Balzac is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in Rocky View County, which is in the Calgary Metropolitan Region of the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It is located immediately west of

Queen Elizabeth II Highway Alberta Provincial Highway No. 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2 or the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Pra ...

, at the intersection with Highway 566, north of

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

city centre and south of Airdrie. The hamlet is located in

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

No. 6 ''No. 6'' is a Japanese novel series written by Atsuko Asano and published by Kodansha in nine volumes between October 2003 and June 2011. A manga adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino was serialized in Kodansha's ''Aria'' magazine from January 201 ...

and in the Alberta federal electoral district of Banff—Airdrie (formerly in the federal electoral district of Wild Rose). As of July 31, 2007, Balzac is immediately adjacent to Calgary's northern city limits. Balzac is also directly west of the

CrossIron Mills CrossIron Mills is a fully enclosed shopping centre development just outside the northern city limits of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and immediately east of the hamlet of Balzac in Rocky View County. It was developed by Ivanhoé Cambridge, a major ...

shopping mall.

History

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

station began operating at Balzac in 1910. It was named by

William Cornelius Van Horne Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, (February 3, 1843September 11, 1915) is most famous for overseeing the construction of the first Canadian transcontinental railway, a project that was completed in 1885, in under half the projected time. He succe ...

, then president of the

, after one of his favourite authors, Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) a noted French novelist. The post office here was opened on April 1, 1912 under the name "Beddington" and was changed on July 1, 1925. The first warehouse was built in 1916, mostly for coal. Canadian Senator and senate reform advocate Bert Brown hails from Balzac.

Demographics

The population of Balzac according to the 2006 municipal census conducted by Rocky View County is 1.

Economy

* Balzac General Store (with restaurant and gas station) * Although not officially located within Balzac, the hamlet is immediately adjacent to the

shopping centre, which is the largest single-level mall in Alberta. The business park surrounding the mall, which opened in 2009, saw the addition of a horse-racing track and casino in 2015, and is earmarked for an equestrian college campus and other businesses. The mall and surrounding businesses are officially within the County of Rocky View, but the mall and business park is often referred to as being in Balzac because of its proximity to the hamlet. * In early 2009, Wal-mart announced plans to spend million ($104.4 US million) to build a distribution center in the business park east of Balzac. The facility opened in late 2010 and acts as a distribution hub for fresh food in Western Canada. * In late 2017

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

agreed to locate a distribution center. The facility is estimated to create 750 permanent jobs. According to Amazon's director of Canadian operations, Glenn Sommerville the location's proximity of the Calgary International Airport is optimal for faster shipping. *The company Enterra has secured $30M to establish a breeding facility of insects such as the soldier black fly as a source for high protein animal feed. The facility will employ 30 staff and be operational in 2019. *

New Horizon Mall New Horizon Mall is a modern shopping mall in the Calgary Metropolitan Region located inside of Balzac, a locality of Rocky View County, Alberta. The mall features a retail floor space of approximately , and features a flea market gimmick where ...

* In January 2022 Westgen moved its EPOD manufacturing operations to a shop in the Wagon Wheel Industrial Park, east of the hamlet.

Media

Due to its close proximity to both Calgary and Airdrie, Balzac receives most media (television, radio, newspapers) from those two cities.

Balzac Billy Balzac Billy is the "Prairie Prognosticator", a man-sized groundhog mascot who prognosticates weather on Groundhog Day. He lives in Balzac, Alberta, 8 km north of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. According to the legend of Groundhog Day, the groundho ...

, a

Groundhog Day Groundhog Day ( pdc, Grund'sau dåk, , , ; Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from ...

prognosticator, resides in the town, and is considered one of Canada's most prominent forecasting groundhogs ( Shubenacadie Sam and Wiarton Willie being among the others).

References

External links