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 ...

Rocky View County Rocky View County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada that is named for its views of the nearby Rocky Mountains to the west. It surrounds most of Calgary, forming the city's northern boundary and most of the city's western and e ...

, which is in the

Calgary Metropolitan Region The Calgary Metropolitan Region (CMR), also commonly referred to as the Calgary Region, is a conglomeration of municipalities centred on Calgary, the largest city in Alberta. With the Government of Alberta's establishment of the Calgary Metropo ...

of the Canadian province of

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, at the intersection with Highway 566, north of Calgary city centre and south of Airdrie. The hamlet is located in census division

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

A Canadian Pacific Railway 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 Canadian Pacific Railway, after one of his favourite authors,

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

(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 The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the Bri ...

and senate reform advocate

Bert Brown Bert Brown (March 22, 1938 – February 3, 2018) was a Canadian senator and retired farmer and development consultant who resided in Balzac, Alberta. Early life Brown farmed in Kathyrn, Alberta, from 1969 to 1999, after which they sold their fa ...

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 technolog ...

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 * 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, a Groundhog Day prognosticator, resides in the town, and is considered one of Canada's most prominent forecasting groundhogs (

Shubenacadie Sam Shubenacadie Sam is a Canadian groundhog who lives at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park in the town of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. Every February 2, on Groundhog Day, Sam's shadow is closely observed at 08:00 AST to make the traditional prediction whe ...

and

Wiarton Willie Wiarton Willie is the name given to a Canadian groundhog who lives in the community of Wiarton in Bruce County, Ontario. Every February 2, on Groundhog Day, Willie takes part in the local ''Wiarton Willie Festival''. His role is to predict whether ...

being among the others).

References

External links