Vancouver And Calgary

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded more than 603,000 people in the city, making it the eighth largest among Canadian cities.[1] The metropolitan area, with more than 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country(Dell 1691P battery) and the most populous in Western Canada. With 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per sq mile), the City of Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality among those with 5,000 residents or more.[2] Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, with 52% for whom English is not their first language(Dell 310-6321 battery).

The original settlement, named Gastown, grew around the Hastings Mill logging sawmill and a nearby tavern, both established in 1867. Enlarging to become the townsite of Granville, with the announcement that the railhead would reach the site it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated as a city in 1886(Dell 312-0068 battery). By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and London.[5][6] As of 2009, Port Metro Vancouver is the busiest and largest port in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America.[7] While forestry remains its largest industry(Dell 312-0078 battery), Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry.[8] Major film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Metro Vancouver into one of the largest film production centres in North America,[9][10] earning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North. (Dell 312-0079 battery)

Vancouver has ranked highly in worldwide "liveable city" rankings for more than a decade according to business magazine assessments,[12][13] and it was also acknowledged by Economist Intelligence Unit as the first city to rank among the top-ten of the world's most liveable cities for five straight years.[14] It has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games(Dell 312-0305 battery), Expo 86, and the World Police and Fire Games in 1989 and 2009. The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics were held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a resort community 125 km (78 mi) north of the city.

Main article: History of Vancouver

See also: Timeline of Vancouver history

[edit]Indigenous peoples

Archaeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal people in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The city is located in the traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group. (Dell D6400 battery) They had villages in various parts of present day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River.[17]

[edit]Exploration and contact

The first European to explore the coastline of present-day Point Grey and parts of Burrard Inlet was José María Narváez of Spain, in 1791, although one author contends that Francis Drake may have visited the area in 1579. (Dell N3010 battery) The city is named after George Vancouver, who explored the inner harbour of Burrard Inlet in 1792 and gave various places British names.[20][21][22]

The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his crew were the first known people of European race to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. (Dell Inspiron N4010 battery)

[edit]Early growth

The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster (founded February 14, 1859) on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, bypassing what would become Vancouver. Vancouver is among British Columbia's youngest cities; (Dell INSPIRON 1100 battery) the first European settlement in what is now Vancouver was not until 1862 at McLeery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueam in what is now Marpole. A sawmill established at Moodyville (now the City of North Vancouver) in 1863, began the city's long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the south shore of the inlet(Dell Inspiron 1200 battery). Stamp, who had begun lumbering in the Port Alberni area, first attempted to run a mill at Brockton Point, but difficult currents and reefs forced the relocation of the operation in 1867 to a point near the foot of Gore Street. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed. The mill's central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s(Dell Inspiron 1420 battery). It nevertheless remained important to the local economy until it closed in the 1920s.[28]

The settlement which came to be called Gastown grew up quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by "Gassy" Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property. In 1870, the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out a townsite(Dell Inspiron 1464 battery), renamed "Granville" in honour of the then-British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Granville. This site, with its natural harbour, was selected in 1884[30] as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, to the disappointment of Port Moody, New Westminster and Victoria, all of which had vied to be the railhead. A railway was among the inducements for British Columbia to join the Confederation in 1871(Dell Inspiron 1564 battery), but the Pacific Scandal and arguments over the use of Chinese labour delayed construction until the 1880s.[31]

A portrait of the first Vancouver City Council meeting after the 1886 fire. The tent shown was on the east side of the 100 block Carrall.[32]

Panorama of Vancouver, 1898

[edit]Incorporation

The City of Vancouver was incorporated on April 6, 1886, the same year that the first transcontinental train arrived(Dell Inspiron 1764 battery). CPR president William Van Horne arrived in Port Moody to establish the CPR terminus recommended by Henry John Cambie, and gave the city its name in honour of George Vancouver.[27] The Great Vancouver Fire on June 13, 1886, razed the entire city. The Vancouver Fire Department was established that year and the city quickly rebuilt.[28] Vancouver's population grew from a settlement of 1,000 people in 1881 to over 20,000 by the turn of the century and 100,000 by 1911. (Dell Inspiron 1520 battery)

