Hi Pauly, welcome.
Northern Alberta is a big area so narrow it a bit more. There are preppers everywhere in Canada so finding people in your area only requires time and talking.
Chatting about world and local concerns will bring out people’s opinions and a few well placed questions and comments will weed out those who are not preppers.
Never give away what stuff you have or want, also keep trigger words like bugout and prepps to yourself until you are certain you are chatting with real preppers.
You will find good folks doing what we do.

Not to be difficult, but...

how do you identify "real preppers" without using the "trigger words?"

I mean, it's not like there's a secret handshake. Or is there?!

Would you just start talking about zombies in general and see where that leads?

Or ask point blank, "What would you do if a big disaster happened (like Katrina, only worse) and emergency services / food transport were suspended?"

???

lol
Nope, not aware of a secret handshake.
Outside of contact on sites like this or at organized events we preppers for the most part find others like us through conversations. Thing is that often most non preppers put us in the crazy category quickly.
Not always of course, but often enough.
I have found that reading between the lines and having valid points to talk about without giving away too much usually works best. Sometimes the connection comes quick, other times it might take a long time.
Just found out last week that someone I've known for a long time is a prepper. They kept their secret for several years while I kept mine. Now we talk openly to each other about prepping.

quietman,

Fair enough, thanks for the clarification.

My problem has been slightly different in that seemingly few "normal" people are open minded and deep thinking enough to consider legitimate threats to our continued comfortable existence, while OTOH, many preppers seem "eccentric" at best (which I can deal with), but sometimes bordering on delusional. One minute, they are talking about Keynesian economics and a "slow collapse " situation, and the next, they are discussing the deliberate "toxification" of our foods and drugs and "mind control" by the government and how their naturopath has all the answers, etc.

With that (perhaps somewhat offputting) qualifier, I am in the Edmonton area and would be interested in meeting like minded people. My philosophy is to prep for the common / mundane first and then look at the more extreme / unlikely threats as resources permit. My worldview includes Christianity AND Science (which are by no means mutually exclusive, contrary to the popular belief of many Secular Humanists).

Have a nice weekend everybody!

🙂

Hi Sarcopenia, sounds like our viewpoints are similar. I'm from North Edmonton and new to the site and so I just saw your post. Are you still prepping? I'm also "scientifically Christian" ( I just made that up lol )

Let's chat a bit here if you are interested.

Galootius.

Hey im new also! Im n of Edmonton,about 1.5 hrs !Would love to chat with others!

So I am not new here, I have just been away from this site for a while. I used to be around Airdrie for a long time, I am now in Northern Alberta .. Just west of GP.
I am still interested in Being Prepared, but I am not interested in the wacky conspiracy theorists and doomsday crap. I am and always will be a realist. So that being said if your in the GP area, maybe we can learn, teach, share, or just improve our chances of getting through whatever comes.