Leduc

Leduc is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is located 33 kilometers south of the provincial capital Edmonton and is part of its metropolitan area.

The establishment of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway, later acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway, opened the region to settlement. The first train stopped at Leduc in July 1891.

Two versions describe how Leduc got its name. According to popular local legend, it was decided in 1890 when a settler (McKinlay) setting up a telegraph office needed a name for the new settlement and decided that it would be named after the first person who came through the door of the telegraph office. That person was Father Hippolyte Leduc, a priest who had served the area since 1867. In another, more official, version, the Minister of the Interior and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who had been Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories, Edgar Dewdney (1835–1916), decided that Telford Place should be renamed at the time the railway terminal was established in 1891, and picked the name of the missionary priest.

Leduc was incorporated as a village in 1899, and became a town in 1906. It became a city in 1983; by that time its population had reached 12,000.

The City of Leduc is a founding member of the Leduc-Nisku Economic Development Authority, an association for economic development that markets the Alberta International Region in close proximity to the Edmonton International Airport. The city is part of this international transport and economic region. It is located on the CANAMEX Commercial Corridor at the intersection of two Canadian Pacific Railway lines and is adjacent to the Edmonton International Airport. These provide transport links to petrochemical activities in the industrial heart of Alberta, the Fort McMurray area, and other economic centers.

The oil and gas industry has long been the basis of Leduc's economy. The Leduc business park, located in the northern part of the city, contains more than 1,400 companies. The Nisku Industrial Park, the Nisku Industrial Park, located north of the county within Leduc, also contains many businesses.