Economist Intelligence?

Vancouver is trending on the Economist bubble graph due to an online protest over the downgrading of Vancouver to third in the Economist Intelligence Unit's city livability index. Also known as the "smugness" index, Vancouver has topped the tables for a decade.

The EIU lopped a significant 0.7% off Vancouver's score for transport infrastructure, which allowed deadly rivals Melbourne and Vienna to leapfrog Van. There is no discernible deterioration in the transport infrastructure from the time I was here last summer.

The EIU justified the downgrade by citing an incident outside Victoria which closed a highway for half a day. Problem is that Victoria is on Vancouver Island and is the same same distance from Vancouver as Eastborne is from London - but Vancouver Island also entails a sea crossing. This has left Vancouverites questioning the intelligence of the EIU.

Maybe it's better to suffer the downgrade now. The hockey riots earlier this year will almost certainly have an impact on next year's rating. It raises the dread prospect of Toronto and Calgary pushing Van to fifth. Hey, it's only a point of view.