The guy at the fudge shop has a funny accent you can’t quite place. South African? British? “Nah, mate, I’m an Aussie.” You don’t think much of it until you notice that every shop has an Aussie (an Australian) working. Or a Kiwi (New Zealand). Or a Quebecois. A what, you ask? Quebecois—French-speaking Canadian from Quebec.

Thing is, there aren’t many locals in Canmore, Banff and Jasper. I didn’t meet my first real local until my third year living here. My inaugural summer found me surrounded by a potpourri of accents. My friends were from everywhere BUT this area.

Simon was from Down Under (Australia). Kaori was Japanese. Martin seemed like a Swiss Alps kinda guy, but I never knew for sure. Others in my gang came from The East (any Canadian province on the far side of Manitoba). Half my friends didn’t speak English as a first language.

Wannabe locals come to the Rockies for the same reason you do, plus a couple more. They ski, mountain bike, hike and sightsee. They snap fuzzy shots of furry bears and buy trinkets for the folks back home. They even eat in the same restaurants you do, but often in the back where the kitchen is.

Reasons they come that differ from yours? Young people flock here to work, so they can earn money to play. Party is also high on the agenda. Even I’ve been to the bars once or twice after midnight.

I came to the mountains for a weekend in 1991 and never left. But that doesn’t really make me a local, although visitors often mistake me for one. That special designation is reserved for elusive and rarely-sighted Canmorites, Banffites and Jasperites—people born in these mountains who never left. They are endangered species.

Mr Elk may beg to differ. After all, those who can truly claim the mountains as their own are the animals whose ancestors have inhabited these hills for countless generations. Deer, bear, mountain goats and bighorn sheep are the real founding families.

You can always try to obtain local status. Get a job, buy a house—in that order since you can’t buy a home in Banff or Jasper unless you work here. But even if you spend many years in the Canadian Rockies you'll always be from somewhere else. There’s hope for your unborn children, though. As a Quebecois would say—bon chance!