Unless you see Toronto housing prices as criminal, crime stats show us getting even better. StatsCan released a report saying that our shootings are down by 30% and crime across Canada is the lowest it has been in 25 years. Despite a lot of violence in the news, we've had 41 homicides so far this year (Chicago has had 211 homicides in the same period with a slightly larger population).

The police are saying it's because we have more police on the street, criminologists are saying it's partly because of our aging population and others point to the crime problems that still exist (like an increase in violent crime, the rise in crime for kids age 12-17, and under reporting of domestic-abuse crimes).

Despite these 2006 StatsCan numbers, we still get the reputation of a big dangerous town. I've known visitors from Winnipeg who needed to find the safest parts of downtown Toronto in the middle of the day (despite Winnipeg ranking 2nd in homicides and first in robbery, violent crime and auto theft). I told them they can relax here and take a break from big bad Winnipeg.

View the StatsCan report here.

Photo: stock.xchng