Calgary stands at the point where the vast Canadian prairie meets the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Its young, glittering skyscrapers rise out of older suburban neighbourhoods and seem oddly superimposed on this breathtakingly diverse western landscape, as though dropped from the sky onto the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.
Accordingly, the land is never far from the minds of the people of Calgary. The oil that lies beneath it drives the city's vibrant economy; the distant mountains attract legions of skiers and snowboarders during the chilly winters; and, during balmy summers, cattle roam the flat expanse of grassland, marking this out as cowboy country.
As well as being the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary has grown into a tourist destination in its own right. Its cowboy reputation draws over a million visitors annually to Calgary Stampede, a raucous celebration of Western heritage, where the city transforms into a giant party town and every second person seems to be wearing a cowboy hat; even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge couldn’t resist during their 2011 visit.
Calgary isn’t shy in putting itself forward and has beaten competing Canadian cities to host both the new National Sports Hall of Fame and the upcoming National Music Centre, which opens in 2014. A snazzy new, hands-on science centre opened in October 2011.
Many have likened the Calgary of today to a Canadian Dallas, a comparison that is not without merit. Like Dallas, Calgary is a confident, often brash cowboy town that grew wealthy on oil, where they play country and western music in noisy taverns and eat thick and juicy steaks in the restaurants. As an image, however, this captures only a small part of what the city and its people are actually like.
Calgary is also a city of diverse and vibrant neighbourhoods, where its citizens relax in cafés, stroll the scenic streets or take in the opera, although they are just as likely to head off to the great outdoors. Beyond the city, the stunning summits and aquamarine lakes of the Rockies, in particular Banff National Park, are unmissable, while visitors can delve into dinosaur history in Alberta’s Badlands.
Today Calgary is known as the New West, a casual, oil-rich, vibrant city growing faster than its infrastructure can keep pace with, expanding its cultural life as new blood follows its prosperity. Technology and production industries have grown immensely as oil and gas production has increased, propelling this one-time, one-horse cowboy town into a radically evolving 21st-century city.
Calgary is not resting on its laurels however. Ongoing reinvestment in its buildings and services suggests it clearly aims to keep one step ahead of its rivals. A light rail line extension is under construction, with others in the pipeline, and glitzy skyscrapers continue to go up – the latest is a Norman Foster-designed behemoth nicknamed The Bow. This is now the city’s tallest tower and is expected to be completed in 2012, coinciding with Calgary Stampede’s centenary celebrations.
