Banff National Park. Photo: Kelly Nigro, Flickr Creative Commons

I’m writing a children’s book on Alberta right now. Since I’m literally chained to my desk, I thought I’d share the love:

Did you know:

• That Alberta has the second-highest proven concentration of oil reserves in the world? Only Saudi Arabia has more.
• That Alberta is named after Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, Louise Caroline Alberta?
• That Alberta has a dinosaur named after it? The Albertosaurus
• That it takes two tonnes of oils sands to make one barrel of oil?
• That the Canadian government was less than candid when it recruited Brits and Europeans to come homestead in Alberta at the turn of the century. It promised “virgin farmland” and “ready made farms”, but forgot to add that the winters are brutal and the climate very dry. The British and Europeans? Not so impressed.