Vancouver merchants outfitted prospectors bound for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898.[24] One of those merchants, Charles Woodward, had opened the first Woodward's store at Abbott and Cordova Streets in 1892 and, along with Spencer's and the Hudson's Bay department stores, formed the core of the city's retail sector for decades. (Dell Inspiron 1521 battery)

The economy of early Vancouver was dominated by large companies such as the CPR, which fueled economic activity and led to the rapid development of the new city;[35] in fact the CPR was the main real estate owner and housing developer in the city. While some manufacturing did develop, natural resources became the basis for Vancouver's economy(Dell inspiron 1525 battery). The resource sector was initially based on logging and later on exports moving through the seaport, where commercial traffic constituted the largest economic sector in Vancouver by the 1930s.[36]

[edit]Twentieth century

The dominance of the economy by big business was accompanied by an often militant labour movement. The first major sympathy strike was in 1903 when railway employees struck against the CPR for union recognition(Dell inspiron 1526 battery). Labour leader Frank Rogers was killed by CPR police while picketing at the docks, becoming the movement's first martyr in British Columbia.[37] The rise of industrial tensions throughout the province led to Canada's first general strike in 1918, at the Cumberland coal mines on Vancouver Island.[38] Following a lull in the 1920s, the strike wave peaked in 1935 when unemployed men flooded the city to protest conditions in the relief camps run by the military in remote areas (Dell Inspiron 1720 battery)throughout the province.[39][40] After two tense months of daily and disruptive protesting, the relief camp strikers decided to take their grievances to the federal government and embarked on the On-to-Ottawa Trek,[40] but their protest was put down by force. The workers were arrested near Mission and interned in work camps for the duration of the Depression. (Dell Inspiron 2000 battery)

Other social movements, such as the first-wave feminist, moral reform, and temperance movements were also influential in Vancouver's development. Mary Ellen Smith, a Vancouver suffragist and prohibitionist, became the first woman elected to a provincial legislature in Canada in 1918.[42] Alcohol prohibition began in the First World War and lasted until 1921(Dell INSPIRON 2600 battery), when the provincial government established control over alcohol sales, a practice still in place today.[43] Canada's first drug law came about following an inquiry conducted by the federal Minister of Labour and future Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. King was sent to investigate damages claims resulting from a riot when the Asiatic Exclusion League led a rampage through Chinatown and Japantown(Dell INSPIRON 3800 battery). Two of the claimants were opium manufacturers, and after further investigation, King found that white women were reportedly frequenting opium dens as well as Chinese men. A federal law banning the manufacture, sale, and importation of opium for non-medicinal purposes was soon passed based on these revelations. (Dell INSPIRON 4000 battery)

Amalgamation with Point Grey and South Vancouver gave the city its final boundaries not long before it became the third-largest metropolis in the country. As of January 1, 1929, the population of the enlarged Vancouver was 228,193.[45]

Geography

Further information: Bodies of water in Vancouver and Lower Mainland Ecoregion

23 neighbourhood communities of Vancouver (local usage varies)

Located on the Burrard Peninsula, Vancouver lies between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south(Dell Inspiron 5000 battery). The Strait of Georgia, to the west, is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. The city has an area of 114 km2 (44 sq mi), including both flat and hilly ground, and is in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC−8) and the Pacific Maritime Ecozone.[46] Until the city's naming in 1885, "Vancouver" referred to Vancouver Island, and it remains a common misconception that the city is located on the island. (Dell INSPIRON 500M battery)The island and the city are both named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (as is the city of Vancouver, Washington in the United States).

Vancouver has one of the largest urban parks in North America, Stanley Park, which covers 404.9 hectares (1,001 acres).[49] The North Shore Mountains dominate the cityscape, and on a clear day scenic vistas include the snow-capped volcano Mount Baker in the state of Washington to the southeast(Dell INSPIRON 5100 battery), Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to the west and southwest, and Bowen Island to the northwest.[50]

