We went to see Rutherford House the other day, it was home to Alberta's first premier, Alexander Rutherford. It has been decorated the way it was in 1915 - but only the interior. Photos show that it used to stand right in the middle of a field, overlooking the river. Back then Rutherford who initiated the University of Alberta knew that the campus would be built around the house but I doubt he ever could have imagined that 100 years later his house stands right in the middle of Edmonton, surrounded by 25 km of concrete in any direction, tendency to further expand.
Edmontonians like to ask people like me (I'm obviously not local with my accent) how I like the city and I always hesitate and say, well, it's not quite the right place for me. I think they don't like the answer. They are somewhat provincial here. My 19-year-old colleague can't imagine ever living any where else. Really? A friend just told me about a list of the most liveable cities in the world, featuring Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary as well as several Australian cities in the Top 10, New York in 57th place and as best European city Helsinki. Amongst other facts "low density, little strain on infrastructure" was one of the aspects they looked at (traffic pulled NY down obviously ). Right, that's like saying "there's not much strain on our public transit system because we don't have any!" The UN index for the quality of living is such a scam to me as well. It lists the USA, Australia and Canada on top of the list or very close to the top. It does not say though that you need a car to survive and that you breathe a lot of dirty air, that your cosmetics are full of toxins, your foods full of drugs and chemicals, ... you get my point. Those indexes are too shallow. No consideration for environmental aspects.
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