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Traditionally, newcomers to Canada have chosen to live in Canada’s biggest cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Alberta, despite its strong economy and its relatively low cost of living, was rarely their first choice.

No longer.

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Statistics Canada census data released Wednesday shows 207,790 people immigrated to Alberta from other countries over the last census period, from 2011 to 2016.

Over that same five-year period, only 175,555 immigrants moved to British Columbia.

That means 17.1 per cent of all new immigrants to Canada in the last five years opted for Alberta, while 14.5 per cent chose B.C.

Having overtaken B.C., we’re now neck-and-neck with Quebec, too, which attracted 215,170 new immigrants, or 17.8 per cent of the national total.

Ontario is still the first choice, attracting 39 per of newcomers.

But these are seismic changes. Twenty years ago, Alberta was only able to entice 6.7 per cent of newcomers. Back then, Ontario received 55.2 per cent of immigrants, while B.C. attracted 20.8 per cent.