Capital: Edmonton
Motto: (Strong and Free) Fortis et Liber
Flower: Wild Rose
Greater Edmonton Population, 2005 over one million
Edmonton is one of the finest cities in Western Canada to call home. You are in for a pleasant surprise as you discover all this city has to offer. Edmonton enjoys a very diversified and dynamic economy which in turn has provided the frame work for the development of many  world-class facilities, far and above what you would expect to find in a city of this size.
The city has built up along the North Saskatchewan River Valley and features tremendous quantities of parks and green space in fact some of our city parks are large enough to get lost in without a sign of development in sight.
As a sports city on an amateur, and professional level, Edmonton has no equal when it comes to teams and facilities. We draw some of the largest names in sports to train in our facilities and if you are a golfer, we probably have more courses in a half hour radius of Edmonton than any other city. In short, unless your favorite pastime is surfing chances are you can enjoy your sport, right here on a world-class level.
Culturally Edmonton is well known for the many festivals that we host throughout the year such as our Jazz festival, Street Performers festival, Heritage, and "The Fringe" which is a huge two week multi venue theatre festival.
Our Winspear Center is one of the finest acoustic concert halls in the world and is the home top the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. This new facility has attracted many top contemporary music artists to stage "unplugged " style concerts in its more intimate setting while our Skyreach Center and Commonwealth Stadium draw some of the largest performance tours.
And finally no synopsis of Edmonton would be complete with out mention of probably one of our most newsworthy edifices "West Edmonton Mall" this truly incredible facility is almost a city to itself. Covering an area of 24 city blocks and features indoor attractions on a huge scale. I have seen this facility change many a jaded visitor's from " so it's a big mall, big deal " to " Wow you mean there is more!". The scale of some of the attractions is hard to fathom until you witness it first hand.
The Climate
Winters cold with lots of sunshine, spring and fall, warm with lots of sunshine, summers, hot with lots of sunshine.
The Land
Roughly half of the southwestern section of the province is dominated by mountains and foothills - striking reminders of the glaciers that, over millions of years, formed, moved and receded in the area. Peaks of the Rocky Mountains located in Alberta range from 2130 to 3747 metres in elevation.
Over one-half of the province of Alberta, or approximately 350 000 km2, is covered by forests. Of the total forest area, 216 000 km2 are classified as commercially productive forest land and contain both hardwood and softwood species.
Economy
Alberta has one of the world's most productive agricultural economies, producing about 25 percent of the value of Canada's annual output. Approximately 22 million hectares of cultivated and uncultivated land are used as pasture and forage for livestock. While wheat remains the primary crop, the production of new crops continues to expand as the industry diversifies. The province maintains the largest livestock population in Canada.
Long known as Canada's "energy province," Alberta has more than 65 percent of the country's reserves of conventional crude oil, over 80 percent of its natural gas, and all of its bitumen and oil-sands reserves.
*Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2003 |