If you're interested in pursuing a career in crime here in Canada, it looks like your best bet is to pack up and move to Regina. According to an article published in Maclean's, Regina (aka "The Other Other Queen City") has the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous city in Canada, followed closely by Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The rankings, based on per-capita crime rates published by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, paint a dark picture of the West as a crime-ridden, scary place where unsuspecting rubes from Toronto are lured into dark alleys and robbed of their vintage t-shirts. All of the cities in the top 10 (save Halifax at #10) are located in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.

So how did Toronto fare in this competition? Quite well, actually. Toronto came in 26th overall, even lower than Montreal, at 19th place. In fact, Ontario did pretty well in the "safest cities" competition as well, with four of the top five safest places in the country. Caledon came out on top, with Nottawasaga, Halton Region, and York Region also sharing in the honours.

The fact that Toronto did so well in this study won't be surprising to most people who live here or spend a lot of time in the city. In fact, the City of Toronto has been bragging about our safety record for quite a while.

Now what does all this mean for our reputation as a tough-talkin', rough-walkin' city? Well, we've got a message for all those Canadian cities out there that think they can take us: these numbers clearly demonstrate that people from other cities are much more likely to mug us, spit on us, and graffito-tag our delicate faces than we are to do the reverse. So go easy on us, other cities! We're from Toronto.

Photo by moonwire from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.