Originally titled "Welcome to Richmond, Canada's Healthiest City," from the August 2007 issue of Canadian Living Magazine, on newsstands or click here for the back issue.
It's 9 a.m. in Richmond, B.C. Lois Carson Boyce flips on her computer, grabs a coffee and checks her e-mail. Yikes. Messages are pouring in, reminding her about this meeting or that volunteer duty. But Lois isn't fazed. The peppery widow's three day-planners help sort out her busy life.Another coffee and an hour later, the 88-year-old hits the tree-lined streets of Richmond, 20 minutes south of Vancouver. But getting from meeting to meeting can be slow going; Lois has so many friends -- and she stays in close touch with many of them -- and is always making new, younger ones, "so I have someone to come to my funeral," she jokes.
She doesn't put her feet up for good until midnight, when she reads a bit of her latest book -- Elizabeth E. May's How to Save the World in Your Spare Time. "It just never stops," she says.
Nor will it soon.
The country's longest-living people
If Lois is vibrant and fit as a fiddle, so is nearly everyone in Richmond, home of the country's healthiest and longest-living people, according to various sources, including Statistics Canada. With a life expectancy of 83.4 years, Richmondites not only beat the Canadian average (79.3 years), but they also outstrip even the Japanese (81.4), thought to be one of the world's healthiest people.
So what does Richmond have that other Canadian cities don't?
Ask Lois. She moved here 52 years ago, as a young wife and mother of four, and is now the city's most vigorous cheerleader. "We have a great climate; it's a clean, clean city; and the community is committed to being better in every way," she says.
What makes a healthy community
But don't take her word for it. According to the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition, which provides health-related guidelines to all Canadian communities, there are some basic ingredients that make up healthy communities: mild weather without extreme temperatures, an unspoiled environment and clear air. Residents should also be a cut above -- educated, spiritual, fit, well paid, happy at work and willing to spend their spare time volunteering.
Sure, most Canadian cities have some of those criteria, admits Rick Hansen, Canada's beloved wheelchair athlete and president and CEO of the Rick Hansen Foundation -- but only Richmond has them in spades. Hansen chose Richmond in 1987 as the ideal place to raise his kids (he has three daughters now) with wife Amanda following his 34-country Man in Motion Tour. "We wanted to find a community that was multicultural and represented the future of Canada."
Page 1 of 3 – read about a passion for fitness on page 2!
