Manitoba/Saskatchewan superprovince

While Manitoba and Saskatchewan have rival football teams, they don't actually have a political rivalry, as opposed to Edmonton and Calgary. Not that that's a good reason to combine the two In OTL but I'm curious if it's possible that the prairies would be bordered the way I'm talking about, with the border between Edmonton and Calgary being somewhere around Red Deer.
 
So... if we're discussing a border gone between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, why would there be a border between Edmonton and Calgary..?

Manitoba was fairly well established in the 1905, an Alberta-Saskatchewan merger seems more likely than a Manitoba Saskatchewan one. But such a giant province will be balked at by Ontario and Quebec so it's going to have a difficult time getting started.
 
Well we had this at one point, so the Prairie borders are fairly changeable:
canadian_prairies_map_c1900_1024x768.jpg


Unfortunately for your effort the historic population distribution did not favour such a move. Until the 1930s (maybe 40s?) Saskatchewan was the 3rd most populous province while Winnipeg was the biggest city on the Prairies. Combining them would not have been all that popular with Ontario and Quebec (or anyone else for that matter).
 
Unfortunately for your effort the historic population distribution did not favour such a move. Until the 1930s (maybe 40s?) Saskatchewan was the 3rd most populous province while Winnipeg was the biggest city on the Prairies. Combining them would not have been all that popular with Ontario and Quebec (or anyone else for that matter).

Athabasca would be an empty, empty place even to this day (outside of Fort MacMurray and a few reserves). I wonder if you might split the difference and saw Saskatchewan in half and have two prairie provinces instead of three.
 
Unfortunately for your effort the historic population distribution did not favour such a move. Until the 1930s (maybe 40s?) Saskatchewan was the 3rd most populous province while Winnipeg was the biggest city on the Prairies. Combining them would not have been all that popular with Ontario and Quebec (or anyone else for that matter).
I don't really understand why and how Alberta is so much more populous than Saskatchewan and Manitoba nowadays.
 
I don't really understand why and how Alberta is so much more populous than Saskatchewan and Manitoba nowadays.

Well Manitoba and Saskatchewan are about the same. Alberta has oil. Lots of oil. Oil meant big cities with offices and processing plants which needed supermarkets and such. That and more mild winters.
climate-zone-map.jpg
 
Alberta has oil. Lots of oil. Oil meant big cities with offices and processing plants which needed supermarkets and such. That and more mild winters.

As just one example, in the early 1960s, Imperial Oil(Canadian branch of Standard Oil) moved its headquarters from Winnipeg to Edmonton. I'm pretty sure there were a lot of other companies that moved into Alberta from elsewhere over the years.
 
Well we had this at one point, so the Prairie borders are fairly changeable:
canadian_prairies_map_c1900_1024x768.jpg


Unfortunately for your effort the historic population distribution did not favour such a move. Until the 1930s (maybe 40s?) Saskatchewan was the 3rd most populous province while Winnipeg was the biggest city on the Prairies. Combining them would not have been all that popular with Ontario and Quebec (or anyone else for that matter).

Love that map - that's usually how I divide the provinces as states in my various works where Canada has been absorbed by the USA.

Athabasca would be an empty, empty place even to this day (outside of Fort MacMurray and a few reserves). I wonder if you might split the difference and saw Saskatchewan in half and have two prairie provinces instead of three.

How empty are we talking for Athabasca - I was always under the impression the oil boom has helped the area.

I don't really understand why and how Alberta is so much more populous than Saskatchewan and Manitoba nowadays.

Oil?
 
Athabasca would be an empty, empty place even to this day (outside of Fort MacMurray and a few reserves). I wonder if you might split the difference and saw Saskatchewan in half and have two prairie provinces instead of three.

The Peace River area has a fair population. Grande Prairie sits at about 50k, with a fair amount of farmland around it. The eastern half would be empty, but the western half has a fair number more people than PEI. So low density, but above Territory levels.
 
The Peace River area has a fair population. Grande Prairie sits at about 50k, with a fair amount of farmland around it. The eastern half would be empty, but the western half has a fair number more people than PEI. So low density, but above Territory levels.

For sure more than the territories, but it's still a huge area that is by and large empty (and that's today, the population has pretty well doubled in the last 30 years). But outside of that triangle of Slave Lake-Peace River-Beaverlodge and a little few people around Lac la Biche, you've only got the reserves from Beauval to La Loche. It would never be able to support itself as a province, hence the decision to saw it in half and give it a connection south to where actual people live.
 
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