Edmonton’s a unique city. As the most northernly major city in North America, it’s a de facto hub for many in Canada’s northern territories. Its affordability and strong employment market has attracted significant migration in recent years both inter-provincially and internationally making Edmonton one of the most favourable cities for immigration in Canada.
But there’s a lot to consider when moving to a new city: How big is it? How will I get around? What’re the people like? Can I afford a home? Is there work?
Those are just a few of the most commonly asked questions people have when looking for a new place to live. Too often, though, people overlook some of the more basic changes a move might bring. Things like geography, climate and culture. Things that, for many newcomers to Edmonton, might be a stark departure from what they’re used to.
So, if you’re thinking of making the move, or recently have and are still figuring things out, here are a few things I found stood out most when I made the move to Edmonton.
Despite what the Toronto Raptors’ “We The North” slogan will have you believe, most of Canada does not, in fact, live very north. Indeed, 90 per cent of Canucks live within 100 miles of the ol’ U.S of A. (cowards, I know) but if you’ve moved to Edmonton you can count yourself among the 10 per cent that are brave enough to actually go north (just don’t say that to anyone from the territories).
I myself am from the most southernly part of Canada: Southern Ontario. It’s a beautiful country full of miraculous wonders like the strip malls of London, Ont., the Casinos of Niagara Falls or the gleaming condo towers of Scarborough, Etobicoke, Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Barrie and pretty much everywhere else south of the 45th Parallel.
Down there, we’re a superstitious bunch and feel so comforted that we’ve appeased the 6ix God (our lord, Drake, who art in the CN Tower) when each summer the sun sets at around 9 p.m. and each winter it sets at around 5 p.m. It’s Safe. Routine. Consistent.
Here, that is not the case. Edmonton’s more than 1,000 kilometres north of Toronto and being this far north you start to get a feel for what We The North actually means. While we may not be subject to the 24-hours of eternal darkness or sunlight that the folks up in Nunavut are, we still get some pretty wild fluctuations that, to the uninitiated, can come as quite the surprise.
In the winter months, expect Edmonton to be cold and dark. Once daylight savings time kicks in (remind me why we continue this archaic habit?), and especially during the days around the winter solstice, the sun can start setting in the late afternoon — sometimes as early as 3:45 p.m. — and not fully rise again until almost 9 a.m.
Now, some people like that. “It’s cozy” they say and it makes it easy to have a “night out” that ends at 9 p.m. but still feels like a night out. But there are some drawbacks, too. If you have seasonal affective disorder, the winter months can be hard and it’s worth keeping an extra eye on your mental health, particularly if, like me, you don’t come from a place where light fluctuates this way.
Conversely, in the summer, it can be broad daylight before 5 a.m. with the sun remaining visible until almost midnight around the solstice. Most Edmontonians love this time of year, especially after a dark winter, and I’ll admit it is a boon come festival season when you want to be out on the town all night. But it, too, can have challenges if you’re not used to so many hours of unrelenting daylight. There’s something quite surreal about working all day, making dinner, retiring to the basement to watch a movie and then, upon heading to bed realizing it is still full bright at 11 p.m. outside. Invest in blackout curtains is my only advice.
This one’s for the folks coming from anywhere near the equator. Edmonton — and, really, Alberta — is dry. And I don’t just mean that the nearest lake is 45-minutes away (although, it is). I mean it’s atmospherically dry.
In Ontario, there are over 250,000 lakes. They’re pristine, stunning and warm and I love nothing more than laying out on a beach each time I visit home. But that much standing water also means that most of Ontario feels like an open-air steam bath from May to August. Not so in Alberta. In fact, that was one of its biggest selling points for me. Do you know how nice it is to walk in July without your clothing sticking to your body? Really nice.
It can still get really hot here, though (ask anyone about the Heat Dome of 2022) but the nice thing is you can just walk into the shade and suddenly it’s not that bad. There’s no thickness to the air here and being on the prairies means there’s usually a pleasant breeze all summer that makes lazing by the North Saskatchewan River or reading at the Leg’ grounds all the more bucolic.
OK, I don’t feel entirely that I should be complaining about mosquitoes here. Eastern Canada dominates the field when it comes to vampiric wildlife and anyone who wants to challenge me on that has clearly never spent any time near Upsala, Ont.
However, most cities the size of Edmonton don’t have mosquitoes. The environment is too toxic, I guess? Or sparse? Or maybe mosquitoes are just more into the rural life than the average urbanite? Whatever the case, Edmonton does have them — even in the city proper. It feels a little bit of a kick in the teeth that after such long winters our summers are infiltrated by god’s most spiteful creatures, but here we are.
The good news? They’re pretty harmless in Canada. You needn’t worry about Yellow Fever, Zika or West Nile, but it does help to keep some citronella candles and a bottle of something containing dangerously high levels of DEET handy.
If you’re looking to deter the bugs from crashing your barbecue, the biggest favours you can do for yourself is to get rid of any standing water you see, avoid dark coloured clothing, turn on a couple of fans and, if there’s no fire ban, have a bonfire. Trust me, I’m old hat at this.
