Detroit - shown here - ranks 65th in the world

It's that time of year again. Every twelve months Business Week Magazine uncorks its ratings of the world's cities. There is one Canadian city in the top-ten: Vancouver at number three. Toronto is next at fifteenth, Ottawa at eighteenth, Montreal is twenty-second. No other North American cities are in the top twenty-two. As a proud Torontonian I have to admit to being a bit disappointed to read that Vancouver is twelve places ahead of us.

Sure, Vancouver is a beautiful city and all but doesn't Toronto do so much more with far less? Plus, Toronto boasts a much more complex and diverse culture. Does Vancouver move a million people every day with its transit system? Do more immigrants arrive in Vancouver than in Toronto?

All of which make us wonder how the cities are rated:

What foreign postings are most coveted by expatriate executives? To find out, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which provides advice to multinational companies on international assignments, has come up with a global ranking of the world's most livable cities based on 39 key quality-of-life issues. They include political stability, currency-exchange regulations, political and media censorship, school quality, housing, the environment and public safety.