If forced to relocate, almost half of Albertans would pick BC: poll

A significant proportion of Albertans would be willing to relocate to BC if circumstances called for a move, according to a recent, two-province poll by Research Co.

In the online survey of representative provincial samples, 47% of Albertans said they would choose British Columbia if they had to move out of Alberta and live in any other region of Canada.

Ontario and Saskatchewan are tied as the second Canadian destination for Albertans with 11% each, followed by Nova Scotia at 4%.

“A majority of Edmontonians (53%) would choose British Columbia if they were compelled to move away from Alberta,” says Mario Canseco, president of Research Co. “But more than two-in-five Calgarians (45%) and residents of other parts of Alberta (42%) are willing to join them.”

In British Columbia, 26% of residents say they would move to Alberta if they had to leave British Columbia and resettle in a different Canadian province.

Ontario is second in the minds of British Columbians with 16%, followed by Nova Scotia with 8%. One third of residents (33%) are undecided about which province they would move to.

While more residents of Metro Vancouver express a preference to resettle in Ontario (24%) than in Alberta (20%), all other regions of the province select Alberta first, including 33% of those in Northern BC and 32% of those in the Fraser Valley.

Results of the poll are based on an online study conducted from July 23 to July 25, 2019, among 800 adults in British Columbia and 700 adults in Alberta.