Calgary, Alberta

City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Motto: Heart of the new west
''
Area:	701.79 sq. km.
Population  - Total (2001)  - Cdn. Mun. Rank:  - Density	878,866 Ranked 3rd 1252.3/km²
Time zone	Mountain: UTC-7
Latitude Longitude	51°6' N 114°1' W
MPss
Diane Ablonczy, Rob Anders, Art Hanger, Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney, Deepak Obhrai, Jim Prentice, Lee Richardson
MLAss
Cindy Ady, Moe Amery, Wayne Cao, Harvey Cenaiko, Alana DeLong, Heather Forsyth, Yvonne Fritz, Marlene Graham, Denis Herard, Mark Hlady, Ralph Klein, Karen Kryczka, Jon Lord, Richard Magnus, Gary Mar, Greg Melchin, Pat Nelson, Hung Pham, Shiraz Shariff, Murray Smith, Ron Stevens,
Mayor	David Bronconnier
Governing body	Calgary City Council
City of Calgary

Calgary is rated as one of the cleanest, safest and friendliest cities in North America. It attracts many new residents from around the world and the rest of Canada.

Calgary International Airport serves the city.

Calgary's economy is largely centered on the petroleum industry, with agriculture and high-tech industries contributing to the city's rapid economic growth. Calgary is Canada's wealthiest city, and Alberta is also the wealthiest province (based on per capita income).

Before Calgary was settled by white Europeans, it was the domain of the Blackfoot native, whose presence has been traced back 11,000 years. The first recorded European presence in the region around Calgary took place in 1787 and by 1860 settlers began arriving to hunt buffalo and sell illegal whiskey.

The first recorded settler in Calgary was rancher Sam Livingston in the early 1870s, and in 1875 the site became a post of the North West Mounted Police (now the RCMP). The detachment was assigned to protect the western plains from whiskey traders from the United States. Calgary was named by Colonel James MacLeod after Calgary Bay on the [Isle of Mull], Scotland. When the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed a major rail station in the city, Calgary began to grow into an important commercial and agricultural centre. (The Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters are located in Calgary today.) Calgary was officially incorporated as a city in 1894.

Photo by William Henderson III of Calgary taken in 1969 from Scotchman's Hill

The Oil Boom

With the discovery of oil in Alberta in the mid–20th century, Calgary became the centre of an accompanying oil boom. Calgary's economy grew when oil prices increased with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The city's population grew from 325,000 in 1974 to 650,000. During this time, Calgary skyscrapers were constructed at a pace seen by few cities anywhere. With the announcement of the National Energy Program in 1981 the oil boom started to subside (The Program was cancelled in the Mid 80's by the Mulroney government, Calgary has since largely recovered).

Calgary remains the oil capital of Canada and second only to Toronto for corporate Head Offices. The beef industry is also very important to Calgary, as it is a distribution centre for the outlying rural areas. Lakeside Packers and Cargill Limited near Calgary are some of the most modern, state-of-the-art beef processing facilities in North America.

Photo by William Henderson III of Calgary taken in 2004 from Scotchman's Hill

is world famous for its Calgary Stampede, a large festival and rodeo in July of each year and has quite a history.

The Stampede

The Calgary Stampede, was inaugurated (1912) by Guy Weadick an American trick roper. Weadick wanted to put on a world-class rodeo event and Wild West show that would bring the best cowboys from across the continent. The first Stampede was the richest rodeo competition in North America with prize money totalling $20,000. It drew more than 100,000 spectators. For the year 2000, the attendance to the 10 day rodeo and exhibition totalled 1,218,851 people. During "Stampede Week" as it is called by locals, the city's residents dress in western attire. Nearly all the retail businesses decorate their stores western style. The Calgary Stampede is often called "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth."

Cultural Scene

Calgary's cultutral scene has grown considerably over time. Besides the traditional culture of hotel saloons, hockey, and western music, Calgary has become a more and more cosmopolitan city.

Calgary also had the peculiar distinction of being the cradle of Theatre Sports: In the 1970s, a university drama teacher,Keith Johnson, developed improvisational theatre games for his students, and eventually created a theatre company to regularly play theatre sports. Theatre Sports have since caught on all over the world and have been imitated by TV shows such as "Who's Line is it Anyway?" and made frequent appearances at the Montreal comedy festival Just For Laughs. Calgary is also home to the internationally-renowned contemporary theatre company One Yellow Rabbit. The company shares the massive Calgary Centre For The Performing Arts with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and two more established theatre companies, Theatre Calgary and Alberta Theatre Projects).

Calgary is affectionately called the Nashville of the North, and took a large part in the country revival of the 1990s. Currently, some of the city's most popular bars trade on the image of cool country, playing contemporary country music to young twenty-somethings.

Political Scene

Calgary is traditionally seen as a conservative city, dominated by older small-c social conservatives, and more modern fiscal conservatives. This is only aided by the fact that the city is a corporate power-centre, with a high percentage of the workforce employed in white-collar professions. During the 1990s, the city's mainstream political culture was dominated by the rightwing Reform Party. However, as Calgary has grown, its politics have gained more diversity, particularly on the left. This growing alternative leftwing political culture got a lot of attention during the 2000 World Petroleum Congress and the J26 G8 Protests. The largest protests in the city's history erupted in early 2003, in response to the War on Iraq. The city has a chapters of various well-known organisations, as well as an Anti-Capitalist Convergence

Education

Calgary is the site of three major post-secondary educational institutions: the University of Calgary, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Mount Royal College.

Sports

Calgary held the 1988 Winter Olympic Games. The remaining venues have become a training site for atheletes around the world. The1988 winter Olympic Games welcomed 1,423 athletes from 57 Nations. They included 176 events and extended for the first time ever the Olympic Winter Games program from 12 to 16 days.

Military Presence

Calgary is still home to a sizeable military presence, including HMCS Tecumseh, a unit of the Naval Reserve, the HMCS Tecumseh Band, and 746 Communications Squadrom (Communications Reserve), as well as several units of the Army Reserve, including:

- The King's Own Calgary Regiment (Royal Canadian Armoured Corps)

- Regimental Band of The King's Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC)

- The Calgary Highlanders

- Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders

- 14 Service Battalion

- 33 Field Engineer Squadron (Canadian Military Engineers)

- Calgary Detachment, 15 Medical Company (Canadian Forces Medical Service) - Militia Training Detachment Calgary

- Headquarters, 41 Canadian Brigade Group

- As well as several squadrons of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, Navy League Cadets, Royal Canadian Army Cadets and Royal Canadian Air Cadets

See also

• List of mayors of Calgary, Alberta
• List of the 100 largest cities in Canada
• List of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in Canada

   
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