Do any of these cities do the infamous gravel "patch" that Saskatoon does? I never saw this strange idea of road repair before moving to Saskatchewan. The idea is, they dig up the pavement around a pothole/s, toss a pile of gravel down, then many weeks or months later, come back and actually pave it. I think the idea is to use people's personal vehicles as tamping machines. A bike is often the best way to travel on roads that have a lot of these, because you can carefully skirt the edges.
I'd say hybrids, mountain bikes, and cyclocross bikes are most popular here. I see more 'cross bikes than road bikes used for everyday travel.