People & Places
The different faces of Alberta
Jo-ann Hodgson investigates the best of Alberta’s two ‘c's: Its bustling cities and awesome countryside.
Never one to do things on a small scale, Alberta is home to two of Canada's biggest cities as well as the awesome Rocky mountains, but the province manages to fuse the best of both city and country life almost seamlessly. "Many things in Alberta come in a huge scale," says Tony Daly, Managing Director at Ranch Rider. "North America's largest shopping centre, the West Edmonton Mall, can be found here, covering an area of about 570,000 square metres – the equivalent area of 105 American football fields. Then there is the Calgary Stampede, the world's largest outdoor rodeo, attended by over a million people each year."
Indeed, Alberta's two major cities attract millions of tourists each year thanks to a healthy diet of festivals, spectacles, cultural diversity and big city charisma. Summer sees Alberta's capital Edmonton play host to a number of large-scale festivals, earning it the nickname of the 'Festival City'. The Edmonton Fringe Festival is the world's second largest after the Edinburgh Fringe, while the city's heritage days festival sees the participation of over 70 national groups and, along with Calgary, plays host to a number of folk festivals.
Calgary isn't short of calendar events either, being home to Carifest, the second-largest Caribbean festival in Canada after Toronto's Caribana. Dubbed 'The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth', the stampede is attended by over a million people each year and features various races and competitions. Alberta also has has it's fair share of shopping opportunities, attracting visitors from miles around, with Edmonton holding North America's largest shopping centre and Calgary having developed its local commerce to the extent that it's almost unrecognisable from the city it was thirty years ago. With Alberta's rapid development as a province rich is oil and gas, so has its ethnic diversity blossomed. Both the Chinese and East Indian communities are significant in Alberta, with other major contributors to the province's ethnic variety coming from the European nations. The province is home to the second-highest proportion of Francophones in western Canada, after Manitoba.
Alberta has grown in a rapid fashion over the past couple of decades, in terms of economy, industry and population, yet has managed to remain environmentally sustainable thanks to nature-friendly laws and policies. Calgary's local government has been so successful in its quest to sit happily alongside Alberta's spectacular environment that it was ranked as the World's cleanest City by the Mercer Quality of Living survey. And the province's intrinsic natural beauty and vast expanse of land encourages a clean-living outdoor lifestyle from it's inhabitants. "We enjoy a very active lifestyle," says Paul Looker, who emigrated to Edmonton with his wife and two children earlier this year. "Generally, the pace of life is slower here than the UK, there is less urgency to do things and because of the wider roads and more space no-one seems to rush around. We've found we have had the ability to do far more outside as it's a lot cheaper to take part. We certainly have a better lifestyle here." Indeed, away from the hustle and bustle of Alberta's urban centres, the province has much to offer lovers of the great outdoors. "Complementing Alberta's cosmopolitan air is its lush landscape that ranges from boreal forests and aspen parklands to rolling prairies and verdant farms," says Daly. "It has been a breeding ground to millions of horses and buffalos; half of the total number of horses in Canada, in fact, are to be found in Alberta."
Made up of three climatic regions – alpine, forest and prairie – Alberta is home to many different species of animal, ranging from buffalo and foxes to grizzly bears and mountain lions found on higher ground, making it a haven for wildlife watchers. The province also boasts of a number of World Heritage Sites recognised by UNESCO, including the Waterton–Glacier International Peace Park, Banff–Jasper National Park and Dinosaur Provincial Park.
As well as a home to many of the province's more interesting creatures, Alberta's mountains are also perfect for the ski enthusiast. "We've been to Jasper twice, once in winter skiing and once in summer," says Looker. "In the winter we'll be taking the kids skiing again as we have good slopes 20 minutes from us." Alberta has, without a doubt, several of the best ski resorts in the whole of Canada, such as Sunshine Village. Lake Louise, Marmot Basin, Norquay and Nakiska. And for those who're looking to enjoy the scenery a little closer to ground-level, there's always the Prairie Railway, boasting one of the few operable steam trains in the world and offering trips through Alberta's rolling Prairies.
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