Punditry emanating from the United States characterizes Toronto as an outlier on the short list or overlooks it entirely.

Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal and Waterloo are deemed to provide the best dynamic for nurturing the workforce and fostering innovation in cost-competitive space.

The rankings include Toronto among a penultimate tier of 10 contenders pushing up against the alpha "big seven" of London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul.

A new report identifies Hamilton as an emerging mid-sized anchor city, with a role similar to Milwaukee, Wisconsin's status in the Chicago megalopolis.