Red Deer at 1 million? Danielle Smith dreams of a new Alberta metropolis

There's thinking big. There's thinking really big — or even really, really big.

But I'm not sure how many reallies I'd need to fairly capture what Premier Danielle Smith is saying about Red Deer.

She wants to see its population grow tenfold. From about 106,000 today to one million residents.

She doesn't quite say it so explicitly, but the premier is dreaming of a city that would need several hospitals, not just the one the province is spending $1.8 billion to expand. It would be one where Gasoline Alley, rather than sitting at the southern tip of the city, would be bracketed by several new suburbs pushing many kilometres farther south and every other direction.

A Red Deer University? Why not two public universities like million-person Edmonton has, or three like Calgary?

Why not a Red Deer LRT system, like the other million-person cities have?

Or why not…something reasonable? Something that the local politicians and boosters in the central Alberta community are themselves seriously considering, rather than ponder the massive infrastructure requirements of shooting for such astounding growth?

"Seems like a big jump, doesn't it?" says Cindy Jefferies, a Red Deer councillor.

Smith's dream of a million-person Red Deer isn't a one-off utterance. She's been public about it twice in the last few weeks.

First was on her radio call-in show on March 16, when she was justifying making the central city's hospital redevelopment a priority.

"With Red Deer being a growing centre — I keep challenging Red Deer to be our next million-person city — they absolutely do need to have a full-service hospital in central Alberta." 

(Or maybe three or four, by that point.)

She brought it up again a few weeks later at a United Conservative Party fundraiser in the city.

"Red Deer is growing at a rapid pace. And I have challenged your council to making Red Deer our next million-person city. Because if you have that kind of population base, through the corridor, all of a sudden it makes sense to bring passenger rail from Calgary to Red Deer and on to Edmonton to connect this entire corridor. And I hope that's what you're looking forward to in a few years' time."