20 best places to live in the world

I really am surprised to see so many German cities listed. Our neighbor to the north has 3. I agree with Vancouver being on the list. Also surprised no cities from the British Isles. I would have thought they would have had at least 1.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/27/cities-best-live-lifestyle-real-estate-best-places-to-live.html

About a week ago the city of Victoria, British Columbia was named the best city in Canada to live in.

Ottawa is a nice city, you have everything of a big city yet there is the feeling of a small town. Very pedestrian and cyclist friendly. Every Sunday in the summer on a stretch of road along the Ottawa river they close it from 5 am to about 2 pm to car traffic, it's only for pedestrians, cyclists, roller bladers etc.
Toronto is pretty nice too, I probably take it for granted because I live here.
Vancouver would be my number one pick, the only thing is that it is probably the most expensive city in Canada for housing and recently they've been having a lot of gang related shootings.
But what a beautiful city.

Interesting. The list is not one many people would be able to argue, since most of us have been to very few, if any, of these cities. One statement I would argue:

But the U.S. is a bit behind the curve. Germany, for example, has had high-speed rail since 1991. In Japan, the Shinkansen, the country's high-speed network, has been operational since 1964.

When your country's population is limited to an area 25 times as small as the U.S., and you don't have miles and miles of nothingness between towns, the cost of a high-speed rail can be easily more justified.

We don't have high speed trains here either.