Alberta without oil

[balletomane]

No, this isn't a thread about Alberta's future in a hypothetical fossil fuel free world. I'm curious to know what Alberta would be like if it never had an oil boom (no tar sands), I figure it would be quite similar to both Manitoba and Saskatchewan, so roughly third it's current population. I assume Calgary and Edmonton would be somewhere in between Winnipeg's population and Saskatoon's/Regina's. I wonder if both Manitoba and Saskatchewan would be slightly larger too (less provincial migration)? Maybe some of you on this forum have thought abut this alternate history before.

[geotag277]

I suggest renaming the thread to "Hypothetical alternative histories concerning Canadian cities".

Here are some other interesting questions:

Vancouver without a port. What if there was another province in Canada West of BC? Where would Vancouver be? How big would it be if it wasn't on the water and managing a large port?

Toronto in the Canadian shield. Imagine the Canadian shield extended all the way to Southern Ontario and the American border. How big would Toronto be if it was just a pile of rocks making development hard?

Hitler born in Montreal. Imagine Hitler was born in Montreal and subsequently moved to Germany, as a French speaking, German as a second language, dictator? Would Vichy France have been the same? Would Montreal be ostracised from Canada?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[khabibulin]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I suggest renaming the thread to "Hypothetical alternative histories concerning Canadian cities".

Here are some other interesting questions:

Vancouver without a port. What if there was another province in Canada West of BC? Where would Vancouver be? How big would it be if it wasn't on the water and managing a large port?

Toronto in the Canadian shield. Imagine the Canadian shield extended all the way to Southern Ontario and the American border. How big would Toronto be if it was just a pile of rocks making development hard?

Hitler born in Montreal. Imagine Hitler was born in Montreal and subsequently moved to Germany, as a French speaking, German as a second language, dictator? Would Vichy France have been the same? Would Montreal be ostracised from Canada?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Or how about Vancouver without real estate?

[Jaws]

You realize that SK has oil production (lots of it, actually), right?

[Denscity]

...or Toronto without finance or all media.

...or what if every major city in Canada was the same age??

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by Denscity

...or what if every major city in Canada was the same age??

That's an interesting one. Imagine every Canadian city (major and minor) was instantly concurrently settled at the same time in circa ~1600.

What would a Castlegar look like with four centuries and change worth of history?

[Denscity]

Mind. blown

Castlegar would at least be Kelowna sized. Or larger but man so hard to imagine.

[Denscity]

But seriously if every city was exactly the same age which ones would be larger than they are now? And which ones would be smaller??

[Hackslack]

In all seriousness, I think a better question would be what would Canada look like without Alberta's oil booms?

[speedog]

.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I suggest renaming the thread to "Hypothetical alternative histories concerning Canadian cities".

One alternative history that's always fascinated me: what if Montrealers hadn't torched the federal parliament? Montreal today would likely be combining the roles of today's Montreal + today's Toronto + today's Ottawa, i.e. Canada's London or Paris; Quebec would be entirely different, probably similar to today's Ontario with a Louisiana flavor.

A mixed bag from my point of view, all things considered, but still intriguing.

[geotag277]

There is a series of events in the history of the Province of Canada where one could imagine French speakers consolidating economically by leveraging their population majority to potentially inject French leadership and influence into the early days of confederation. (Events which may or may not include things like burning parliament).

In any case, imagine Rupert's Land seceded to French political leadership and a francophone-driven push to settle the West with primarily French speakers (again, leveraging the majority in numbers).

[casper]

Originally Posted by Jaws

You realize that SK has oil production (lots of it, actually), right?

I think the difference is oil does not dominate the two cities the same way as it does Calgary. Most of the oil companies operating in Saskatchewan are based in Calgary. Obviously the local economy in the south benefits from the workers who have feet on the ground and the government from the royalties.

Regina and Edmonton are the two provincial capitals. There is a certain dynamic to that.

Saskatoon is actually very diversified. The major industries that have corporate head offices in Saskatoon are Uranium and Potash. The rest of the economy is quite diverse, some manufacturing, a fair bit of spin-off from the university, and service industries for the neighboring communities.

[Razor]

mmmm hard to say..I'm sure that Alberta would of capitalized on something else.
Because of oil being discovered, the money people put their energy (pardon the pun) into developing the tar sands,

I don't think it would be fair to say that they would of remained an agricultural or cattle ranching province like they were pre-oil. Perhaps Edmonton would of remained the dominant city just by default of being the educational centre and Provincial capital.

[MolsonExport]

What if you took out the Man in Manitoba? Would that lead to a greater or lesser cataclysm than say, "Hitler being born in Montreal", or Vancouver "without the real estate"?

What if Ellesmere Island were 1000 kms southeast off the coast of Nova Scotia?
What if all of New France had remained part of Quebec?
What if Ralph Klein had been a lifelong vegetarian teetotaler?
What if cars ran on liquid H2O?
What if Kapuskasing was the world's largest city?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[O-tacular]

What if Montreal never saw the smug reptilian grin of Mr. Wonderful himself: Kevin O'Leary?

What if Ben Mulroney is really just a tumorous growth from Brian Mulroney's ass?

What if Tim Horton's swapped their coffee for Soylent Green?