Editor: I read with interest the story in the Jan. 17 91原创 Times about the Point2homes.com website ranking the Township dead last in Canada as a choice for millennials. As I read the story and did some research I was reminded of the Mark Twain quote: 鈥淭here are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.鈥�

Being a millennial who was born here, who calls 91原创 home and who plans to continue to call 91原创 home, I was sad to read the article, but could understand.

Some of the statistics I found harder to believe. A low rank (#59) in education came as a shock, since we have a top-notch university in the Township as well as fantastic elementary and secondary schools. It was also written that there are few millennials who actually call 91原创 home, but with growing communities like Willoughby and new developments in Murrayville, I was surprised.

Of the 85 cities ranked, 91原创 ranked #2 in employment, #10 in climate and #26 in life satisfaction. These are things to be proud of, especially since being in the number two spot for employment is no mean feat. However, the Township was ranked #56 in crime rate, and as someone whose car was broken into recently (not to mention the article today detailing the spree of North 91原创 break-ins the other night), I can understand.

Being ranked #63 in home price didn鈥檛 come as a surprise either. This made me wonder how much of the fact that few millennials live here could be blamed on those last two stats.

That was the moment I decided to go to the Point2home website and saw that they are based in Saskatoon. Minus-30-degree-celsius-in-the-winter Saskatoon. Then I understood, they could perhaps simply be jealous of what we have here in 91原创.

As a millennial who loves this place, I was at first surprised, saddened, and a little skeptical about the Township being ranked last.

But as I read and did my research, it became clearer that young people like me might in fact be the exception. As 91原创 grows and more and more people grow up here, move their families here, and especially retire here, we鈥檙e going to have to attract more of those people between the ages of 18 and 34 so that our employment stays high, our services have enough tax revenue to be top-notch, and for us to get the transit and amenities we need.

Do we have some affordability problems? Yes. Do we have transit problems? Yes. Do we deserve some more amenities? Yes (a performing arts centre for example). Are we a poor choice for millennials? Not in this one鈥檚 humble opinion.

Michael Pratt

Murrayville