Red Deer, Alberta

City of Red Deer
Bower Ponds
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Red Deer within Census Division Number 8, Alberta, Canada.
Coordinates:
Country	Canada
Province	Alberta
Region	Calgary-Edmonton Corridor
Census division	8
Established	1882 as a Trading post
Incorporated	1901 (Town)
	1913(City)
Government [1]
- Mayor	Morris Flewwelling
- Governing_body	Red Deer City Council
- City Manager	Craig Curtis[2]
- MP	Bob Mills (Cons)
- MLAs	Cal Dallas (P.C.), Mary Anne Jablonski (P.C.)
Area
- Total	71 km² (27.4 sq mi)
Elevation	855 m (2,805 ft)
Population (2007)[3]
- Total	85 705
- Density	1,196/km² (3,097.6/sq mi)
	Ranked 44th largest in Canada
Time zone	MST (UTC−7)
- Summer (DST)	MDT (UTC−6)
Postal code span	T4N to T4R
Area code(s)	403 587
Highways	Queen Elizabeth II Highway David Thompson Highway
Waterways	Red Deer River
Website: City of Red Deer

Red Deer is a city in central Alberta, Canada. It is located near the midpoint of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor, and is Alberta's third most populous city—after Calgary and Edmonton. Red Deer is located in aspen parkland, a region of rolling hills focused on oil, grain, and cattle production. The city is a centre for oil and agriculture distribution, and the surrounding region is a major centre for petrochemical production.

Red Deer County surrounds the city.

The city takes its name from the river, which in turn was named by Scottish traders who, seeing both white tail and mule deer, mistook them for the deer of their ancestral home. Thus a river flowing through this area would be called the Red Deer River, and may have been originally called Was-ka-soo, which means "elk river" in the Cree language. Waskasoo is a tributary creek of the Red Deer River and is also a neighbourhood overlooking the Red Deer River.

Red Deer is the hometown of several famous people, including former NHLer Ron Anderson, ex-NHLer Glen Wesley, Trent Hunter and Mark Tinordi, and Olympic gold medallist Jamie Salé. Olympic medallist speed skater Jeremy Wotherspoon also spent most of his childhood in Red Deer after being born in Saskatchewan. Olympic bronze medallist Deidra Dion grew up in Red Deer.

Red Deer Transit provides local bus service throughout the city.

History

• Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by aboriginal tribes (Blackfoot, Plains Cree, and Stoney) and later by Métis and fur traders.
• The first major road from Fort Calgary to Fort Edmonton was called the Calgary and Edmonton Trail^[4] (abbreviated to C&E Trail) and it crossed the Red Deer River near the present city at Red Deer Crossing. It is now known as the C and E Trail.
• In 1882, a trading post was established at Red Deer Crossing.
• During the North-West Rebellion of 1885, the Canadian militia constructed Fort Normandeau at the crossing, which was later taken over by the North-West Mounted Police, who used it until 1893.
• By 1891, the Calgary and Edmonton Railway laid track east of the crossing at the present site of the city.
• In 1901, Red Deer was incorporated as a town with a population of 343.
• In 1907, it became a major divisional point for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
• In 1911, the Alberta Central Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway entered the town.
• On March 25, 1913, Red Deer was incorporated as a city with a population of nearly 2800.
• In 1922, the province established an institution in Red Deer to care for the mentally disabled, now called the Michener Centre. It is currently out of use and, due to a lightning strike in 2003, is dilapidated. Currently several organizations are looking to refurbish and move into the Michener Centre.
• In the late 1950s, Red Deer claimed to be the fastest-growing city in Canada.
• By roughly 1991 the Canadian Pacific Railway had been removed from the inner city; the track currently runs parallel to the city outskirts. The most prominent landmark of the railway remaining is the CPR bridge spanning the Red Deer River, converted to a walking trail shortly after the track removal.

Education

Post-secondary

Red Deer College was founded in 1964 as Red Deer Junior College. Today, it offers some degrees, adult upgrading, certificate programs, diploma programs, university transfer courses, applied degree programs, and apprenticeship and trades training.

Demographics

In 2007, the population grew by 2 734 to a total of 85 705 living in the city. In 2006, Red Deer had a population of 82,772 living in 33,894 dwellings, a 22.0% increase from 2001. The city has a land area of 69.23 km² (26.7 sq mi) and a population density of 1,195.6/km² (3,096.6/sq mi).^[5]

Nearly 90% of residents spoke English as a first language while 1.7% spoke Spanish and 1.6% spoke French. The next most common languages were Tagalog (Filipino) at 1.1%, German at 1.0%, and Chinese at 0.8%, followed by Dutch at 0.6%, Ukrainian at 0.4%, and Vietnamese at 0.3%.^[6]

About 4.4% of residents identified as aboriginal at the time of the 2006 census.^[7]

Red Deer is home to almost 1,800 recent immigrants (arriving between 2001 and 2006) who now make up just more than 2% of the population. About 16% of these immigrants came from the Philippines, while about 14% came from Colombia, 8% came from India, 7% came from the United States, and about 5% from each of South Africa and the United Kingdom, and about 4% from El Salvador.^[8]

Almost 72% of the residents are identified as Christian and over 26% said they had no religious affiliation for the 2001 Census. For specific denominations Statistics Canada counted 14,660 Roman Catholics (22%), and 10,970 United Church (16.5%), 3,720 Anglicans (5.6%), 3,065 Lutherans (4.6%), as well as about 1,305 Baptists (2%), and about 1,200 Pentecostals (1.8%), about 1,060 Presbyterians (1.6%), about 905 for the Christian and Missionary Alliance (1.5%), and about 650 Jehovah's Witnesses (1.0%), as well as about 585 for the Evangelical Missionary Church (0.9%) and 455 Mormons (0.7%).^[9]

In a July 2007 analysis of demographic information from the 2006 Federal Census prepared by Environics Analytics, Red Deer was the city most closely resembling the country as a whole. ^[10]

Climate

Weather averages for Red Deer
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C	-5.8	-2.7	2.9	11.3	16.9	20.5	22.6	21.9	17.5	11.7	1.4	-4.1	9.4
Average low °C	-17.4	-14.8	-8.8	-1.8	3.8	8	10.1	8.8	4.1	-1.3	-9.4	-15	-2.8
Precipitation mm	22.4	11.2	19.6	21.5	61.8	84.1	92.9	70.1	49	20.1	17.5	17.8	487.2
Average high °F	22	27	37	52	62	69	73	71	64	53	35	25	49
Average low °F	1	5	16	29	39	46	50	48	39	30	15	5	27
Precipitation inches	0.88	0.44	0.77	0.85	2.43	3.31	3.66	2.76	1.93	0.79	0.69	0.7	19.18
Source: Enviroment Canada [11] August 2008

Media

Main article: Media in Red Deer

Sport

• Red Deer Rebels
• Red Deer Magpies

Community bands

• Red Deer Royals

References

External links

• City of Red Deer
• Red Deer Business Directory

	Bentley	Lacombe	Alix
	Sylvan Lake		Stettler
		Red Deer
	Innisfail	Penhold	Big Valley

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