Toronto now considered longshot for new Amazon headquarters

A total of 238 cities from 43 states and at least 6 provinces are currently vying for Amazon's affections in a race to be named the retailer's second North American home.

Called HQ2, the new Amazon campus is expected to bring billions of dollars (plus about 50,000 "high-paying jobs") into whichever city is chosen as the winner – and contenders have been going to great lengths to let the company know their love is true. That they're the one. That this relationship is meant to be.

It's like the bachelor, but less sad... unless you're Vancouver, which was just ranked 64th most likely to win out of 64 cities. Ouch.

Toronto placed 12th under the same ranking system, which was recently compiled by Sperling's Best Places using a comprehensive collection of data from industry predictions about Amazon's new headquarters.

Gasp! Toronto doesn't make the final 3 for Amazon HQ2? https://t.co/qjnfsuWB9D

— Peter Armstrong (@armstrongcbc) November 14, 2017

Sperling's report on the ranking, released today, places Atlanta, Georgia square at the top of the list, followed by Boston and Chicago.

"Our thing is about location and place and how it matters, and it seems to matter more and more these days," said Bert Sperling to the Detroit Free Press abut his firm's ranking. "This is our meta-analysis, taking stock of everything that's out there."

Based on this report (and others like it from The New York Times, CNN, Reis and Moody's), it's unlikely that Toronto will be chosen as the home of HQ2.

"Trust us," reads the Sperling report. "It's going to be Atlanta."

This might be disappointing to some, but we should all take comfort in the fact that Toronto was one of the least thirsty-acting cities of the bunch.

Plus, we've already got a futuristic Google smart city on the way. No hard feelings, Atlanta.