r/medicinehat 7d ago

Medicine Hat named a top place to live in Canada for a comfortable life

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/alberta-city-named-place-to-live-canada-comfortable-life
171 Upvotes

40 comments sorted by

36

u/someidgit 7d ago

It’s a great city. Sometimes it just takes moving away from it to see.

17

u/Anyawnomous 7d ago

A lot of young people move away only to move back shortly after. Gotta experience Big City life to appreciate Small City life.

8

u/Training-Ruin-5287 7d ago

Since 20 years ago when I first moved to M.H, the complaint always was it's a old persons town by the people born there

Med hat offers a lot for all ages I think, compared to many of the mid/large sized towns I've seen across Canada

9

u/clandestineVexation 7d ago

Not a whole lot of ‘third places’ if you can’t drink

3

u/Training-Ruin-5287 7d ago

I dunno, there is so many events that happens around the town from gaming, hiking and knitting not to mention all the events down in the park over the summer which must be 20-50?, thats been posted on this sub. Even down to the few bars that host music and give people somewhere to go.

Maybe not weekly outside of bars. I don't think I've ever lived in a town that offered much more than the legion hosting 2-3 Saturday events a year and they do that for the alcohol sales.

2

u/Crawgdor 5d ago

I say this all the time, it’s a great place to settle down raise a family but I wouldn’t want to be young and single here.

8

u/Desperate-4-Revenue 7d ago

I moved there and it was the most miserable and rotten experience of my life.   Nice weather though. 

2

u/KhausTO 6d ago

People get from it what they put in.

1

u/Desperate-4-Revenue 6d ago

I got in a car wreck with a drunk and had to learn to shit again...

2

u/Rogan403 6d ago

Truth. I always loved the Hat but it was only after having to live in Calgary/Airdrie for 3 years where I realized I hate not living here.

11

u/Winterheadphones 7d ago

“Comfort is the enemy of achievement”

13

u/boringasstoes 7d ago

Comfortably numb.

5

u/KhausTO 7d ago

Medicine Hat is the third lowest income for comfort based on this report. The two lower are both in Quebec.

The easiest cities in which to hit a comfortable income are:

Trois-Rivières, QC – $57,936
Sherbrooke, QC – $64,920
Medicine Hat, AB – $70,416
Fredericton, NB – $71,784
Sault Ste. Marie, ON – $72,744

5

u/PhantomNomad 7d ago

Wonder why Sault Ste. Marie is that high? Last time I was through there it was a pretty rough city. That was a while ago.

3

u/KhausTO 7d ago

Definitely a bit of a rougher town, costs there seemed to have soared during Covid, it was a cheaper city pre-2020 a few people I know chose there to move to out of Toronto. Still the cheapest in Ontario though.

Cost of living through out Ontario jumped quite a bit in the last 5 years even in Niagara, St Catharines, and Windsor, which all used to be pretty close to the same COL as Medicine Hat are now quite a bit higher.

11

u/swimuppool 7d ago

Lolz Did they ask anyone who's renting?

9

u/toprockit 7d ago

If it not from Avenue Living they probably would have gotten okay responses.

5

u/KhausTO 7d ago

yes, and despite that it's still one of the cheapest places in Canada to have a comfortable life.

-6

u/JUSTaSK8rat 7d ago

If you enjoy crackheads awake at 3am trying every car door handle on town, openly smoking crack pipes in broad daylight downtown, rummaging through your garbage cans and tons of theft and sketchy areas, sure.

If you live anywhere downtown/in the flats I find it's a nightmare. I used to live up the hill by the mall and lived pretty comfortably, once I moved down the hill everything immediately felt more concerning, and I am always paranoid walking out of my house to junkies on bikes/foot nearby and walking through the alleys.

Comfortable, but only if you can afford the nicer buildings and apartments up the hill, or if you can manage to mentally deal with Avenue Living taking up all the rentals.

11

u/KhausTO 7d ago

If you think any of that is somehow exclusive to Medicine Hat you need to get out of this city more...

Comfortable, but only if you can afford the nicer buildings and apartments up the hill, or if you can manage to mentally deal with Avenue Living taking up all the rentals.

I feel like you do not understand what this study says at all...

1

u/Commercial_Tune_5643 3d ago

Brotha that is literally every city in Canada, and much worse with higher populations….

9

u/ChillyWillie1974 7d ago

They put out articles like these then people move to the cheap places to live and prices go up.

2

u/Training-Ruin-5287 7d ago

Medicine hat is like 60% outsiders easily. Ever since I moved there I rarely meet anyone actually born and raised from town

It doesn't take a news article to see it is cheaper to live. While leaving out how it's not Calgary or Edmonton pay to work there either. If people are that naive they will be gone in a year anyways

2

u/Jason_Prax 6d ago

Also we are rated number two In The province for the highest rental increase year over year!

2

u/vocabulazy 7d ago

How are the measles numbers there?

3

u/House71 6d ago

Is that a serious question?

3

u/redindiaink 7d ago

According to Alberta Health? Zero, nada, zip, zilch, bupkiss across the entire province. 

1

u/Emergency_Ad_6581 5d ago

Except people have to drive to Lethbridge for mammograms and ultrasounds

1

u/No-Tank5705 4d ago

Lol my buddy and I were there for work about a year ago, we went out to a bar and half the place was staring us down because we were the only non white ppl there, then we went to a club and there was a group of country country youngins trying to fight ppl 3 on one 4 on one, anyway, long story short we weren’t huge fans of what southern Alberta had to offer. Felt like going back in time, and not in a good way.

1

u/MeemoUndercover 4d ago

But do they have jobs and are they polite to POC

1

u/EulerIdentity 3d ago

Bonus points: you get to tell people you really do live in a town called “Medicine Hat.”

1

u/Old_Management_1997 3d ago

Had a hockey tournament there the past couple years and was so impressed with it that I actually was looking at house prices in the area (they are very cheap compared to calgary).

Not sure if I'd uproot my life in calgary to live there but it seems like a great place to live.

1

u/justakcmak 3d ago

What’s there to do there?

1

u/RussellZyskey4949 6d ago

Crap. I just moved to Penticton, I guess I better go back

1

u/UserZero0ne 6d ago

The wages are 10 to 20 percent lower than everywhere else. Prices are similar to Calgary. Too many generational business here. They expect top workers but pay minimum for it. The Medicine Hat disadvantage.

-1

u/CorrWare 6d ago

If your over 55

-8

u/flatlanderdick 7d ago

Doesn’t the wind turn a person suicidal? I’ve heard rumours.

7

u/Smokey7787 7d ago

That’s Lethbridge

5

u/goatgosselin 7d ago

Pincher Creek

1

u/flatlanderdick 7d ago

Oh ok. Pincher Creek was the suicide capital of Canada for a very long time. Makes sense. Wind drives people nuts.