Live in Palliser
A 1967 southwest community a ten minute walk short of the Glenmore Reservoir, where 44% of households rent and a third of residents are 65 or over.
Palliser was established in 1967 and until 1991 included what is now the separate community of Pump Hill: 1.0 km², 3,285 residents in 1,690 private households at the 2021 census, with 44% of households renting against 31% citywide. Tom Brook Athletic Park sits inside the community, Southland Leisure Centre is four minutes south, and Glenmore Landing handles the errands northwest. The reservoir is close but it is not the community's own edge: Palliser stops at 90 Avenue SW and Bayview holds the peninsula on the south shore. Median household income was $75,500 in 2020, well under the city's $98,000, 28% of households spend 30% or more of their income on shelter, and 32% of residents are 65 or over against 13% across Calgary.
A reservoir-adjacent address with the city's affordability pressure baked in
Bounded by 90 Avenue SW to the north, 19 Street SW to the east, Southland Drive SW to the south, and 24 Street SW to the west. Ward 11.
Palliser was established in 1967 and, until 1991, included what is now the separate community of Pump Hill: 1.0 km², 3,285 residents in 1,690 private households at the 2021 census, with Tom Brook Athletic Park inside the community. Its northern boundary is 90 Avenue SW, not the water. Wikipedia's article on the Glenmore Reservoir lists Palliser among the communities on its southern side, but Bayview holds the peninsula on that shore, so the reservoir pathway is a ten minute walk north rather than the community's own edge.
The number that matters. 44% of Palliser's households rent, against a city average of 31%, and median household income was $75,500 in 2020. Well under the city's $98,000. 28% of households spend 30% or more of their income on shelter, also above the city figure. The other number worth knowing is age: 32% of residents are 65 or over, against 13% across Calgary, and 41% of households are one person.
What that means day to day. Lease turnover is a real seasonal event here, not a footnote: July 1 moving trucks are a normal sight on 19 Street, and the community's condo and low-rise stock, 64% of it built between 1961 and 1980, carries the maintenance issues of that era. Only 28% of the occupied dwellings are single-detached houses.
What's inside works in its favour: two public schools and a Catholic elementary sit inside the community, Southland Leisure Centre is minutes south, and Glenmore Landing covers the everyday errands without a trip across the reservoir.
- 44% of households rent, well above the city's 31% average, with real lease-turnover traffic each July 1
- Median household income was $75,500 in 2020 against $98,000 citywide, and 28% of households spend 30%+ of income on shelter
- 64% of the occupied stock was built between 1961 and 1980. Check maintenance and strata reserves specifically
- The reservoir is a ten minute walk, not a frontage. Palliser stops at 90 Avenue SW and Bayview sits between
- Pump Hill split off in 1991, so older records and boundaries sometimes conflate the two communities
- Henry Wise Wood's own article lists Palliser among the communities it serves, but confirm the designation for a specific address
How Palliser got here
- 1933The Glenmore Dam is completed on 19 January, creating the reservoir that supplies Calgary's drinking water a short walk north of what becomes Palliser.
- 1967Palliser is established, named after Captain John Palliser, an early explorer and surveyor in western Canada.
- 1970The Palliser-Bayview-Pump Hill Community Association is registered on 23 September. Its hall is at 2323 Palliser Drive SW.
- 1983Southland Leisure Centre opens at 2000 Southland Dr. S.W., immediately south of the community.
- 1991Pump Hill, developed in the late 1960s, is established as its own community district when Palliser is split at 19 Street SW.
- 2021The federal census records 3,285 residents in 1,690 private households, 44% of them renting, and 32% of residents 65 or over.
Tom Brook Athletic Park, and the reservoir a walk to the north
Tom Brook Athletic Park sits inside the community, and the Glenmore Reservoir pathway is about a ten minute walk north, past Bayview. Heritage Park, 127 acres of living history museum on the reservoir's banks at 1900 Heritage Drive SW, is seven to nine minutes by car.
What the map does not show: this is Calgary's drinking water, not a recreational lake. Sailing, rowing and canoeing run from 1 May to 31 October, swimming is not permitted, and bylaw says no person shall enter or remain in or upon the water or the ice at any time of year.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Palliser
15 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 15 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Palliser's day trips west run longer than its reservoir-rim neighbours, since Highway 8 starts on the other side of the water.
Every gym within reach
Southland Leisure Centre sits just south of the community and does most of the work. Tom Brook Athletic Park covers the free option, inside the community itself.
- Wave pool, dive tank, water slides, climbing wall, weights and cardio, gymnasium, squash and racquetball courts and arenas
- Tom Brook Athletic Park's fields and outdoor rink are the free option, inside the community
- Glenmore Landing's plaza adds a small cluster of commercial gyms
- Mount Royal University's campus is a short drive northwest, but the university publishes no recreation page we could open
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Southland Leisure Centre open | Wave pool, dive tank, water slides, climbing wall, weights and cardio, gymnasium, squash and racquetball courts and arenas. | 3–4 min |
| Tom Brook Athletic Park & reservoir pathways open | Free option: sports fields, outdoor rink and shoreline pathway inside the community. | 1–2 min |
| Glenmore Landing area clubs open | Commercial gyms in the Glenmore Landing plaza. | 3–5 min |
| Mount Royal University campus open | A short drive northwest. The university publishes no recreation page we could open, so its facilities and public memberships are unverified here. | 7–11 min |
Southland does most of the daily work here. It is close enough to be a genuine extension of the community rather than a special trip, which is unusual for a facility this size.
