Best Small Towns and Cities in Alberta?

[Xelebes]

Mitch, are you from Prince Rupert?

[Jarrod]

Wow... That's a throw back for me. I'm from Rupert. But I didn't realize that Prince Rupert was now in Alberta

[LeftCoaster]

My favourite small town in Alberta is Calgary, cute little place

[Jets4Life]

Does anyone know anything about Leduc? I will be moving there in a few days for a job. I've been through it, and I like the lake and the close proximity to Edmonton, but has anyone lived there?

[bigcitydude]

Originally Posted by mersar

I'll have to say my hometown of Cochrane:


JHennicke on flickr - One of the side streets in the downtown


mjb84 on Flickr

We've so far managed to avoid Walmart (and its sounding like we may have inadvertently blocked their latest attempt as well), though Safeway and Canadian Tire did do some damage to the business community when they opened by refocusing where the retail core of the town was. The downtown is pretty well kept and thanks to local bylaws everything has a "western heritage" look to it, in some cases overboard towards the touristy view of it, but in most cases it gives it a distinct look.

Otherwise I'll have to say Lacombe is also a favorite of mine, like Cochrane its grown quite a bit but the downtown especially still has the small town feel to it. Some of the smaller towns west of it are also quite interesting to visit, I've found them to also seem more 'alive' then some similar sized communities in the southern part of the province even just from passing through them.

my family absolutely LOVES Cochrane! we make it a point to always pass through on the way to and from BC. we always make sure we stop at MacKay's Ice Cream shop and this year hit Olive R Twist restaurant for supper before heading home! it's one of my favorite Alberta towns along with Canmore and Banff.