Nestled in central Alberta roughly 60 km northwest of Edmonton, Onoway sits at the intersection of Highway 37 and Highway 43, making it a natural stopping point in the region. The Canadian National Railway passes through town, and the community is positioned east of Lac Ste. Anne and south of the Sturgeon River, giving it a setting shaped by both rail history and nearby natural features. The town is led by Mayor Len Kwasny.
Onoway carries an interesting history tied to its very name. Two separate origins have been proposed: in Chipewyan, “Onoway” translates roughly to “fair field,” while the variant spelling “onaway” appears in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha. A post office was established here in 1904, and the community incorporated as a village on June 25, 1923, before upgrading to town status on September 1, 2005. According to the 2021 Census, the town recorded a population of 966 residents living in 360 of its 388 private dwellings – a decline of about 6.1% from the 1,029 people counted in 2016, which itself represented a slight dip from 1,039 in 2011. Onoway covers a land area of 3.31 km², giving it a population density of approximately 291.8 people per km². The town is home to both an elementary school serving around 400 students and a junior and senior high school that has operated since the 1940s. Each June, residents and visitors gather for Heritage Days, a weekend fair that serves as one of the town’s signature community events. Notable people with ties to Onoway include ice hockey players Troy Bourke and Paxton Schulte.