Alberta is calling, but will those who answer like it here?

Jobs are abundant, housing prices are relatively low and folks are swarming into Alberta.

While other Canadian provinces broke even or lost thousands of people from October to December 2022, Alberta had a net migration of 11,534 more people. Ontario was down 7,331 people and B.C. was down 1,830 people.

The Alberta influx builds on the record interprovincial migration in the late summer and early fall of 2022, when 33,000 people moved here.

Danielle Smith's United Conservative government is not only celebrating this news, it's doing all it can to bring in more newcomers from other provinces with a second round of its Alberta Is Calling campaign.

“Alberta is calling and people are heeding the call,” Smith practically crowed in the legislature last week. “There are so many great things about Alberta, aren't there? Highest average wages of any province. Highest workforce participation rate of any province. Lowest taxes in Canada. No provincial sales tax. Almost 100,000 jobs waiting to be filled. Canada's fastest-growing economy. Canada's strongest job creator. We're calling it the renewed Alberta advantage for a reason, and we'll be telling them the most beautiful province in Confederation — that's what we are — is a place that they can afford a great lifestyle.”

Smith could not be more pleased. Me? I admit to mixed feelings.

Yes, it's great our economy is strong.

And, yes, it's fantastic when any unemployed person finds the dignity and prosperity that comes with paid work. For now at least, the climate alarmists and energy scarcity propagandists have yet to throttle Alberta, the internal combustion engine of the Canadian economy.

But I keep thinking back to some wary words I heard years ago from a fellow writer at this newspaper. At that time we were doing a series on Edmonton's unknown gems, the various parks, trails, restaurants and public spaces that only a few of us knew about and enjoyed. We were all encouraged to share our own unknown gems with others, but this particular writer was having none of it.

If I tell everyone else about a great spot, he said, it'll get crowded and busy. It will ruin the secret.

There's an undeniable logic to that position. Applied provincewide, it means that for every thousand more people who move here, there are that many more in our parks and trails, that many more fighting for a restaurant table, not to mention competing for a job or a house.

Of course, we can build more houses and create more jobs. That's the Alberta way. But there's only so much river valley, only so much Kananaskis, Banff and Jasper.

My own ambivalence to huge population growth also comes from decades of meeting newcomers. Some of them love Alberta but others dislike or even hate it, and hanker to return home. For many, such a longing to return home is reasonable. They have close family back home, or miss the culture and the climate. My great-grandfather from Russia and grandfather from Nova Scotia both keenly felt this call to return to their roots, so much so that my grandfather returned to Truro for a few years in his retirement, only to discover it wasn't the same place, and came back to Alberta.

For others, their disquiet in Alberta is rooted in politics. Albertans, especially those from small towns, are on average the most conservative of Canadians, but some outsiders reflexively see us as small-minded rednecks and/or intolerant religious zealots. Such outsiders really do believe Albertans are Canada's embarrassing cousins. They can never get their heads around identifying as Albertans, let alone embracing the practical, ambitious and hard-headed nature of so many longtime Albertans.

Nonetheless, the pull of Alberta's prosperity and affordability is hard to resist, just as it should be. In announcing the new $5-million Alberta Is Calling campaign, UCP Jobs, Economy and Northern Development Minister Brian Jean best summed up the allure, saying, “Right now we have the most affordable housing in all of Canada. People now can, for instance, sell their house in Toronto or in Vancouver and buy four houses here in Alberta, live in one and rent three — that's what kind of market we have right now.”

A good job, a house of your own, and plenty of the gorgeous natural world close by — that's the Canadian dream. It's now beyond the grasp of so many folks outside Alberta. I can't begrudge anyone who wants the dream from coming here. They're welcome in Alberta.

But beware, not all of you are going to like it. Consider yourselves forewarned.