fungus_eater
New Member
Seeing how Edmonton barely gets mentioned in any urbanist YouTube videos, I always wonder if Edmonton is actually overlooked or if we are just in an echo chamber and hyping ourselves too much on this forum.
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- Thread starter fungus_eater
- Start date
Kosy123
Active Member
I honestly wanna say overlooked. I still had people from out east thinking we're a tiny town, and probably the same with Americans too. We did breach the psychological "one million" milestone just recently as well so we're not on the radar as much.
thommyjo
Senior Member
I think we should try to get ourselves to “replace” Ottawa for when people think about the big 5 in canada. Not easy when it’s the capital and so close to the centre of the world.
But Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton is the realistic top 5 future for canada with Ottawa as a close 6th.
I think Michael Janz is doing a good job of connecting the right people. He brought Shifter here, he’s doing stuff with oh the urbanity, strongtowns, just had Chris Brunlett in town, etc. we need more urbanists/creators to be here and to see what’s working well. And we can still position ourselves nicely as the underdog on a strong growth curve. No one expects Montreal when they come here. They expect Hamilton. So we can wow them pretty good still with our humble progress.
Yeggy
Active Member
Idk if this statement is true. I am aware of a number of people highlighting Edmonton over the last 15 years, by a number of high profile people/companies.
Yeggy
Active Member
I dont think we need to “replace” anyone, rather simply end this “Toronto, Montreal, Vancover” nonsense.
We (Edmonton) continues to live under the shadow of Mordecai Richler’s 1985 Essay that ran in the NYT declaring us the “Boiler Room” of Canada.
Lets be perfectly clear, there are also a number of people who overlook, actively dislike, the city because “too many” Indigenous people live here and our work towards reconciliation.
thommyjo
Senior Member
Wait what. How are indigenous people being brought into this….???
And what do you mean “End this Toronto Montreal vancouver”??
Like just pretend that they’re not bigger? Disregard any sense of looking to and learning from others? Not evaluating our progress in relativity to others? Not desiring to bolster our reputation and image as a city?
David A
Senior Member
I do think often overlooked and that leads to much of the ignorance or mis perceptions. For instance, there is a stereotype of us being just a blue collar city. I think many people elsewhere in Canada don't realize the U of A is located here. I feel if you were to ask a lot of people in some parts of Canada they might believe Edmonton is similar in size to Hamilton or Winnipeg, but actually no where close.
Yes, Ottawa gets a lot of national media coverage because it is the national capital and located close to other major cities, so even though we seem to be surpassing them in size, it may be hard to get more attention.
Yeggy
Active Member
Canada is more than 3-5 cities. This is what I mean by “End this…”. Its not about replacing its about adding.
Us having the largest/near-largest urban indigenous population is not celebrated, the average colonial viewpoint would regard it as negative. I far from wish this was the truth but just look at any comment section whenever any advancement this population makes. its disgusting.
No we don’t ignore, we punch up, but we have to realize that large media markets and other such narrative based organizations don’t want other players in the market.
edm13
New Member
On a related note, just saw this clip of national banks chief economist.. I was expecting him to mention Ottawa as #5, but in fact, he mentions Edmonton in the group of 5. Sorry, don’t know how to add the clip in here.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
I have honestly heard people believing that we are similar in size to Saskatoon, Regina and Halifax, especially folks from Toronto.
It's not even a future top 5, it's already the reality. Edmonton passed Ottawa's population (both the city and CMA) in 2022.
I have never heard this from anyone, but I am also not at all engaged in discussions regarding this. I don't really think the general population knows this information (considering that most people out East, especially, don't even know how big Edmonton is), but I really believe you are right regarding quite a lot of politicians and other influential individuals (ie. media, big businessmen, etc..) having such views which, in the end, is what matters most in terms of how Edmonton is portrayed under a never-ending bad light.
thommyjo
Senior Member
Canada is more than 3-5 cities. Sure.
But when you look to cover employment, housing, economic, etc type news and data, are you going to say, let’s look to the top 13 cities? No. You primarily see top 3, top 5, and occasionally top 10s.
But canada is, much more than the states, defined by a handful of our large cities. And that’s what drives growth and informs perceptions. Look at all the media and attention Calgary has gotten the last few years. How companies, capital, immigrants, and young people have flocked there. It’s because they’ve gotten “onto the lists” in a way that Edmonton, Winnipeg, and our other “large” but not top 5 cities haven’t.
And even if Edmonton is bigger than Ottawa, there’s still work to do to make Edmonton relevant enough to get on those lists. If there’s only 5 spots, I want us to make it up there. Whether an industry report, city ranking, news coverage, whatever. Edmonton gets shelved way more than it should for being barely smaller than Calgary and equal-ish for years with ottawa.
We talk in other threads about attracting talent and our council not promoting our city enough. This stuff plays into that.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
Genuinely, at the scale we're talking about (~1.5-1.6M), the difference in size between the 3 cities is negligible.
That said, you are correct that we need to find a way to "replace" Ottawa in the talks, considering we're not only slightly bigger, but are growing faster and our GDP is substantially higher.
Yeggy
Active Member
I listen/read a lot of Usa media.. We are nothing like the usa. Regardless of the quality you still have a lot more state and local media, as well as non profit media. There is much more focus on the State. They will talk about Arizona, California, Texas….
But lets say states are their “cities” The distinct areas constantly being highlighted are New York, Cali, DC, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Illinois(Chicago is singled out a lot)
Second tier would see 2-3 conversations a month focusing on Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona/Nevada, and Colorado.
The fact their national government depends on combinations of multiple regions compared to the GTA deciding effectively everything here results in a very different frame for their large scale conversations.
My ultimate point is that no one is going to make the Toronto media market expand their focus/narratives. It took a political party coup and the election of a libertarian (we thought) nut job to get the national media out here.
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David A
Senior Member
One might say much of the national media couldn't find Edmonton on a map, but actually that would be wrong Interestingly when there is a terrible crime, or an unusual cold spell they seem to be able to quickly dispatch a reporter perhaps up the QEII, but otherwise not so much.
Yeggy
Active Member
Because reprinting a police report is easy. actual reporting is hard, esp in Alberta.