[edit]Ecology

The vegetation in the Vancouver area was originally temperate rain forest, consisting of conifers with scattered pockets of maple and alder, and large areas of swampland (even in upland areas, due to poor drainage). (Dell INSPIRON 510M battery)The conifers were a typical coastal British Columbia mix of Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Western Hemlock.[52] The area is thought to have had the largest trees of these species on the British Columbia Coast. Only in Elliott Bay, Seattle did the size of trees rival those of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the Gastown area(Dell INSPIRON 6000 battery), where the first logging occurred, and on the southern slopes of False Creek and English Bay, especially around Jericho Beach. The forest in Stanley Park was logged between the 1860s and 1880s, and evidence of old-fashioned logging techniques such as springboard notches can still be seen there. (Dell INSPIRON 600M battery)

Many plants and trees growing throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland were imported from other parts of the continent and from points across the Pacific. Examples include the monkey puzzle tree, the Japanese Maple, and various flowering exotics, such as magnolias, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Some rhododendrons have grown to immense sizes, (Dell Inspiron 6400 battery)as have other species imported from harsher climates in Eastern Canada or Europe. The native Douglas Maple can also attain a tremendous size. Many of the city's streets are lined with flowering varieties of Japanese cherry trees donated from the 1930s onward by the government of Japan. These flower for several weeks in early spring each year, an occasion celebrated by the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival(Dell INSPIRON 7000 battery). Other streets are lined with flowering chestnut, horse chestnut and other decorative shade trees.[54]

Main article: Climate of Vancouver

Vancouver's climate is mild enough in the winter to allow Windmill Palms to grow

Vancouver is one of the warmest Canadian cities. Vancouver's climate is temperate by Canadian standards and is usually classified as Oceanic or Marine west coast(Dell INSPIRON 700M battery), which under the Köppen climate classification system would be Cfb. The summer months are typically dry, with an average of only one in five days during July and August receiving precipitation. In contrast, precipitation falls during nearly half the days from November through March.[55]

Vancouver is also one of the wettest Canadian cities, however precipitation varies throughout the metropolitan area(Dell Inspiron 710m battery). Annual precipitation as measured at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond averages 1,199 millimetres (47.2 in), compared with 1,588 millimetres in the downtown area and 2,044 millimetres in North Vancouver.[56][57] Summer months are drier and sunnier with moderate temperatures, tempered by sea breezes. The daily maximum averages 22 °C (72 °F) in July and August, with highs rarely reaching 30 °C (86 °F). (Dell INSPIRON 8200 battery)

The highest temperature ever recorded was 34.4 °C (93.9 °F) on July 30, 2009.[59]

On average, snow falls on eleven days per year, with three days receiving 6 cm (2.4 in) or more. Average yearly snowfall is 48.2 cm (19.0 in) but typically does not remain on the ground for long.[58]

Winters in Greater Vancouver are the fourth mildest of Canadian cities after nearby Victoria, Nanaimo and Duncan, all on Vancouver Island(Dell INSPIRON 8600 battery).

Cityscape

Vancouver from Stanley Park, 2011.

As of 2011, Vancouver is the most densely populated city in Canada.[2] Urban planning in Vancouver is characterized by high-rise residential and mixed-use development in urban centres, as an alternative to sprawl.

Downtown Vancouver as seen from the Lookout Tower

Vancouver has been ranked one of the most livable cities in the world for more than a decade.[13] As of 2010, Vancouver has been ranked as having the 4th highest quality of living of any city on Earth.[63] In contrast, according to Forbes(Dell INSPIRON 9100 battery), Vancouver had the 6th most overpriced real estate market in the world and was second-highest in North America after Los Angeles in 2007.[64] Vancouver has also been ranked among Canada's most expensive cities in which to live. Forbes has also ranked Vancouver as the tenth cleanest city in the world. (Dell INSPIRON 9200 battery)

This approach originated in the late 1950s, when city planners began to encourage the building of high-rise residential towers in Vancouver's West End,[68] subject to strict requirements for setbacks and open space to protect sight lines and preserve green space. The success of these dense but livable neighbourhoods led to the redevelopment of urban industrial sites(Dell INSPIRON 9300 battery), such as North False Creek and Coal Harbour, beginning in the mid-1980s. The result is a compact urban core that has gained international recognition for its "high amenity and 'livable' development".[69] More recently, the city has been debating "ecodensity"—ways in which "density, design, and land use can contribute to environmental sustainability, affordability, and livability." (Dell Inspiron 9400 battery)

Architecture

Woodwards development W43 tower

The Vancouver Art Gallery is housed downtown in the neoclassical former courthouse built in 1906. The courthouse building was designed by Francis Rattenbury, who also designed the British Columbia Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, and the lavishly decorated second Hotel Vancouver. (Dell Inspiron E1505 battery) The 556-room Hotel Vancouver, opened in 1939 and the third by that name, is across the street with its copper roof. The Gothic-style Christ Church Cathedral, across from the hotel, opened in 1894 and was declared a heritage building in 1976.