Two public schools and a Catholic elementary, all inside the community
Nellie McClung School runs kindergarten to grade 6 and John Ware School carries junior high, both Calgary Board of Education, and St. Benedict Elementary adds the Catholic option: all three inside Palliser itself. Henry Wise Wood, grades 10 to 12 at 910 75 Avenue SW with an enrolment of 1,862 in 2025-26, lists Palliser among the sixteen communities it serves.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Nellie McClung School | Calgary Board of Education | Public elementary inside the community, kindergarten to grade 6. |
| John Ware School | Calgary Board of Education | Public junior high inside the community. Its own page names no grade range; Wikipedia calls it John Ware Junior High. |
| St. Benedict Elementary School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic elementary named in Wikipedia's article on Palliser. The district's site refuses automated clients, so nothing here was read from it. |
| Henry Wise Wood High School | Calgary Board of Education | Grades 10 to 12 at 910 75 Ave SW, with an enrolment of 1,862 in 2025-26. Its own article lists Palliser among the sixteen communities it serves. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy: Palliser's 1991 split from Pump Hill means some older listings still describe boundaries that no longer apply. The Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so nothing on the Catholic side here was read from the district itself.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Tom Brook's outdoor rink is the free option once the freeze holds, run by the community association
- City bylaw bars anyone from the Glenmore Reservoir's water or its ice at any time of year
- Heating bills in the 1970s low-rises along 19 Street spike hardest in the deep freeze
- Southland Drive gets priority plowing before the community's own crescents do
- Nellie McClung and John Ware both run indoor phys ed through the coldest week of the year
- A chinook off the reservoir can strip the snow from Tom Brook's outfield in an afternoon
- St. Benedict's students bundle up for the walk in through the coldest mornings
- 19 Street's older low-rise parkades are the first to ice over after a freeze-thaw cycle
- Meltwater runs off 90 Avenue faster than the drains take it, along the community's northern boundary
- St. Benedict's playground turns to standing ice before it firms up
- Cleats are the right footwear on the reservoir-edge pathway below the community
- Condo parkades along 19 Street track in slush through the thaw
- The Glenmore Reservoir pathway, about ten minutes north on foot, comes back into use
- Tom Brook Athletic Park's diamonds get their spring reconditioning
- Lease listings start turning over early, ahead of the July 1 rush
- Garden beds outside the older low-rises go in once the frost risk passes
- Sailing, rowing and canoeing open on the reservoir on 1 May and run to 31 October
- John Ware and Nellie McClung both move field sports onto the Tom Brook diamonds
- Heritage Park opens its Historical Village season, seven to nine minutes northeast on the reservoir's banks
- Condo balconies across the community start seeing regular use again
- School lets out and Tom Brook's diamonds fill most weekday evenings
- Rowers and canoeists work the reservoir a short walk north of the community
- Rental turnover picks up early, ahead of the July 1 peak that shapes this community's summer
- Southland Drive traffic thickens as the leisure centre's outdoor season opens just south
- July 1 is moving day for a large share of the community's rental stock, and it shows on the streets
- Sailing, rowing and canoeing are the only boating the reservoir allows, and swimming in it is not permitted
- Heritage Park's passenger train runs behind one of its two working steam locomotives
- Moving trucks are a regular sight on 19 Street through the first week
- Southland Leisure Centre's wave pool and slides carry the hottest afternoons, four minutes south
- Condo balconies catch the last of the long evenings
- Tom Brook's diamonds see their last full bookings before the school-return rush
- St. Benedict and the CBE schools both post their fall class lists
- Nellie McClung, John Ware and St. Benedict all restart within the same week
- A second, smaller wave of lease turnover follows the September 1 date
- Aspens along the reservoir pathway turn first, a short walk north of Tom Brook
- Condo strata annual meetings cluster in the weeks after Labour Day
- The reservoir's sailing, rowing and canoeing season closes on 31 October
- Peak colour runs along the reservoir pathway north of the community
- Condo strata boards schedule the year's last exterior maintenance before the frost
- Tom Brook's fields get their last cut before the season closes
- Tom Brook Athletic Park's fields go quiet under the season's first cover
- The reservoir pathway north of the community gets its first ice on the shaded stretches
- 19 Street's older low-rises show their age in the first hard frost on the windows
- Dark evenings settle over the community's condo blocks by five
- A chinook arch over the southwest can turn a −20 morning into a +5 afternoon by Tom Brook
- Heritage Park keeps its Gasoline Alley Museum, restaurant and plaza shops open through the winter
- Tom Brook's outdoor rink opens once the freeze holds, kept up by neighbourhood volunteers
- Rental turnover slows to its quietest stretch of the year over the holidays
4 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–4 of 4 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Palliser, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Calgary library.