Best communities in Canada: Why Atlantic Canada comes out on top Our exclusive new ranking finds the long-overlooked cities of Atlantic Canada are the top places to be now that many of us are able to work and study from home April 8, 2021 Melissa Mahoney and her family stand in front of their home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Photograph by Carolina Andrade) After 15 years of living in downtown Toronto, Melissa Mahoney was sick of the commuting grind. Every weekday, the 41-year-old teacher got up at 5:45 a.m. and left her townhouse in the city’s Regent Park neighbourhood. She’d spend an hour commuting to her job in Whitby, Ont., after dropping one of her daughters off while her husband handled the other. Then, on the way home, she’d pick up both kids and her husband with the household’s single car.