I recently asked my teen daughter what she liked about living in Stratford. She replied, “What DON’T I like about Stratford?!”

When I first moved here I met up with some friends in town for a Stratford Festival show. When I arrived my friend asked, “Guess who we ran into downtown?” Before I could answer he exclaimed that they’d seen my younger daughter and her friend.

“Oh, sure,” I replied, a little confused. “She and her best friend like to meet downtown, get ice cream at Jenn and Larry’s and walk along the river.”

“Wow,” they said. “We would never be comfortable with our ten year old doing that in our city’s downtown. You must just love living here.”

They were right. We do.

But it’s hard to pin down what we love most. Is it the historic architecture, the largest uninterrupted riverfront city park in Canada, the world class theatre, the myriad artisanal small businesses, the impressive fresh and local culinary options, the thriving arts scene, or simply the heart of the friendly people who make up this creative community?