Here's a more revised version of the old Ontario's Prettiest towns thread, this time with 15 options to choose from, basically all towns in or near Southern Ontario to mention. They range in population from 5,000 to 20,000, which are good size TOWNS, IMO.

Goderich
Kincardine
Fergus/Elora
Niagara-On-The-Lake
Paris
Collingwood
Perth
Cobourg
Smiths Falls
Dundas
St. Marys
Huntsville
Bracebridge
Tillsonburg
Other

and it's my 1,000th post, too! :)

I'll do a rating system for those that I've been to:

Fergus 6 1/2; very pretty old stone downtown, but looks smaller than it is. The areas right around the 'old downtown' have too little thought put into them. Too economically depressed, looks a bit too 'abandoned,' complete with boarded up windows (though it is growing I think). However, definetely worth a trip, especially since it's right next to Elora. Nice looks out the river and a few small little side streets strongly reminiscent of Quebec City.

Elora 9 1/2; this place has almost everything right. Almost a seamless switch from industry to tourism. Gorgious 'downtown' area with many different building styles, complete with very carefully tended 'olde' storefronts, and great restaurants. For vegetarian food, it doesn't get much better than the 'Desert Rose.' Many little hidden nooks and crannies, and a wonderful old mill. It backs right on to Elora Gorge, which is a lovely forested conservation area. 1/2 deducted because a bunch of factories were demolished--they weren't pretty but boy they had atmosphere. They should have been rennovated. Another small little nitpick is that the pedestrian bridge is currently closed, though this is not the town's fault - they haven't collected enough money to repair it yet.

Niagara-On-The-Lake 9; in terms of preservation and cleanliness, it doesn't get better than this. Beautifully restored streets, wonderful shops (and who can say no to sampling some of that ice wine), and oozing with history, NOTL is a great place. However, it's also full of tourist traps, and it's a little bit too popular.

Paris 5; average, I think. Looks very economically desolate, and abandoned any day of the week. Some nice bones to it, but this place needs a face lift.

Dundas 7; Dundas is blessed with great geography, and the natural aspect is what the town excells in. A fair amount of people use the downtown which is good to see. It's not in perfect condition though (some boarded up windows). The architecture is nice, but not unique. Still a very nice place to go to, especially since a trip to downtown Hamilton takes no time at all. Overall, very nice.

Cobourg is a cool place .. but im gonna have to say my ex-home town, Lindsay, which is a small 15000-ppl town located in south-east Ontario.. like 60km from Peterborough .. Its a very small retirement community with almost no exiting activities and pretty much nothing to do. :) Its a very very boring place and i dont recommend it for anyone under the age of 40. :)
Im only voting for it because i dont really know any of the other cities mentioned, plus i lived in Lindsay for almost 11 years.

i've only been to niagara-on-the-lake, but it is as pretty of a town as any i have ever been to.

I hear it is nice around the Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough, and Lindsay areas of Ontario, as long as the Peterborough Petes do not beat the London Knights in the OHL finals (if the Petes make it there), then I might have to re--consider, lol. Maybe I'll get out there this summer. As for me, I like Goderich the best! I also like Kincardine, Paris, and Dundas as well. Tillsonburg is ok as well! :)

North Gower

:cucumber: :banana: :crazy2: :carrot: :righton: Wiarton <----most beautifull town!!!

Paris. One of the coolest Canadian Tires Ive been to in a long time, Very old building. I toured this town while waiting for a business appointment a few months back. Has a band stand in the park. The vancant lot turned interlocked park thing in the middle of the town over looking the river is pretty cool. Some very old factories being turned into retirement home I beleive.

Collingwood has a very wide main street in the historic downtown with angled parking pretty rare to see. ALOT of new delevopment going on right now. They keep the downtown very nice. Nice older & brand new ski chalets by blue montain. Has a nice waterfront walking trail.

other.

Midland & Penetanguishene basically one town divided by a large valley. Midland has a nicely keep up busy downtown with murals painted on alot of the historic buildings and the grain mill. new condos are going up. 2 indoor malls, a good mix of francshised and independent businness. Deep water town dock complete with there own sighseeing cruise ship. Penetangs or P Tang as the locals call it has a historic downtown built on a hill. They also have a deep water town dock with a large sightseeing cruise ship. P tang is home to a superjail and large mental institue built on one of the towns best waterfront spots go figure lol. The area is home to ontario's largest marina Doral Resort and alot of other Marinas. 10 minutes away is Balm beach a mini "Wasaga" in tiny township complete with lake front arcade, bar, convience store, beach toy store, motels and lots of weekdn cottages. 5 minutes away is Port Mcnicoll a sleepy little town which is home to Skyline Developments' 825-acre four-season master planned luxury resort community on Georgian Bay's 30000 islands for the rich and famous, being built on an old waterfront grain elevator property is going to be a hotel, estate homes, shopping, marina, etc, etc, etc. All of this about 1.5 hours north of Toronto right up the 400 highway to the 400 extension to highway 93 north will take to to this great community I liked it so much I moved here from Toronto and the price was right a brand new 2 car garage fully detached in P tang starts at $180,000. Non lakefront cottages in the area can be bought as low as $100,000. You dont hear about this area as much as Huntsville Bracebridge, etc, etc but i think it competes!

