Lloydminster, Alberta and Saskatchewan

A bit of background on Lloydminster:

Lloydminster straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border (the town was founded before the provinces were created), I've seen the town as a whole referred to as "Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan", whereas individual addresses in the town would be "Lloydminster, Alberta", or "Lloydminster, Saskatchewan", depending on which side of town you live on.

This is not one of those cases (like Texarkana, Texas/Arkansas or Kansas City, Kansas/Missouri), where it is actually a case of two cities next to each other in different states, Lloydminster is a united city with one civic government for both halves of the city. The bi-provincial nature of the city makes for some interesting anomalies (for one, the population on the Alberta side (the majority) is generally older due to the lower taxes, and the Saskatchewan population is generally younger due to lower automobile insurance premiums.) The recent "Alberta prosperity cheques" mailed to every Alberta citizen only applied to that portion of Lloydminster's residents, the recent Saskatchewan anti-smoking bylaw only applied to the bars and restaurants in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan (And, in case anyone is wondering about its time zone, since the time zone boundary follows the provincial boundary, and it is the law in Saskatchewan that daylight savings not be observed and the law in Alberta that it is, Lloydminster has an exception from Saskatchewan law and uses the same time zone (Mountain time, with daylight savings applicable as required) as Alberta.)

The town flag definitely seems to reflect this nature, the "wild rose" (Alberta's provincial flower) on blue (the main colour of Alberta's flag), partnered with the "tiger lily" (Sask.'s provincial flower and seen on its flag) on green (one of Saskatchewan's provincial colours (green and gold)). The black line in the middle apparently represents the border.

I had a chance to visit Lloydminster in 2001 during a road trip to Edmonton, rather interesting town. (Took a picture of a big monument down 50th street (which the border runs down) commemorating the border). Saw several flags of both provinces (on both sides, for example, a Walmart on the Alberta side had both the Alberta and Saskatchewan flags flying out front). I tried to search for a copy of the town flag, as I figured it's bi-privincial nature would make for an interesting flag, but I could not see it flying anywhere (even outside the town hall, which just had the two provincial flags.)
David Kendall, 31 March 2006

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Lloydminster sits on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, with it's main street being the dividing line.

The flag obviously uses the blue hoist from the Alberta flag, with the wild rose (provincial flower of Alberta) and the green hoist from the Saskatchewan flag, with the prairie lily of Saskatchewan.

Interestingly even the shield is partially divided - it has a prairie seen with a blue sky, distant golden hills, green northern forests, and fields in the foreground - beef cattle on the Alberta side, wheat on the Saskatchewan side. Superimposed on the prairie scene is an oil rig, drilling into an oil reservoir seen in a geological section at the bottom of the shield.

Across the sky are written CITY OF LLOYDMINSTER and below, appropriately located, ALBERTA and SASKATCHEWAN.
Ian MacDonald, 31 March 2006