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Victoria deemed Canada's most 'romantic' city


By Derek Abma, Postmedia News February 8, 2011 Comments (10)
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Love Michael Buble? Romance novels, too? Amazon.ca says Victoria may be the city for you.Photograph by: Lucas Jackson, ReutersA new list of the Top 20 romantic cities in Canada makes no mention of the honeymoon capital of the world, Niagara Falls, nor any place where French, "the language of love," is the native tongue.


Instead, Victoria has been named by online retailer Amazon.ca as the most romantic city in Canada. And by "romantic," Amazon means this is the city with at least 100,000 residents that has the highest per-capita rate so far this year of purchasing items such as romance novels, sex or relationship books, romantic-comedy DVDs and Michael Buble CDs.


"Victoria proves brains are sexy, too, not only earning the honour of all-around Most Romantic City 2011, but also as the biggest consumer of romantic books," Amazon said of the British Columbia capital in a statement.


None of the country's three biggest cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver —made the list. And there was no representation from any provinces east of Ontario, including Quebec.


Niagara Falls is technically out of the running, because its population is less than 100,000. Other Ontario cities, however, dominate the Top 20 list, with 11 of the spots.


Rounding out the Top 5 were Guelph, Ont., Calgary, Saskatoon (last year's most romantic) and the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Ont.


National capital Ottawa barely made the cut at No. 20. It was upstaged by its suburb, Nepean at No. 9, which technically has been part of the municipality of Ottawa since 2001.


Looking at how some of the other major Canadian cities fared, Regina was sixth, Winnipeg was 11th and Edmonton was 13th.


Places such as Nepean, Calgary and Kingston, Ont. (seventh), were noted for their love of romantic-comedy DVDs. Calgary had a Top 3 ranking in all categories.


Amazon said Brantford, Ont. — hometown of Wayne Gretzky — was the top purchaser of Michael Buble CDs, but that was not enough to put it among the Top 20 overall in terms of romantic cities.


Asked for her opinion on the rankings, Stacey Espino, a Barrie, Ont., writer whose erotica books are carried by Amazon, said by email: "I've been to many of the cities listed. Being an erotic romance author living in Ontario, Canada, I'd like to think it's accurate."


Espino said crime, pollution and economic issues perhaps make Canada's bigger cities less romantic.


Eve Langlais, another Ontario-based writer of erotica — whose work is not available though Amazon — wrote: "In my opinion, the most romantic city happens to be whatever one you find yourself happiest with your partner. For me, it's Bowmanville, Ont., with my husband of over 11 years. I'm not the adventurous type in real life, even if my writing is. LOL."


dabma@postmedia.com