The Happiest Place to Live

The Happiest Place to Live

By John G. Kelly
B.Com., D.PIR., LL.B.,M.S.Sc., M.A. (Jud.Admin.), F.CIS.

john@activeretirement.ca ; www.johngkelly.ca

The World Happiest Report has ranked Canada as the eighth happiest country in the world to live in by people over the age of 60. If you’re in that age category you can and should be feeling good about yourself. But what about the life you’re living? What’s the best location to be in to live life to the fullest? Well, don’t just take my word for it. Read what author Charles Montgomery has to say  based  on a life satisfaction survey  of more than 1,000 North American adults  in his definitive book Happy Cities ( citation)

Life satisfaction is strongly influenced by location. People who live in small towns are generally happier than people who live in big cities. People who live next door to the ocean report being happier than those who don’t.[1]

Now, what if you’re over 60 and happen to live in a Canadian small town that’s situated on the Bay of Fundy with the highest ocean tides in the world? I know the answer to that question because I live in historic Saint Andrews by the Sea, an idyllic heritage town on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Yes, I’m a boomer and I’m happy to be living my life to the fullest.

Deep down I always had a sense of this. I’m a “Bay of Fundy”. I grew up in Saint John, where the mighty Saint John River flows ebbs and flows with the bay at the intersection of the “Reversing Falls”, a tourist attraction. To the surprise of so many Canadians who live in a country where 80 % of the population live in urban centres, it gets consistently ranked as having one of the happiest populations.

Like so many Maritimers of my genre, I migrated to Toronto to pursue a professional career. Yes, I had a successful professional career as a law professor and professional services consultant. But when the door opened to live life to the fullest in an active retirement mode I “came home” as we say in the Maritimes and moved to Saint Andrews.

No, I’m not a lone wolf. Since moving to Saint Andrews, I routinely encounter others who have reached the “60s” threshold and have moved from urban centres, with the Greater Toronto Hamilton area (GTHA) being prominent, to Saint Andrews. What we “NEWBIES” routinely encounter are tourists who venture to Saint Andrews as tourists and invariably remark how this is where they would like to live. And, in an increasing number of instances they do. They return home a.s.a.p. put their house up for sale and connect with a local realtor to get them relocated to Saint Andrews.

Now, I have a lot more to tell you about all of this. And I’m going to do that by posting a series of quick “3 minute” reader-friendly informative reads on my Facebook and web site.

[1] Charles Montgomery, Happy Cities, Toronto, Doubleday, (2013) at P.35