Conception Bay South, NL),Saint John City Market (Saint John, NB,) Granville Island (Vancouver, BC), McAdam Train Station (McAdam, NB) and Riverside Park (Cambridge, ON)
The last category, and my personal favourite is Great Neighbourhoods.  They include Montreal’s Lachine, London’s Old South/Wortley Village, Digby County’s Clare and Calgary’s Kensington! Why do I love that so much? Because that’s where I live. I knew I paid crazy rent for a reason!
Winners will be announced on World Town Planning Day, which we all know is November 8th, right? Plaques will be presented to the mayors of those communities, and the nominators of the winning entries will receive prizes.
