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Administrativedivision of Canada Population:2,545,553 (1990) Totalarea: 661,190 square kilometres; 255,287 square miles
Alberta,province, westernmost of the Prairie provinces of Canada, bounded on thenorth by the Northwest Territories, on the eastby Saskatchewan, on the south by the Americanstate of Montana, and on the south-west and west by BritishColumbia. Alberta is a wholly inland territory.
Alberta entered the Dominion with Saskatchewan onSeptember 1, 1905, as the eighth and ninth provinces. With its extensive,fertile prairie lands, Alberta long had an economy dominated by agriculture.Since the 1950s, however, mineral extraction has become a leading sectorof the economy. Alberta is now Canada's largest producer of petroleum andnatural gas. The province is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta,who was the wife of a Canadian governor-general and a daughter of QueenVictoria.
Land Area
With anarea of 661,190 sq km (255,286 sq mi), Alberta is the fourth-largest provincein Canada; about 10 per cent of the land area is owned by the federal government.Its extreme dimensions are about 1,220 km (760 mi) from north to southand about 650 km (400 mi) from east to west. Alberta's highest point, MountColumbia (3,747 m/12,294 ft), is in the Rocky Mountains along the south-westernborder; the lowest, 170 m (557 ft), is in Wood Buffalo National Park inthe north-east.
Physical Geography
The RockyMountains and foothill region in the south-west is Alberta's most strikingrelief feature. The mountains that make up this region have been heavilyglaciated, and numerous remnant glaciers dot the uplands. Soils here arethin or non-existent. In the south-east the Cypress Hills constitute abedrock upland rising to about 610 m (2,000 ft) above the surrounding plains.This is one of the few apparently unglaciated regions of the southern prairies. The remainingthree-quarters of the province lies within the glaciated northern InteriorPlains of North America. Former glacial lake basins, till plains, end moraines,sandy outwash plains, and areas of rolling till provide a great deal ofvariety in the surface landforms. The Alberta Plain in the south, is agently rolling grasslands region, and the soils of this region are notablyfertile. The Alberta Plateau, to the north, is a forested region; it isbounded on the east by the Saskatchewan Plain, which contains great oilsand deposits.
Alberta'stwo longest rivers, the Peace and the Athabasca, flow from the Rockiesnorth to the Arctic Ocean. Perhaps more important in human terms are thevarious mountain streams that unite to form the North and South Saskatchewanrivers, for they flow east across the province's more heavily settled agriculturalregions. In the extreme south, the Milk River and its tributaries flowsouth into the Mississippi Basin. The province's largest lakes are theClaire and Athabasca.
Climate
Albertahas a continental climate, with cold winters and mild summers. In the northernand central regions the average annual temperature is 1.7° C (35°F); south of Calgary,the average annual temperature is 4.4° C (40° F), except in theRocky Mountains, where it is about -1.1° C (30° F). Winter temperaturesin the south-west, modified by frequent chinooks (warm winds that descendthe Rocky Mountains), are the mildest in the Prairie provinces.
The average annual rainfall is only about 430 mm (17in). Winters are dry, whereas in the summertime south-central Alberta hasa reputation as one of the worst hailstorm belts of North America.
Plants and Animals
Grasslandsare found in the south-eastern part of the province. To the north and westthe grasslands graduate into parkland which eventually gives way to mixedand coniferous forests. The entire northern half of Alberta is forest-covered,and commercial forests cover about 39 per cent of the total land area.The provincial flower, the wild rose, is found in most areas.
Largermammals found in the north and the mountainous regions include grizzlyand black bear, moose, caribou, and elk. White-tailed and mule deer andcoyote are numerous in the southern and central areas. Mountain goat andbighorn sheep are found in the Rocky Mountains. Migratory waterfowl, aswell as the prairie chicken, partridge, and pheasant, are abundant in Albertain the summer and autumn.
Resources, Products, and Industries
Petroleumand natural gas, found in the sedimentary rocks that underlie nearly thewhole province, are Alberta's greatest mineral resources. The oil-bearingsands in the vicinity of Fort McMurray constitute one of the world's greatoil reserves. Coal is abundant in the foothills and on the plains. Theprovincial economy was almost completely based on cattle raising and grainproduction until 1947, when the discovery of large oil deposits resultedin the establishment of energy-related and other industries. The provinceis by far the most important Canadian fuel producer, supplying about 83per cent of all natural gas, about 81 per cent of the crude oil, and some44 per cent of the coal produced in Canada.
Farmingaccounts of about 4 per cent of the gross domestic product in Alberta eachyear, with livestock and livestock products accounting for the majorityof agricultural income. Crops, with wheat predominant, account for a significantproportion of agricultural income.
Alberta'schief industries are those that produce processed food, refined oil andpetrochemicals, fabricated metals, paper products, primary metals, woodproducts, and machinery. Tourism is also an important industry.
Population
Accordingto the 1991 census, Alberta had 2,545,553 inhabitants, an increase of 7.6per cent over 1986. The average population density in 1991 was 4 peopleper sq km (10 per sq mi). English was the only mother tongue of about 85per cent of the population; French, for a little more than 5 per cent.Approximately 15 per cent of the population was foreign born, consistinglargely of people from Great Britain and the United States, but also fromcountries of northern and eastern Europe. More than 68,000 Native Americanslive in Alberta, mostly on reservations; the principal indigenous groupsincluded the Cree, Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan. More than 40,000 Métisalso reside in the province.
