constance_chlore
Active Member
If this is a ranking of cities proper (as implied by the absence of Vancouver) note that Ottawa and Gatineau are also separate cities.
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Avenuer
Senior Member
Fair point, Gatineau would be included in the CMA for Ottawa. With that in mind, it's definitely likely Edmonton proper is larger than Ottawa now.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
No, according to population estimates for July 2024, Ottawa had around 1.26M and Edmonton 1.196M (both city proper).
The Edmonton CMA might've caught up with Ottawa-Gatineau CMA by December, but as of July 2024, estimates had Ottawa-Gatineau at 1.66M and Edmonton at 1.63M.
Now, mind you, I believe right before the 2021 Census there was an addition to the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA, and there was some consolidation of smaller municipalities into Ottawa proper, as well, if I am not mistaken.
Edmonton, for now at least, stands as both the 5th largest city and metro areas in Canada
Edit:
After looking at conflicting information, I have gathered that Ottawa proper was at 1.097M by December 2024 (City of Ottawa's estimates), making Edmonton proper the 4th largest municipality in Canada by about 100k people.
thommyjo
Senior Member
You do realize a lot of the people who control capital and investment are more conservative leaning on average, right?
And the even more conservative culture of Calgary isn’t struggling to get investment.
So I don’t think your hypothesis is correct.
Stevey_G
Active Member
Yup. Sometimes people don’t have good vision for leading indicators. Edmonton’s rocking.
Barnaby
Senior Member
Any Toronto developers that aren't overwhelmed with impending bankruptcy are completely aware of the stability of Edmonton and Calgary. I wouldn't worry about the opposition to investing here from them, many don't have the money to invest anywhere.
MattPT
Active Member
There’s a difference between conservative, and whatever the hell UCP is. I’m talking about Alberta as a brand. And at the moment it’s embarrassing. Calgary has a stronger brand than Edmonton because of head offices, the mountains, the zoo, Calgary tower, and maybe to a lesser extent nowadays, the olympics? Edmonton is just the “other” city in the province of buffoons.
Whatup
Active Member
Embarrassing to who? People like you and people who think like you -but there are many people who don't think like you. Actually, if you leave Edmonton and this forum most people aren't embarrassed by the UCP and thats why then win elections in this province - people you snobbishly refer to as "buffoons". I think its embarrassing for Canada that after 10 years of the worst government in the nations history, almost zero percent GDP per capita growth over the past 10 years, rising anti-semitism, rising crime rates and crazy catch and release crime policies, ridiculous anti-resource policies that actively try to prohibit our number one industry in this country (hence our low GDP per capita growth) - and so many scandals I can't remember how many - that so many Canadians are still willing to vote for elite banker climate doomer and tax advocate Mark Carney, who will be a rock bottom disaster for this country. Now thats embarrassing - but thats just the way I think.
David A
Senior Member
Yes, I suspect now many are too absorbed dealing with the messes closer to home to be looking elsewhere.
David A
Senior Member
Like many old stereotypes, the one of Edmonton being left and Calgary right is not completely accurate and things also have changed over time.
While it still has a strong and vocal right wing, Calgary has become more cosmopolitan with newcomers and now has as many Liberal MPs as Edmonton and a lot of NDP MLAs provincially.
In Edmonton there is a smaller, less vocal but still solid conservative vote, so the majority of our MPs are still CPC (although there is an election coming soon so we will see if that changes).
ChazYEG
Senior Member
I could waste time debunking every single one of these points, but nothing propagates in the vaccum.
thommyjo
Senior Member
The last 3 elections have clearly shown Calgary to be more conservative though. So I’m not sure your point? Calgary isn’t stereotyped as more conservative, it simply is.
Offworld
Active Member
The common theme in the institutional realm is that Calgary is all there is in Alberta, and even though Calgary has had a hard time for some time, institutional money is still strong on Calgary. Compare that to Edmonton, where there's been a total exit of many institutions, or institutions avoided Edmonton altogether and poured money into Calgary.
I've also worked in the institutional realm on both regional and national levels and can unequivocally say that is true. In addition, larger regional groups from back East are certainly looking at Calgary, whereas the same kinds of Eastern teams thought they could make a go of it in Edmonton have instead bailed.
It's sad, I know. It's hard news to give, and this is not smugness on my part. These are people allocating hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more, across the country and Edmonton at best only sees drips in comparison to other larger markets. They can make better investment returns elsewhere, and with less risk.
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Offworld
Active Member
Edmonton and Calgary are amongst the least stable in the country. As just one metric, compare the huge swings in multi-residential vacancy in Edmonton versus the rest of country, and Edmonton is by far the least stable. Run a graph going back as far as you can, thirty years if you can, and Edmonton's line on the graph will have the ups and downs trajectory of a vomit comet. Compare with Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and to a lesser extent Calgary, and their multi-res vacancy graph lines will look almost as flat as the prairie.
From a real estate investment perspective, Edmonton is the least stable metro in Canada.
bodsbods9090
Senior Member
What does institutional mean in this sense?