I`ve never been to any of these except for Niagara-on-the-Lake, so I must say........hmm.. Niagara-on-the-Lake!

Elora is nice, stayed overnight once to see Kaeshammer perform in a gambrel barn. Also spent like $70 on a meal at the mill ;__;

Dorset, Bala, and North Dumffries could also be on this list. My parents recently moved from Huntsville to Ayr, that's about 10 minutes from Paris. I've recently discovered the area around Cambridge and it has a great deal of tiny hamlets that look like they have been lost in time (in a good way).

Elora, and Niagara On the Lake are two of my favorites though. I'm not sure of Uxbridges population but it's a nice little town as well. I suppose I could google it......19,169 in 2006.

I was glad to see you didn't put Gravenhurst on the list, Muskoka's armpit.

i've been to most of these towns. nice places to visit, but with the exception of Dundas, horrible places to live.

^ why do you think?

because they're small and isolated. and 95% of the people are straight, white, and into things like hockey, golf, etc. there are very few options when it comes to restaurants, shopping, going out, etc.

i suppose i should say towns this size are horrible for me. some people like the slow paced, quiet, know every person in town thing.

although, i think towns this size are terrible places to raise children. there's nothing for them to do except drink, do drugs, vandalize people's houses, and get pregnant. you have no choice but to drive because there are no buses and taxi service is terrible, which causes a lot of people to drink and drive.

I vote for Dundas. Having lived there for 6 years, I can't think of a better place to live. Excellent residential architecture, very walkable, all big city amenities available but with very little traffic or crime, best urban natural scenery in Ontario (which is also very accessible with tons of trails), decent shopping (you can get everything from used junk to fresh organic vegetables to $200 dog pillows to good coffee to custom made felt hats and even foie gras if you want it), easy access to Hamilton, Niagara, Toronto and GTA, almost complete absence of big box stores. Definitely miss it now that I'm in Ottawa.

because they're small and isolated. and 95% of the people are straight, white, and into things like hockey, golf, etc. there are very few options when it comes to restaurants, shopping, going out, etc

Oh come on! That's a terrible stereotype Kensingtonian! I am sure there are diverse pockets even in those towns, heck every town/city in Canada has a 'cruising' area.

I'm obviously biased towards Cobourg. It's in a good location in relation to Toronto also, far enough to not be swallowed up but close enough to not feel isolated. Hell you can hop on a VIA train and be in downtown Toronto in an hour which rivals some times in the GTA to take GO.

Couple pics.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2801652924_64eb7dc6c9_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alain_quevillon/2801652924/sizes/l/

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/3848599066_abcf0243d5_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thru_the_night/3848599066/sizes/l/

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2484/3848604483_16cd68293d_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thru_the_night/3848604483/sizes/l/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2800579709_199bd0fea5_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24179010@N08/2800579709/sizes/l/

Oh come on! That's a terrible stereotype Kensingtonian! I am sure there are diverse pockets even in those towns, heck every town/city in Canada has a 'cruising' area.

these towns only have between 5 and 20 thousand people. there just aren't enough people to have diverse pockets. a place like Yellowknife would be different because it's the largest place for thousands of miles and it's a regional centre. most of the interesting people from these Ontario towns just move to the nearby cities.

While I'm not gay, one of my best friends from my hometown is. When I lived in London, he introduced me to quite a few gay people from our hometown (some surprises, some not :)). Smalltown Ontario is not generally a good place for gay people, most from southwestern Ontario move to London or Toronto.

...

i agree that the level of urbanity is higher in small towns such as these than it is in most suburbs - walking is actually an option. however, i stand by my statement that 95% of the people share the same ethnicity, sexual orientation, hobbies, intererests, etc. even if the people in the town are completely accepting, most people don't want to be the only gay in the village. or the only black kid, jewish person, and so on.

I moved from many different towns/cities such as London,Calgary,Toronto,Ingersoll and so on to Parry Sound,and I can tell you seeing a colored person here isnt common at all.

St Marys and Kincardine are my favs on the list above.

Here's a few of my favs that aren't on the list and of no particular order.

Kingston
Brockville
Belleville
Napanee
Chesley
Seaforth
Guelph
Cambridge (Downtown Galt)
Milton (Old Downtown)
Orangeville
Stratford
Southampton
Owen Sound