Life in Edmonton

Edmonton. It's a square. A big square: 20 km by 20 km (12,5 miles). And a river run through it. It's Saskatchewan river, same as the name of the neighbouring province. Kind of hard to pronounce, but after repeating it a hundred times, you'll succeed!

Edmonton. It is also the capital city of Alberta, province that joined the Canadian confederation a century ago, in 1905. Along with Winnipeg and Calgary (older people would remember the 1988 Winter Olympics), it is one of the biggest cities in central Canada.

Edmonton. It is a region of plains, even if it is located 200 km (125 miles) from the Rockies. It developed with fur trade, agriculture, the famous Alberta beef, mining and oil extraction.

That could be a way to sum up. If you want to go further, just take a map. You will recognize this typical grid of new Western cities on the American continent. Avenues intersect streets at right angles and at regular intervals. They form blocks: 150 meters by 200. Very practical when you're new in town.

Downtown is composed by business buildings, making it a desert at night and week-end. The rest of the city is a succession of individual houses and stores. It is cut across by the deep Saskatchewan river valley. From South-West to North-East, stretches a long green strip, an urban park that would correspond to nine Central Park (New York City) end to end.

I am not a city planning expert, but I have the feeling that city planning is rather different from what we can experience in Europe. Like in Anchorage, the city is very spread. But it seems that neither Canadians nor Americans want to waive their houses and their individual vital space. There is a strong connection between middle class and suburb development.

Alberta is the richest Canadian province if we consider GDP per capita as a criteria. Just an example. Every province apply provincial VAT in addition to the national VAT. But here, the government doesn't need this money. So there is only the federal VAT. Thus, Alberta belongs to the “have” provinces and has to give money to the confederation that redistributes it to the “not have”. It is the principle of the equalization payments.

The province of Alberta experienced very difficult times in a recent past. But the extraction of tar sands (i.e. oil; I'll write an article on that) changed the situation, despite the dramatic environmental impact.

I would not recommend visiting West Ed Mall (see previous article) although it would be sociologically interesting. But there is a wonderful steel-truss bridge, the Alberta Legislature, an interesting art gallery, and beautiful walk on the trails along the river. And for the fans, you'll see that squirrels will remind you of Scrat, the funny one in Ice Age.