One July day in 2006, a few ticks after midnight, Dashiell Waite made his historic entry into the world, weighing in at nine pounds, eight ounces at Rockyview Hospital.

While his weight put him in the 96th percentile for boys, that's not the figure that made Dashiell newsworthy.

At birth, he was honoured as the one-millionth Calgarian. It was a milestone for a city that had boomed and busted several times, and came 122 years after it was first incorporated as a town.

Calgary's charge to its next big round population number is happening faster than almost anyone could have predicted.

Dashiell Waite, born in 2006, back when there were a mere one million Calgarians. (CBC)

If it keeps growing the way it has, Calgary could welcome its two-millionth resident by the middle of next decade. Before not-so-little-anymore Dashiell reaches his 30th birthday.

As people in what's now — amazingly, to some — a 1.6-million person city prepare to choose their next council, few election issues are as overarching as the immediate pressures and long-term needs that come with Calgary's rapid population growth.

It affects topics ranging from affordable housing and neighbourhood zoning to transit and infrastructure, to taxation, homelessness and addiction, and even public safety. More and more people put more and more demands on their city government, and on their mayor and councillors to manage it properly.

Growing pains

So it's no surprise that the city's growth underpins many campaign promises.

"Calgary's population is booming, but our recreation facilities, libr