Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport
What makes you so bullish on Montreal? (jk). what is going to happen from 2050-2080 that is going to catapult Vancouver and Calgary ahead?
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All those cities will grow but Calgary {and Alberta in general} have some unique advantages.
Calgary has endless amounts of land to expand to unlike Vancouver and yet has a far more pleasant climate than Montreal. It's high wages combined with low taxes and affordable housing make it a natural draw for young people. It is increasingly seeing ever larger amounts of immigration due to astronomical housing costs in Vancouver and the French language requirements of Montreal and Quebec's general xenophobia. It also has a demographic advantage by having the youngest and most well educated {along with Ottawa} population in the country giving it one of the highest birth rates as opposed to BC which has the lowest west of the Maritimes.
Calgary is a numbing 10X larger than it was in 1950 and although that rate will obviously not sustain itself, Calgary has always been "tomorrow's country" offering opportunities and a very high quality of life with excellent infrastructure and a vibrant downtown. As oil declines in importance and as Alberta diversifies away from it into other areas like high-tech and hydrogen development, it's future is secure without the wild boom/bust cycle of the oil patch.
I think by 2060/70 Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver will begin to merge in population but Calgary will pull ahead of both Vancouver and Montreal by 2080.