There are several modern buildings in the downtown area, including the Harbour Centre, the Vancouver Law Courts and surrounding plaza known as Robson Square (designed by Arthur Erickson) and the Vancouver Library Square (designed by Moshe Safdie) (Dell Inspiron E1705 battery), reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome, and the recently completed Woodward's building Redevelopment (designed by Gregory Henriquez). The original BC Hydro headquarters building (designed by Ron Thom and Ned Pratt) at Nelson and Burrard Streets is a modernist high-rise, now converted into the Electra condominiums.[72] Also notable is the "concrete waffle" of the MacMillan-Bloedel building on the north-east corner of the Georgia and Thurlow intersection(Dell Inspiron Mini 9 battery).

A prominent addition to the city's landscape is the giant tent-frame Canada Place, the former Canada Pavilion from the 1986 World Exposition, which includes part of the Convention Centre, the Pan-Pacific Hotel, and a cruise ship terminal. Two modern buildings that define the southern skyline away from the downtown area are City Hall and the Centennial Pavilion of Vancouver Hospital, both designed by Townley and Matheson in 1936 and 1958 respectively. (Dell Latitude D400 battery)

A collection of Edwardian buildings in the city's old downtown core were, in their day, the tallest commercial buildings in the British Empire. These were, in succession, the Carter-Cotton Building (former home of The Vancouver Province newspaper), the Dominion Building (1907) and the Sun Tower (1911), the former two at Cambie and Hastings Streets and the latter at Beatty and Pender Streets(Dell STUDIO 1450 battery). The Sun Tower's cupola was finally exceeded as the Empire's tallest commercial building by the elaborate Art Deco Marine Building in the 1920s.[75] The Marine Building is known for its elaborate ceramic tile facings and brass-gilt doors and elevators, which make it a favourite location for movie shoots.[76] Topping the list of tallest buildings in Vancouver is Living Shangri-La at 201 metres (659 feet)[77] and 62 storeys(Dell Vostro 1400 battery). The second-tallest building in Vancouver is One Wall Centre at 150 metres (490 feet)[78] and 48 storeys, followed closely by the Shaw Tower at 149 metres (489 feet).[78]

The Marine Building, built in 1929, an example of Art Deco architecture from the era

The 2011 census recorded more than 603,000 people in the city, making it the eighth largest among Canadian cities.[1] The metropolitan area, with more than 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country(Dell Vostro 1500 battery) and the most populous in Western Canada. The larger Lower Mainland-Southwest economic region (which includes also Squamish, the Fraser Valley, and the Sunshine Coast) has a population of over 2.65 million.[79] With 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per sq mile), the City of Vancouver is the most densely populated of Canadian municipalities having more than 5,000 residents. (Dell XPS GEN 2 battery) Approximately 74 percent of the people living in Metro Vancouver live outside the city.

Vancouver has been called a "city of neighbourhoods", each with a distinct character and ethnic mix.[80] People of English, Scottish, and Irish origins were historically the largest ethnic groups in the city,[81] and elements of British and Irish society and culture are still visible in some areas, particularly South Granville and Kerrisdale(Dell XPS M1210 battery). Germans are the next-largest European ethnic group in Vancouver and were a leading force in the city's society and economy until the rise of anti-German sentiment with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.[6] Today the Chinese are the largest visible ethnic group in the city, with a diverse Chinese-speaking community, and several languages, including Cantonese and Mandarin. (Dell XPS M1330 battery)Neighbourhoods with distinct ethnic commercial areas include the Chinatown, Punjabi Market, Little Italy, Greektown, and (formerly) Japantown.

