Calgary is Alberta's largest city and Canada's fourth-largest, and is near where the prairies end and the foothills begin. That makes it the eastern gateway to the Rocky Mountains and an important center of trade and tourism for the western prairies. It is your best point of access for Banff and Jasper, and a worthwhile destination in its own right. Calgary is the heart of the largest metropolitan area between Toronto and Vancouver, with over 1.24 million people as of 2016 (1.4 million in the metropolitan area), making it Canada's fourth largest metropolitan area.
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