Roughly 161 kilometres east of Drumheller, in the heart of central Alberta’s grain-growing country, sits the small community of Cereal. It falls under the administration of Special Area No. 3, a unique governing jurisdiction that oversees a number of rural communities across eastern Alberta. Cereal’s name has agricultural roots – a post office was established in the area in 1910, and the name chosen for it reflected the sweeping grain fields that defined the surrounding landscape. The community formally incorporated as a village on August 19, 1914, a status it held for more than a century before dissolving into hamlet status on January 1, 2021, when it came under the full jurisdiction of Special Area No. 3.
According to the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Cereal had a population of 111 residents living in 59 of its 63 private dwellings, representing a decline of 17.2% from the 134 people recorded in the 2011 Census. That 2011 count itself reflected modest growth from 126 residents in 2006. The community covers a land area of 0.79 square kilometres, giving it a population density of approximately 140.5 people per square kilometre as of 2016. Among those connected to Cereal are several notable individuals, including amateur golfer Marlene Streit, who achieved the rare distinction of winning the Australian, British, Canadian, and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships, as well as politician Debby Carlson, who served as a Liberal MLA from 1993 to 2004, and Robert Player, a civil engineer who served as Commissioner of Housing for the City of Ottawa from 1985 to 1993.