EDITORIAL: Canadians are Alberta bound

No other province comes close to Alberta’s success in attracting Canadians from other parts of the country.

Published Jun 02, 2026  •  Last updated 20 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

A traveller arrives at Calgary International Airport. He walks past large murals of Moraine Lake and Sheep River Falls, both popular tourist destinations in Alberta. Photo by Jim Wells /Postmedia Network

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So far, Albertans have been receiving plenty of warnings from the rest of Canada about how bad things will be for them if they separate from Canada.

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But on the flip side, if Alberta goes, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute, Canada will lose the most popular place that Canadians from every other province flock to in pursuit of a better life.

Over the past three decades, Alberta’s net in-migration from other Canadian provinces, versus its out-migration to them, is +538,824.

In other words, more than half a million Canadians decided to settle in Alberta versus the number who left it from 1995 to 2024.

Amounting to 10.7% of its population, no other province comes close to Alberta’s success in attracting Canadians from other parts of the country.

“When Canadians choose to move between provinces it can signal a jurisdiction’s desirable attributes such as housing and job opportunities and, once again, Alberta is the most attractive province for interprovincial migration,” said Grady Munro, co-author of the study, “Interprovincial Migration in Canada, 1995-2024: What Do the Numbers Tell Us.”

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The only other provinces with positive in-migration versus out-migration are B.C. at +214,883, or 3.8% of its population; Nova Scotia at +23,299 or 2.1%, and PEI at +4,335 or 2.4%.

In every other province, out-migration has surpassed in-migration, with Quebec at -255,988 (a loss of 2.8% of its population); Ontario -168,166 (-1.0%); Newfoundland and Labrador -58,319 (-10.6%); Manitoba -155,919 (-10.3%); Saskatchewan -123,603 (-9.8%); New Brunswick -5862 (-0.7%).

“Ontario used to be seen by Canadians as an attractive place to move to,” Munro said, “but for the past five years, Ontarians have been leaving the province and moving elsewhere in Canada in the greatest numbers in 30 years.”

Relative to population, Newfoundland & Labrador, Manitoba and Saskatchewan experienced the largest percentages of people leaving for other provinces.

Newfoundland & Labrador saw the equivalent of 97.3% of its 2025 population aged 18 to 24 leave (on net) over the past three decades.

Of course, separation would hurt both Canada’s and Alberta’s economies.

But those constantly thumbing their noses at Albertans as “ditchbillies” should keep in mind that when Canadians from every other province vote with their feet, most choose Alberta in their pursuit of a better life.

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