Dennis Philps

Consider some more intriguing facts about our capital city:

1.  It is thought that, in 1754, Anthony Henday, an explorer working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, was the first European to visit the Edmonton area.  Appropriately, the long sought-after ring road around Edmonton which is currently under construction, bears his name.

2.  Ron Hayter, from Ward 2, is the longest serving councillor in Edmonton’s history.  He has served continuously since 1971.

3.  Matthew McCauley was the first mayor of Edmonton when it was incorporated as a town in 1892.  He was instrumental in establishing the first school board and the first municipal police force.  There is a neighbourhood in Edmonton between the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Commonwealth Stadium named after him.

4.  In the 2006 census, people with European roots formed the largest cluster of ethnicity in Edmonton.  They were mostly of English, Scottish, German, Irish, Ukrainian and French origins.

5.  If Mill Woods, a community in SE Edmonton, were a separate municipality, it would be Edmonton’s third largest city.

6.  Edmonton has a semi-arid continental climate with extreme seasonal temperatures, milder though than either Winnipeg or Regina which are both situated further south.  Average daily temperatures range from -11.7 degrees Centigrade in January to 17.5 degrees Centigrade in July.  However temperatures exceed 30 degrees C for at least 4 days each year and plummet to -20 degrees C or less for an average of 28 days each year.

7.  Edmonton averages 140 frost-free days a year [May 24-Sept. 23].

8.  The Edmonton tornado in 1987 touched down 6 times, killing 27 people and causing more than $250 million in property damage.

9.  Edmonton is one of Canada’s premier research and education centers.  The University of Alberta, the Alberta Research Council, the Edmonton Research Park and the National Institute for Nanotechnology are part of this exciting leading edge development.

10.  The Francis Winspear Center for Music is one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in Canada and is home to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

11.  Fort Edmonton Park, nestled in the river valley along the North Saskatchewan River, is Canada’s largest living history museum.  If you want to take a step back in time, beginning with a steam locomotive ride, this is the place to be during the spring and summer.

Did you know that:

1. Edmonton sits on 670 square kilometers [264 sq. mi] of land, making it larger in area than Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit and , as well, one of the lowest urban population densities in North America?

2. Edmonton’s population, according to the Apr. 2009 census, now numbers 782,439–an increase of 30,000 over the previous year?

3. Edmonton’s metropolitan area comprises 36 municipalities–the likes of St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, Beaumont, Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan with a combined population [2006] of 1.034 million?

4. Edmonton shares the same latitude as Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England?

5. Edmonton is known as Canada’s ‘Festival City’ because it promotes more than 30 festivals each year-including The Festival of Trees [Dec], Canadian Birkebeiner [Feb], International Children’s Festival [June], Taste of Edmonton [July],the Rexall Edmonton Indy [July] and the Edmonton International Fringe Festival [Aug]?

6. Edmonton was incorporated as a city in 1904 when the population was 8,350 and became the capital of Alberta when the province joined Confederation on Sept. 1, 1905?

7. Edmonton boasted the first licensed airfield in Canada in 1929 — named Blatchford Field which was used by notable pioneer pilots like ‘Wop’ May and Max ward to distribute mail, food and medicine to Northern Alberta?

8. The North Saskatchewan River, which divides Edmonton into two parts originates in the Columbia IceField in Jasper National Park and ultimately empities into Hudson’s Bay?

9. Edmonton’s River Valley constitutes the longest stretch of connected urban parkland in North America which is 22 times as large as New York’s Central Park?

10. Edmonton was judged to have the ‘best economic potential’ of any North American city by ‘FDi Magazine’ in 2006?

Edmonton, whose motto is ‘Industry, Integrity, Progress’ is a thriving city that one can be proud to call ‘home’!