Editing The Post-Apocalyptic Roadmap/Canada (section)

== Alberta ==

Alberta is a average-sized province (which is to say fcuk-hueg compared to most USA states; it's just a little smaller than Texas) and is fairly resource rich, with vast reserves of oil (both oil sands and the more traditional oil fields), large amounts of natural gas and coal, a fair amount of high-quality farming land and wide grazing lands, very large timber reserves and large supplies of water in northern Alberta (southern Alberta has drought problems occasionally). With the Rocky Mountains to the west, and thousands of miles of plains to the south and east, Alberta would be pretty isolated from world events in the case of a complete collapse of world civilization.

Calgary is notable on a global scale for one major reason. It is a major economic hub in western Canada, being the location of several oil-field company headquarters, major banking nodes and related/dependent businesses. A strike to downtown could decapitate a number of Canadian oil producers and seriously affect commerce and transport in Western Canada, this being the collateral effects to the nearby Trans-Canada highways and railways (the headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railways Corporation is in Calgary, for example). On the other hand, Edmonton is the provincial capital (legislature, &c). It also happens to be a major nexus of petroleum refining and transport, and one of the few major train bridges that cross the North Saskatchewan river system.  Edmonton presently has a single large mixed-forces military garrison on its northern border (CFB Namao), however it previously had several armouries, one major command and control garrison-base (Western Command Greisbach) and the aforementioned CFB Namao, which at the time, was air-force focused. Calgary possessed and possesses currently fewer military resources by comparison.

Politically, Albertans are predominantly fiscally conservative and, unlike some stereotypes, socially moderate. For those who don't know Albertans, think of a stereotypical Texan without the patriotic hubris or racial antagonism (not unlike Austin, TX in some odd ways; <s>Cascadia, yo!</s>; Shut up, it was dumb independence idea in any case).  Traditional roles play a major facet in the cultural life, this in part due to the increasing immigration of people from the myriad rural communities to the major cities, which bring rural value structures into the urban centres regularly.

Alberta would definitely be a target during any major war, since it has the world's second-largest oil reserves, beaten only by Saudi Arabia. Due to the size of the province limiting practical foot-travel, and the relative density/concentration of people in the major cities, any survivors would probably flee towards the rural areas of Alberta, being that Alberta is still heavily rural in its land use and dotted with small towns where resources and aid would likely be found.

Were Edmonton (likely due to the presence of CFB Namao), the biggest Canadian military base in the country) or Calgary hit with a nuclear explosion, the loss of life would not be as great as most other cities, as both cities have only a population of around a million people. With wide city sprawl, it would take multiple small yield weapons to guarantee destruction.  However, both cities have marked suburban sprawl, so firestorms would be likely considering the common 'matchstick' construction practices in western Canada.  Fallout would be distributed widely due to the strong winds which blow across the prairies and probably sucked into the jet-stream that blows across North America. 

Civilization would survive in the cities in the case of limited destruction, but would probably devolve to a rural-based decentralized style of government if there was no central control from Edmonton or any other major city (highly probable; the provincial disaster plans include a gov't fail-over/relocation contingencies to many of the major cities). Depending of the level of destruction, Edmonton would probably remain the capital, although this would likely devolve to Red Deer (a smaller city roughly half-way between Edmonton and Calgary) in the case of an urban decapitation strike taking out the major cities.