Alberta

Alberta (/ælˈbɜːrtə/) is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,196,457 as of July 1, 2015, it is Canada's fourth-most populous province and the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces. Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1, 1905. The premier has been Rachel Notley since May 2015.

Alberta is bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the US state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to border only a single US state and one of only two landlocked provinces. It has a predominantly Humid continental climate, but seasonal temperature average swings are smaller than to areas further east, with winters being warmed by occasional chinook winds bringing sudden warming which moderates average temperatures.

Alberta's capital Edmonton is near the geographic centre of the province and is the primary supply and service hub for Canada's crude oil, oil sands (Athabasca oil sands) and other northern resource industries.

Downtown Calgary

Downtown Calgary is a region of central Calgary, Alberta. It is not a single neighbourhood per se, but is actually a larger community containing three neighbourhoods and a number of districts.

Generally speaking, downtown Calgary is bordered by 14th Street W. on the west, 3rd Avenue S. and Eau Claire on the north, the Elbow River on the east and the CPR mainline tracks on the south. Within downtown are three city neighbourhoods. They are, the Downtown West End, the Downtown Commercial Core, and the Downtown East Village. The neighbourhoods of Eau Claire to the immediate north, Chinatown to the northeast and the Beltline to the south are usually considered to be part of downtown, but strictly speaking they are not.

The population of Calgary's downtown is still low relative to certain other cities, despite major rejuvenation initiatives and the development of major condominium and apartment projects. The combined population of the three downtown neighbourhoods was 12,455 in 2009; however, this figure does not include the 1,700 that live in Eau Claire, the 1,300 in Chinatown, and the 18,000 that live in the Beltline. The Downtown West End and the Downtown East Village are generally considered to be the downtown's residential neighbourhoods.

Calgary

Calgary ⁱ/ˈkælɡᵊri/ is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, about 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. In the 2011 census, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,096,833 and a metropolitan population of 1,214,839, making it the largest city in Alberta, and the third-largest municipality and fifth-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada.

The economy of Calgary includes activity in the energy, financial services, film and television, transportation and logistics, technology, manufacturing, aerospace, health and wellness, retail, and tourism sectors. The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of corporate head offices in Canada among the country's 800 largest corporations.

Calgary anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor".

In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games.

Edmonton

Edmonton ⁱ/ˈɛdməntən/ is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region.

The city had a population of 877,926 in the 2014 census, making it Alberta's second-largest city and Canada's fifth-largest municipality. This population represents 66 percent of the total 2014 population of 1,328,300 within the Edmonton census metropolitan area (CMA), Canada's fifth-largest CMA by population. Edmonton is the northernmost North American city with a metropolitan population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian.

Edmonton's historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities (Strathcona, North Edmonton, West Edmonton, Beverly and Jasper Place) and a series of annexations ending in 1982. Edmonton serves as the northern anchor of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Known as the "Gateway to the North", the city is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories.

Canada

Coordinates: 60°N 95°W / 60°N 95°W / 60; -95

Canada (ⁱ/ˈkænədə/; French: [ka.na.da]) is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles), making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada's border with the United States is the world's longest land border. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains; about four-fifths of the country's population of 35 million people live near the southern border. The majority of Canada has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer.

The land now called Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the Atlantic coast, with the first establishment of a region called "Canada" occurring in 1537. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost territories within British North America until left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly geographically comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined to form the autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. In 1931, Canada achieved near total independence from the United Kingdom with the Statute of Westminster 1931, and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the British parliament.