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| Motto: Heart of the new west | |||
| Area: | 712.14 sq. km. | ||
| Population - Total (2001) - Density |
878,866 1252.3/km² |
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| Time zone | Mountain: UTC-7 | ||
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Latitude |
51°6' N |
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| MPs | |||
| Diane Ablonczy, Rob Anders, Art Hanger, Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney, Deepak Obhrai, Jim Prentice, Lee Richardson | |||
| MLAs | |||
| Cindy Ady, Moe Amery, Neil Brown, Wayne Cao, Harvey Cenaiko, Harry B. Chase, Alana DeLong, Heather Forsyth, Yvonne Fritz, Denis Herard, Art Johnston, Ralph Klein, Ron Liepert, Richard Magnus, Gary Mar, Greg Melchin, Hung Pham, Dave Rodney, Shiraz Shariff, Ron Stevens, David Swann, Dave Taylor, Len Webber | |||
| Mayor | David Bronconnier | ||
| Governing body | Calgary City Council | ||
| City of Calgary (http://www.calgary.ca/cweb/communities/community.asp?UserID=2&CommunityID=203) | |||
Calgary is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. The city is situated in the south of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains just east of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Its elevation is about 1000 metres (3,200 feet) above sea level. Calgary is home to one of the world's best fly fishing rivers, the Bow River, as well as North America's largest urban park, Fish Creek Park. As of 2003, the metropolitan population was at an estimated 997,150. By 2005 the CMA population is expected to reach over 1.2 million. It is the largest city in Alberta and the third largest by population. It has the second highest concentration of head offices in Canada.
Calgary is a four season playground with professional sport teams, world-class winter resorts and internationally renowned wilderness all in easy reach of this vibrant metropolitan city. It serves as the hub of the fifth largest Census Metropolitan Area in Canada. It is the central cargo hub for European freight into and out of north-western North America. Calgary is located in Division No. 6.
Calgary International Airport serves the city as well as the international traffic for Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is the fourth busiest airport in Canada.
Calgary's economy is largely centred on the petroleum industry, with agriculture and high-tech industries contributing to the city's rapid economic growth. Geographically, Calgary has a larger urban footprint than Los Angeles.
| Contents |
Before Calgary was settled by white Europeans it was the domain of the Blackfoot people whose presence has been traced back 11,000 years. In 1787 cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan Indians encamped along the Bow River in the Calgary area. He was the first recorded European to visit the area. 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). Originally named Fort Brisbois, it was renamed to Fort Calgary in 1876. The detachment was assigned to protect the western plains from US whiskey traders. Fort Calgary was named by Colonel James MacLeod after Calgary (Cala-ghearraidh, Beach of the pasture) 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 town in 1884 and elected its first mayor, George Murdoch. In 1894, Calgary was elevated to the status of city.
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 647,000 in 1987. During this time, Calgary skyscrapers (http://www.emporis.com/en/il/pc/?id=100992&aid=3&sro=1) 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 NEP was cancelled in the mid-1980s by the Mulroney government, and Calgary has since largely recovered.
Calgary remains the oil capital of Canada and is 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.
Calgary is a large city in area, consisting of an inner city surrounded by various suburbs of decreasing density. Unlike most cities with a sizeable metropolitan area, most of Calgary's suburbs are incorporated into the city proper, with the notable exceptions of the large town of Airdire to the north and the sprawling Springbank district to the west.
The centre of the city consists of the downtown core, which includes the business district, Chinatown and some apartment-based residential areas. This is surrounded by inner-city areas such as the Beltline, Kensington, Bridgeland and Inglewood-Ramsay. The inner-city is in turn surrounded by inner suburbs, including Bowness and Westgate to the west, Park Hill to the south and Forest Lawn to the east. Lying beyond these, and usually seperated from one another by freeways, are outer suburbs, often characterised as "commuter communities". These include Citadel and Mackenzie.
Because of the size of the city, many areas of the city are seperated from the rest and have adopted their own distinct characteristics.
Calgary is world famous for its Calgary Stampede, a large festival and rodeo in July of each year and has quite a history.
The Calgary Stampede was inaugurated in 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, the city's residents dress in western attire, and nearly all businesses decorate their stores and offices western style. The Calgary Stampede is often called "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth."
Calgary's cultural scene has changed considerably over time. Today it has grown into a more cosmopolitan city despite its traditional culture of hotel saloons, hockey and western music.
Calgary is the site of the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, a 4 million cubic foot performing arts, culture and community facility. The auditorium is one of two "twin" facilities in the province, the other located in Edmonton. The 2,700 seat auditorium was opened in 1957 and has been host to hundreds of Broadway musical, theatrical, stage and local productions. Annually, over 850,000 visitors frequent the performance space. The "JUBES" as they are known, are the resident home of the Alberta Ballet, the Calgary opera, the Kiwanis Music Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the annual Canadian Legion Remembrance Day Ceremonies. The two auditoriums are run by community-based non-profit societies and operate 365 days a year. Currently, the two auditoriums are undergoing a $91 million renovation.
Calgary is also home to the internationally-renowned contemporary theatre company One Yellow Rabbit. The company shares the massive EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and two more established theatre companies, Theatre Calgary and Alberta Theatre Projects. Calgary was also the birthplace, in the 1970s, of the improvisational theatre games known as Theatresports.
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.
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 right-wing Reform Party. However, as Calgary has grown, its politics have gained more diversity, particularly on the left. This growing alternative left-wing 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 organizations, as well as an Anti-Capitalist Convergence
Prior to the 26th Alberta general election on November 22, 2004, all eight of Calgary's federal MPs were members of the Conservative Party of Canada, and all 21 provincial MLAs were Progressive Conservatives. The city gained two additional legislature seats for the provincial election, where the Alberta Liberals have broken the Tory monopoly by winning three seats.
Calgary is the site of four major tertiary educational institutions: the University of Calgary, The Alberta College of Art & Design, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and Mount Royal College. It is also the home of the Milton Wiliams School for Education Through the Arts, a national centre of excellence in arts immersion education for children from grade 5 though 9.
Calgary held the 1988 Winter Olympic Games. The remaining venues have become a training site for athletes around the world. Calgary's multipurpose arena, the Pengrowth Saddledome is shown at the right.
Professional sports teams in Calgary include:
Amateur teams include:
Calgary is next to some of the most pristine natural environment in the world. Banff National Park is about 125 kilometres due west of Calgary on the TransCanada Highway. About 75 kilometres West is Kananaskis Country.
Many Calgarians and millions of tourists enjoy activities such as hiking, skiing, and fishing in these great parks every year. The town of Banff annually receives five million visitors.
Calgary is still home to a sizable military presence, including HMCS Tecumseh(Naval Reserve), the HMCS Tecumseh Band, and the 746th Communications Squadron (Communications Reserve). Several units of the Army Reserve are located in Calgary, including:
Additionally, there are several squadrons of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, Navy League Cadets, Royal Canadian Army Cadets, and Royal Canadian Air Cadets.
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