News
Interesting Facts About Central Alberta Communities From The 2016 Federal Census – How Does Your Community Compare?
By now you know Red Deer has once again surpassed 100,000 residents and that Blackfalds is growing at an incredible pace. But just how do our Central Alberta communities stack up against each other? Check to see how your community faired and see Alberta’s largest communities, as well as the fastest growing communities in Canada!
First… Here’s how Canada faired.
Canada 2016 Pop 2011 Pop Growth Rate %
Canada 35,151,728 33,476,688 5.0
And closer to home:
Central Alberta Communities (Over 5,000 People) Ranked by Growth Rate
Community 2016 Pop 2011 Pop Rank in Size Canada Rank in Alberta Growth Rate %
Blackfalds 9,328 6,300 437 49 48.1
Sylvan Lake 14,816 12,362 280 28 19.9
Lacombe 13,057 11,707 319 36 11.5
Olds 9,184 8,235 442 50 11.5
Red Deer 100,418 90,564 54 3 10.9
Ponoka County 9,806 8,856 422 48 10.7
Camrose 18,742 17,286 233 24 8.4
Ponoka 7,229 6,778 541 66 6.7
Red Deer County 19,541 18,316 223 23 6.7
Didsbury 5,268 4,957 689 86 6.3
Mountain View County 13,074 12,359 318 35 5.8
Wainwright 6,270 5,925 610 74 5.8
Camrose County 8,458 8,004 466 52 5.7
Wetaskiwin County 11,181 10,866 368 39 2.9
Drayton Valley 7,235 7,118 540 65 1.6
Kneehill County 5,001 4,921 713 89 1.6
Wetaskiwin 12,655 12,525 332 37 1
Lacombe County 10,343 10,307 397 44 .3
Innisfail 7,847 7,876 501 61 -.4
Drumheller 7,982 8,029 491 58 -.6
Clearwater County 11,947 12,278 344 38 -2.7
10 Largest Communities in Alberta
Community 2016 Pop 2011 Pop Rank in Canada Rank in Alberta
Calgary 1,239,220 1,096,833 3 1
Edmonton 932,546 812,201 5 2
Red Deer 100,418 90,564 54 3
Strathcona County 98,044 92,490 55 4
Lethbridge 92,729 83,517 59 5
Wood Buffalo 71,589 65,565 80 6
St. Albert 65,589 61,466 85 7
Medicine Hat 63,260 60,005 87 8
Grande Prairie 63,166 55,655 88 9
Airdrie 61,581 43,271 89 10
10 Fastest Growing Communities in Canada
Community Province 2016 Pop 2011 Pop Growth Rate
Warman, Sask. 11,020 7,104 55.1%
Blackfalds Alta. 9,328 6,300 48.1%
Cochrane Alta. 25,853 17,580 47.1%
Airdrie Alta. 61,581 43,271 42.3%
Shelburn Ont. 8,126 5,846 39.0%
Chestermere Alta. 19,887 14,824 34.2%
Beaumont Alta. 17,396 13,284 31.0%
Milton Ont. 110,128 84,362 30.5%
Spruce Grove Alta. 34,066 26,171 30.2%
Tsinstikeptum B.C. 7,612 5,872 29.6%
And finally:
Worst Growth in Alberta
Bonnyville 5,417 6,216 -12.9%
International
UK Supreme Court rules ‘woman’ means biological female

Susan Smith (L) and Marion Calder, directors of ‘For Women Scotland’ cheer as they leave the Supreme Court on April 16, 2025, in London, England after winning their appeal in defense of biological reality
From LifeSiteNews
By Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent
The ruling, in which the court rejected transgender legal status, comes as a victory for campaigners who have urged the recognition of biological reality and common sense in the law.
The U.K. Supreme Court has issued a ruling stating that “woman” in law refers to a biological female, and that transgender “women” are not female in the eyes of the law.
In a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled today that legally transgender “women” are not women, since a woman is legally defined by “biological sex.”
Published April 16, the Supreme Court’s 88-page verdict was handed down on the case of Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v. The Scottish Ministers (Respondent). The ruling marks the end of a battle of many years between the Scottish government and women’s right campaigners who sought to oppose the government’s promotion of transgender ideology.
In 2018, the Scottish government issued a decision to allow the definition of “woman” to include men who assume their gender to be female, opening the door to allowing so-called “transgender” individuals to identify as women.
This guidance was challenged by women’s rights campaigners, arguing that a woman should be defined in line with biological sex, and in 2022 the Scottish government was forced to change its definition after the court found that such a move was outside the government’s “legislative competence.”
