53 articles
Abbotsford, British Columbia
Abbotsford, British Columbia: a Fraser Valley city of 153,524 (2021 census), fifth largest in BC, formed by 1995 amalgamation of Matsqui and Abbotsford districts; known for Sumas Prairie agriculture and flood risk.
Athabasca, Alberta
Athabasca is a town in northern Alberta, 145 km north of Edmonton on the Athabasca River; formerly Athabasca Landing, a fur-trade gateway to the North, it had 2,759 people in 2021.
Atlin
Atlin: town and lake in far northwestern British Columbia, Canada; largest natural lake in the province (775 km²). Site of the 1898 Atlin Gold Rush on Pine Creek, an offshoot of the Klondike Gold Rush, in Taku River Tlingit territory (Wenah).
Banff, Alberta
Banff, Alberta: resort town of about 8,000 inside Banff National Park, Canada's first national park (1885). Incorporated 1990; fixed 3.93 km2 townsite at 1,383 m; tourism-driven economy under federal development caps.
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon, Manitoba: western Manitoba's second-largest city on the Assiniboine River, incorporated 30 May 1882 as a CPR divisional point; 2021 population 51,313, trading population 180,000, home of Brandon University.
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in British Columbia at the centre of Metro Vancouver, BC's third-largest city with over 249,000 residents. Incorporated September 22, 1892 and named for Robert Burnaby, it hosts Simon Fraser University, BCIT, and Metrotown.
Calgary
Calgary is a city in southern Alberta, Canada, where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet. Founded as a North-West Mounted Police post in 1875, it is Canada's third largest municipality.
Canmore, Alberta
Canmore, Alberta is a Bow Valley town outside Banff National Park, founded in 1883 as a CPR railway siding and coal mining town until 1979, now a recreation destination of about 16,000 residents facing housing affordability pressures.
Chilliwack
Chilliwack is a city in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, 100 km east of Vancouver, named from Halq'eméylem Ts'elxwéyeqw; incorporated 1873 (Township) and 1908 (City), amalgamated 1980, population about 107,200 in 2023.
Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill, Manitoba, a town of about 900 on Hudson Bay, is the Polar Bear Capital of the World, with summer beluga viewing, aurora tourism, the 1929 Hudson Bay Railway, and Canada's only Arctic deep-water port.
Coquitlam
Coquitlam is a city in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, named for the Kwikwetlem First Nation, incorporated July 25, 1891, grown around Fraser Mills, with 148,625 people at the 2021 Census and SkyTrain service since 2017.
Dawson Creek
Dawson Creek, a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, is Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway and the western terminus of the Northern Alberta Railway; incorporated as a village in 1936 and a city in 1958, population 12,323 (2021).
Edmonton
Edmonton, capital of Alberta, Canada, on the North Saskatchewan River in Treaty Six territory. Grew from a 1778 fur trade post; 1,010,899 residents in 2021, about 1.24 million by 2025; opened Canada's pioneering 1978 LRT.
Edson, Alberta
Edson, Alberta: a town of about 8,400 in Yellowhead County on Highway 16, founded 1911-1912 as a Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad supply depot named for Edson J. Chamberlain, with a resource economy in oil and gas, forestry, and coal.
Fort McMurray
Fort McMurray, Alberta: urban hub of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo at the Athabasca-Clearwater confluence, founded 1870 as an HBC post, and the service center of the Athabasca oil sands since the 1967 GCOS operation.
Fort St. John, British Columbia
Fort St. John, British Columbia: the "Energetic City," a Peace River regional hub of 21,465 (2021), oldest non-First Nations settlement on the BC mainland, oil-and-gas and agricultural center on the Alaska Highway.
Grande Prairie
Grande Prairie, Alberta, is a city about 460 km northwest of Edmonton and the largest commercial center in the Peace Country, serving a trade area of nearly 300,000 people.
Hope, British Columbia
Hope, British Columbia: district municipality at the Fraser–Coquihalla river junction, 150 km east of Vancouver. Founded as HBC Fort Hope (1848–49), incorporated 1929, district 1992; 2021 population 6,686; forestry, tourism, service economy.
Kamloops
Kamloops (Tk'emlúps) is a city in British Columbia's Southern Interior at the confluence of the North and South Thompson rivers. Incorporated 1893, population about 114,142 (2021 CMA), known as Canada's Tournament Capital.
Kelowna
Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, the province's sixth largest, incorporated in 1905, with about 145,000 residents, a wine- and tourism-based economy, and rapid growth under its 2040 Official Community Plan.
Lethbridge
Lethbridge, Alberta, also called Coalbanks or Sikoohkotoki, is a southern Alberta city on the Oldman River; founded on 1870s coal mining, named for William Lethbridge, a city since 1906, population about 106,550 in 2023.
Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat, Alberta: city of over 65,000 in southeast Alberta on the South Saskatchewan River, nicknamed after the Blackfoot 'Saamis'; known for its 1883 gas discovery, Kipling's 'all hell for a basement', and municipally owned gas and electric utilities.
Merritt, British Columbia
Merritt, British Columbia: a city at the junction of the Nicola and Coldwater Rivers, southwest of Kamloops; incorporated 1911, renamed 1906 for William Hamilton Merritt, evacuated in the November 2021 flood.
Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw is Saskatchewan's fourth largest city, at the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 2 junction about 68 km from Regina. Known for 15 Wing air training, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, and the 'Canada's Most Notorious City' brand.
Nakusp
Nakusp: village municipality on Upper Arrow Lake in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, incorporated 1964, population 1,589 (2021), known for forestry, community forest NACFOR, and the Nakusp Hot Springs.
Nanaimo
Nanaimo (Snuneymuxw territory) is a city on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, incorporated 1874, founded on HBC coal mining in 1852 as Colvilletown; population 99,863, Harbour City, Nanaimo bar, fifth-largest BC urban centre.
Nelson, British Columbia
Nelson, BC is a city of about 10,600 on Kootenay Lake's West Arm in the Selkirk Mountains, incorporated 1897, named for Lt.-Gov. Hugh Nelson, home to BC's first hydroelectric plant and 350 heritage buildings.
New Westminster
New Westminster, British Columbia, the "Royal City": founded 1859 by Colonel Moody as capital of the mainland colony, named by Queen Victoria, capital until 1868; population 78,916 (2021).
North Vancouver (city)
City of North Vancouver: British Columbia municipality incorporated May 13, 1907, on the North Shore across from Vancouver, distinct from the District of North Vancouver. Compact Lonsdale-core city of 61,550 (2021) facing severe housing affordability limits and a 3,320-unit provincial housing target.
Okotoks
Okotoks is a town in southern Alberta, 18 km south of Calgary, named from the Blackfoot word for rock. Population 30,405 (2021 census); home of the Big Rock glacial erratic; growth once capped by Sheep River water supply.