Charlottetown considered 2nd safest city in Canada, poll finds

Canadians perceive Charlottetown to be among the safest cities in the country, second only to Ottawa, according to a poll released Wednesday by Mainstreet Research.

• Violent crime rate on P.E.I. far and away lowest in Canada

The research company asked Canadians to rank 15 cities.

Just 15 per cent of those polled believed Charlottetown is unsafe, and 68 per cent considered it safe.

"We're not hearing negative news about Prince Edward Island or Charlottetown across the rest of the country, and last year there were no homicides for us to hear about, said David Valentin, executive-vice president of Mainstreet Research.

"So we're hearing mainly good things. We might be hearing about the weather. I think a lot of people associate Prince Edward Island with beautiful beaches, with Anne of Green Gables."

Valentin said that balance of news leads to a positive perception of Charlottetown across the country.

P.E.I. violent crime index falls dramatically

In 2016 P.E.I.'s violent crime index, as measured by Statistics Canada, fell dramatically.

The index, which was already the lowest in Canada, dropped more than 15 points to 35.06. The national index was 75.25.

The highest index among the provinces was in Manitoba, where it was 152.69. Winnipeg was considered Canada's least safe city in the Mainstreet poll, with 55 per cent considering it unsafe, and only 37 per cent considering it safe.

Mainstreet interviewed 2,050 Canadians between Aug 14 and 18 for the poll. That provides a margin of error of 2.16 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |P.E.I. on the path for 2024 total solar eclipse
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Bluefield High student wins $80K scholarship