In this recent case, the defendant brought a motion to change the court location from Kitchener to London, which in this instance seemed to be on fairly good grounds: all the parties lived in London, the car accident occurred in London, and most of the witnesses would reside in London.
However, despite all these connections to London, the court rejected the motion, and kept the trial in Kitchener. The Plaintiff was a law student in London at the time of the accident and wanted his claim held in Kitchener to keep the lawsuit away from any prospective law firm employers in London. In addition, the Kitchener courthouse was a more modern facility with greater courtroom capacity to hear cases quicker. This was sufficient to have the case remain in Kitchener, where the Plaintiff’s lawyer was located.
The proximity of the two cities likely played a significant role in the outcome, as I would suspect that if the plaintiff selected a city far removed from London (ie: Ottawa), the scales would likely have leaned in favour of moving the case to London.
Weinberger v. Gray, 2022 ONSC 2526
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc2526/2022onsc2526.html