Given this, the government issued new guidance which sought to cover both aspects: saying that biological women are women, but also that men with a “gender recognition certificate” (GRC) are also considered women. A GRC is given to people who identify as the opposite sex and who have had medical or surgical interventions in an attempt to “reassign” their gender.
Women Scotland Ltd appealed this new guidance. At first it was rejected by inner courts, but upon their taking the matter to the Supreme Court in March last year, the nation’s highest judicial body took up the case.
Today, with the ruling issued against transgender ideology, women’s campaigners are welcoming the news as a win for women’s safety.
“A thing of beauty,” praised Lois McLatchie Miller from the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group.
“They looked at the whole argument, not just who goes in what bathroom and trans women. This is going to change organizations, employers, service providers,” Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, told the Telegraph. “Everyone is going to have to pay attention to this, this is from the highest court in the land. It’s saying sex in the Equality Act is biological sex. Self ID is dead.”
“Victory,” commented Charlie Bently-Astor, a prominent campaigner for biological reality against the transgender movement, after she nearly underwent surgical transition herself at a younger age.
“After 15 years of insanity, the U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that men who say they are ‘trans women’ are not women,” wrote leader of the Christian political movement David Kurten.
Leader of the Conservative Party – the opposition to the current Labour government – Kemi Badenoch welcomed the court’s ruling, writing that “saying ‘trans women are women’ was never true in fact and now isn’t true in law, either.”
Others lamented the fact that the debate even was taking place, let alone having gone to the Supreme Court.
“What a parody we live in,” commented Reform Party candidate Joseph Robertson.
Rupert Lowe MP – who has risen to new prominence in recent weeks for his outspoken condemnation of the immigration and rape gang crisis – wrote, “Absolute madness that we’re even debating what a woman is – it’s a biological fact. No amount of woke howling will ever change that.”
However, the Supreme Court did not wish to get pulled into siding with certain arguments, with Lord Hodge of the tribunal stating that “we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.”
The debate has taken center stage in the U.K. in recent years, not least for the role played by the current Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer himself has become notorious throughout the nation for his contradictions and inability to answer the question of what a woman is, having flip-flopped on saying that a woman can have a penis, due to his support for the transgender movement.
At the time of going to press, neither Starmer nor his deputy Angela Rayner issued a statement about the Supreme Court ruling. There has been no statement issued from the Scottish government either, nor from the office of the first minister.
Transgender activists have expectedly condemned the ruling as “a disgusting attack on trans rights.” One leading transgender campaigner individual told Sky News, “I am gutted to see the judgement from the Supreme Court which ends 20 years of understanding that transgender people with a GRC are able to be, for all intents and purposes, legally recognized as our true genders.”
International
Tulsi Gabbard tells Trump she has ‘evidence’ voting machines are ‘vulnerable to hackers’

From LifeSiteNews
By Stephen Kokx
Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing federal election-related funds to be conditioned on states “complying with the integrity measures set forth by Federal law, including the requirement that states use the national mail voter registration form that will now require proof of citizenship.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced during a Cabinet meeting last week at the White House that voting machines across the U.S. are not secure.
“We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time, and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast,” she said about a half hour into the meeting.
Gabbard’s remarks confirm what millions of Americans have long suspected about elections across the U.S.
President Donald Trump himself has maintained skepticism of current voting methods and has called for paper ballots to prevent cheating.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was one of only a few voices to publicly argue that voting machines, like those run by Dominion and Smartmatic which were used during the 2020 presidential election, were compromised. GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene took to X to praise the businessman after Gabbard made her remarks.
“Mike Lindell along with MANY others vindicated!!” she exclaimed on X. “Another conspiracy theory being proven right! Guess what Democrats already knew this and publicly talked about it in 2019! And then lied and lied and lied!!!”
Last month, Trump signed an executive order directing federal election-related funds to be conditioned on states “complying with the integrity measures set forth by Federal law, including the requirement that states use the national mail voter registration form that will now require proof of citizenship.”
Congress has also taken steps to ensure election integrity by voting on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (also known as the SAVE Act) last week. Dubbed “controversial” by the media and left-wing groups, the common sense bill would require persons to show proof of citizenship before voting. The House approved the measure 220-208 with four Democrats in support. The bill now heads to the Senate where it will face an uphill battle for the required 60 votes. Republicans currently have a 53 seat majority.
Gabbard told Trump at the meeting that the evidence she found “further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of our elections.”
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