Education and Cultural Institutions
The firstschools in Alberta were established by missionaries in the mid-19th century.In 1884 the territorial government established a public school system andprovided for school districts to be supported by local taxes. By the early1990s Alberta had 1,832 elementary and secondary schools, with a combinedenrolment of about 534,400 students, and 23 institutions of higher education,with a total enrolment of 75,500 students. The University of Alberta (1906),in Edmonton, is the oldest and largest university in the province. Alsoprominent are the University of Calgary (1945),the University of Lethbridge (1967), and Athabasca University (1970).
Most ofAlberta's noteworthy museums and other cultural facilities are in eitherEdmonton or Calgary.The Provincial Museum and Archives; Edmonton Art Gallery, with a collectionof Canadian art; the Space Sciences Centre; Muttart Conservatory, withextensive botanical displays; the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; and theEdmonton Opera Company are all located in Edmonton. Calgaryis the home of the Glenbow Museum, the Calgary PhilharmonicOrchestra, and Theatre Calgary (both locatedin the Calgary Centre for Performing Arts), the Southern Alberta Opera,and Dinosaur Park. Also of interest is the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology,featuring exhibits on the region's geological history, in Drumheller.
Places of Interest
For themost part, the historical points of interest in Alberta commemorate theprovince's early traders and settlers. Rocky Mountain House National HistoricSite, in Rocky Mountain House, contains trading posts owned by the NorthWest Company and by its rival, the Hudson's Bay Company. Other sites ofnote are Heritage Park in Calgary, an area ofpreserved historic buildings; Fort Edmonton Park; Fort Whoop-up, a reproductionof the early fort, in Lethbridge; and Fort Macleod, a replica of Alberta'sfirst North West Mounted Police post established in 1874.
Sports and Recreation
Alberta'snational parks, provincial parks, and numerous rivers and lakes offer idealconditions to sightseers and sports enthusiasts. Alberta has the largestarea of national parks of any Canadian province. These include Banff NationalPark (Canada's first national park), Elk Island National Park, Jasper NationalPark, Waterton Lakes National Park, and Wood Buffalo National Park.
Government and Politics
The provinceof Alberta has a parliamentary form of government. The chief executiveof Alberta is the lieutenant-governor, who is appointed by the Canadiangovernor-general in council to serve a five-year term in a position thatis largely honorary. The premier, the leader of the majority party, isthe actual head of the provincial government and presides over the executivecouncil. Executive councillors are chosen by the premier from members ofthe majority party in the legislative assembly and include the attorney-general,provincial treasurer, minister of agriculture, minister of labour, andminister of education. The unicameral legislative assembly contains 83seats, including those of the premier and the members of the executivecouncil. Members of the legislature are popularly elected to a five-yearterm. At the federal level, Alberta is represented in the Canadian Parliamentby six senators appointed by the Canadian governor-general in council andby 26 members in the House of Commons popularly elected to serve termsof up to five years.
History
The areathat is now Alberta was first explored by French fur traders about 1750.Settlement began with the establishment of trading posts in the 1780s and1790s. From 1821 the region was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company.In 1870 the new Dominion of Canada bought the company's lands and organizedthem as the Northwest Territories. Soon the Canadian government sent inthe North West Mounted Police to keep order; they concluded treaties withthe indigenous peoples.
In 1882the Territories were subdivided into administrative districts. Canada'sgovernor-general, the marquis of Lorne (later the 9th Duke of Argyll),Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, named the new district of Albertaafter his wife, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria.Alberta was linked to the rest of Canada by the Canadian Pacific Railwayin 1883. Settlement remained sparse until new Canadian prosperity after1896 spurred immigration. Between 1901 and 1911 the population rose from73,000 to 374,295. As the population grew, the federal government extendedthe boundaries of the district east and north and, on September 1, 1905,made it a province.
Albertawas at first overwhelmingly agricultural. In the south, ranching predominated;farther north, the principal crop was wheat. Raising, marketing, and transportingagricultural products dominated both provincial and federal politics undera Liberal administration. Albertans, however, began to distrust the urbaneast and the established Liberal and Conservative parties. In 1921, Albertaelected a farmers' government drawn entirely from the United Farmers Partyof Alberta. The Great Depression after 1929 hit the province hard. Wheatprices collapsed, and much of the population found itself on relief. In1935, Alberta turned to the new Social Credit party, headed by the charismaticradio evangelist William Aberhart.
World WarII was an economic turning point for Alberta. War industries were attractedto Edmonton and Calgary, near which oil had beenfound. In 1947 a new oil discovery at Leduc made the province a major oiland gas producer. In 1958 a gas pipeline to eastern Canada was completed.
In 1971the Progressive Conservatives, led by Peter Lougheed, for the first timewere able to form Alberta's government. Lougheed's Alberta-first policies,stressing industrial development, sometimes led to confrontations withthe federal government. Oil-based prosperity fostered a boom during the1970s, but the recession of the early 1980s and the subsequent collapseof oil and grain prices hurt the province's economy.
