The calculation of Calgary's "metropolitan area" is seriously flawed. This area includes vast, vast tracts of undeveloped land:
The CMA's boundary takes in the City of Calgary along with the Municipal District of Rocky View and all the municipalities enclosed within the MD of Rocky View—these include the City of Airdrie, the Town of Cochrane, the Town of Chestermere and the village of Beiseker. Rocky View also includes a number of unincorporated hamlets such as Springbank and Bragg Creek.
If you were to tell someone from Vancouver that you consider Bragg Creek to be part of Calgary, they would laugh at you.
Look at these numbers
Calgary CMA: Area: 5,083 km2 Population: 1.1 million
Calgary City: Area: 727 km2 Population: 1.0 million
90% of people in the region live within official city limits (an area of only 727 square kms)... this is very different from almost everywhere else in North America where metropolitan areas are broken up into a number of smaller cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Region