Since the 1980s, immigration has dramatically increased, making the city more ethnically and linguistically diverse; 52% do not speak English as their first language.[3][4] Almost 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage. (Dell XPS 1340 battery) In the 1980s, an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong in anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China, combined with an increase in immigrants from mainland China and previous immigrants from Taiwan, established in Vancouver one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Chinese residents in North America. (Dell XPS M1530 battery)This arrival of Asian immigrants continued a tradition of immigration from around the world that had established Vancouver as the second-most popular destination for immigrants in Canada after Toronto.[85] Other significant Asian ethnic groups in Vancouver are South Asian (mostly Punjabi) usually referred to as Indo-Canadian (5.7%), Filipino (5.0%), Japanese (1.7%)(Dell XPS M170 battery), Korean (1.5%), as well as sizable communities of Vietnamese, Indonesians, and Cambodians. Despite increases in Latin American immigration to Vancouver in the 1980s and 90s, recent immigration has been comparatively low, and African immigration has been similarly stagnant (3.6% and 3.3% of total immigrant population, respectively). (Dell XPS M1710 battery) The black population of Vancouver is rather scant in comparison to other Canadian major cities, making up 0.9% of the city. The neighbourhood of Strathcona, particularly Hogan's Alley, was once home to a significant black community.[87][88] In 1981, less than 7% of the population belonged to a visible minority group.[89] By 2008, this proportion had grown to 51%.(Dell XPS M1730 battery)

Prior to the Hong Kong diaspora of the 1990s, the largest non-British ethnic groups in the city were Irish and German, followed by Scandinavian, Italian, Ukrainian and Chinese. From the mid 1950s until the 1980s, many Portuguese immigrants came to Vancouver and the city had the third-largest Portuguese population in Canada in 2001. (Dell XPS M2010 battery) Eastern Europeans, including Yugoslavs, Russians, Czechs, Poles, Romanians and Hungarians began immigrating after the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II.[6] Greek immigration increased in the late 1960s and early 70s, with most settling in the Kitsilano area. Vancouver also has a significant aboriginal community of about 11,000 people. (Dell Latitude E5400 battery)

Vancouver has a large gay community[93] focused on the West End neighbourhood lining a certain stretch of Davie Street, recently officially designated as Davie Village,[94] though the gay community is omnipresent throughout West End and Yaletown areas. Vancouver is host to one of the country's largest annual gay pride parades.[95] British Columbia was the second Canadian jurisdiction (after Ontario) to legalize same-sex marriage(Dell Latitude E5500 battery).

Economy

Main article: Economy of Vancouver

In background: Jameson House building, downtown Vancouver

With its location on the Pacific Rim and at the western terminus of Canada's transcontinental highway and rail routes, Vancouver is one of the nation's largest industrial centres.[50] The Port of Vancouver, Canada's largest and most diversified, does more than C$75 billion in trade with over 130 different economies annually(Dell Latitude E6400 battery). Port activities generate $10.5 billion in gross domestic product and $22 billion in economic output.[99] Vancouver is also the headquarters of forest product and mining companies. In recent years, Vancouver has become an increasingly important centre for software development, biotechnology, aerospace, video game development, animation studios and a vibrant film industry. (Dell Latitude E6500 battery)

Vancouver's scenic location makes it a major tourist destination. Many visit to see the city's gardens, Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, VanDusen Botanical Garden and the mountains, ocean, forest and parklands which surround the city. Each year over a million people pass through Vancouver on cruise ship vacations, often bound for Alaska. (Dell Inspiron Mini 12 battery)

Vancouver is the most stressed in the spectrum of affordability of housing in Canada.[101] In 2012 Vancouver was ranked by Demographia as the second most unaffordable in the world, rated as even more severely unaffordable in 2012 than in 2011. The city has adopted various strategies to reduce housing costs, including cooperative housing, legalized secondary suites, increased density and smart growth(Dell XPS M140 battery). As of April 2010, the average two-level home in Vancouver sold for a record high of $987,500, compared with the Canadian average of $365,141.[106]

