New poll finds Toronto viewed as one of Canada’s least safe cities

Toronto is facing the largest safety‑reputation penalty of any major Canadian city, according to a new national public‑perception study that suggests the country’s biggest urban centre is viewed as far less safe than its crime‑severity data would indicate.

A new Liaison Strategies survey, released Thursday, finds 57 per cent of Canadians consider Toronto somewhat or very unsafe, compared with 39 per cent who say it is safe.

Only Winnipeg fares worse, with 59 per cent calling it unsafe. The results also concluded that Toronto’s negative rating has also worsened over time — up five points from 52 per cent in 2017.

A widening perception gap

The study tested 15 cities and found Toronto ranks second‑lowest on net safety at minus-18, ahead only of Winnipeg at minus-28. Yet Toronto’s official crime‑severity ranking is nowhere near the bottom of the national list, creating what researchers call Canada’s largest reputational penalty — a mismatch between how safe a city is and how safe people believe it to be.

Liaison says that gap is politically and economically significant: only 12 per cent of respondents say crime statistics are the main factor shaping their impression of city safety. Instead, perceptions are driven by news coverage, personal experience, word of mouth, and national image.

Among the cities tested, negative perceptions cluster around the country’s largest urban centres:

• Winnipeg — 59 per cent unsafe
• Toronto — 57 per cent unsafe
• Vancouver — 52 per cent unsafe
• Edmonton — 50 per cent unsafe
• Saskatoon — 45 per cent unsafe
• Montreal — 41 per cent unsafe
• Regina — 37 per cent unsafe
• Calgary — 35 per cent unsafe

At the other end of the spectrum, Quebec City (+57), Ottawa (+56) and Charlottetown (+51) lead the country in net safety.

David Valentin, Principal at Liaison Strategies, says Toronto’s perception gap is the defining feature of the study.

“Toronto has a public‑safety reputation problem. It is not just that 57 per cent of Canadians call Toronto unsafe. It is that Toronto is being perceived almost the same way as Winnipeg, even though the official crime‑severity picture is not the same.”

Valentin says Winnipeg’s perception aligns with its crime‑severity data, while Toronto’s does not — creating the largest reputational penalty among all cities tested.

“Residents, visitors, investors, students, and businesses do not respond only to police‑reported crime statistics. They also respond to what they think a city feels like.”