Since the 1990s development of high-rise condominiums in the downtown peninsula has been financed, in part, by an inflow of capital from Hong Kong immigrants due to the former colony's 1997 handover to China. (Dell XPS 13 battery) Such development has clustered in the Yaletown and Coal Harbour districts and around many of the SkyTrain stations to the east of the downtown.[100] The city's selection to co-host the 2010 Winter Olympics has also been a major influence on economic development. Concern was expressed that Vancouver's increasing homelessness problem may be exacerbated by the Olympics because owners of single room occupancy hotels(Dell XPS 16 battery), which house many of the city's lowest income residents, converted their properties in order to attract higher income residents and tourists.[108] Another significant international event held in Vancouver, the 1986 World Exposition, received over 20 million visitors and added $3.7 billion to the Canadian economy.[109] Some still-standing Vancouver landmarks, including the SkyTrain public transit system and Canada Place, were built as part of the exposition. (Dell XPS 1640 battery)

Government

Main article: Government and politics of Vancouver

Vancouver, unlike other British Columbia municipalities, is incorporated under the Vancouver Charter.[110] The legislation, passed in 1953, supersedes the Vancouver Incorporation Act, 1921 and grants the city more and different powers than other communities possess under BC's Municipalities Act(Dell XPS 1647 battery).

The civic government has been dominated by the centre-right Non-Partisan Association (NPA) since World War ll, albeit with some significant centre-left interludes until 2008.[28] The NPA fractured over the issue of drug policy in 2002, facilitating a landslide victory for the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) on a harm reduction platform. Subsequently, North America's only legal safe injection site was opened for the significant number of intravenous heroin users in the city. (Dell Latitude 131L battery)

Vancouver is governed by the eleven-member Vancouver City Council, a nine-member School Board, and a seven-member Park Board, all elected for three-year terms through an at-large system. Historically, in all levels of government, the more affluent west side of Vancouver has voted along conservative or liberal lines while the eastern side of the city has voted along left-wing lines. (Dell Latitude C400 battery) This was reaffirmed with the results of the 2005 provincial election and the 2006 federal election.

Vancouver City Hall

Though polarized, a political consensus has emerged in Vancouver around a number of issues. Protection of urban parks, a focus on the development of rapid transit as opposed to a freeway system, a harm reduction approach to illegal drug use, and a general concern about community-based development are examples of policies that have come to have broad support across the political spectrum in Vancouver(Dell Latitude C500 battery).

In the 2008 Municipal Election campaign, NPA incumbent mayor Sam Sullivan was ousted as mayoral candidate by the party in a close vote, which instated Peter Ladner as the new mayoral candidate for the NPA. Gregor Robertson, a former MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and head of Happy Planet, was the mayoral candidate for Vision Vancouver(Dell Latitude C510 battery), the other main contender. Vision Vancouver candidate Gregor Robertson defeated Ladner by a considerable margin, nearing 20,000 votes. The balance of power was significantly shifted to Vision Vancouver, which held seven of the 10 spots for councillor. Of the remaining three, COPE received two and the NPA one. For park commissioner, four spots went to Vision Vancouver, one to the Green Party, one to COPE, and one to NPA. For school trustee, there were four Vision Vancouver seats, three COPE seats, and two NPA seats. (Dell Latitude C540 battery)

Vancouver is a member municipality of Metro Vancouver, a regional government. In total there are 22 municipalities, one electoral area and one treaty First Nation comprising Metro Vancouver,[114] the regional government whose seat is in Burnaby. While each member of Metro Vancouver has its own separate local governing body(Dell Latitude C600 battery), Metro Vancouver oversees common services and planning functions within the area such as providing drinking water; operating sewage and solid waste handling; maintaining regional parks; overseeing air quality, greenhouse gases and ecological health; and providing a strategy for regional growth and land use(Dell Latitude C610 battery).

[edit]Provincial and federal representation

In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Vancouver is represented by 11 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). As of January 2012, there are six seats held by the BC Liberal Party and five by the BC New Democratic Party.

In the House of Commons of Canada, Vancouver is represented by five Members of Parliament. In the most recent 2011 Federal Election, the NDP held on to two seats (Vancouver East and Vancouver Kingsway) (Dell Latitude C640 battery) while the Liberals retained two (Vancouver Quadra and Vancouver Centre), their only seats in BC. The Conservatives broke through by winning Vancouver South, their first win in the city since 1988.

In the 2004 federal elections, the Liberal Party of Canada won four seats and the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) one. In the 2006 federal elections, all the same Members of Parliament were re-elected. However, on February 6, 2006(Dell Latitude C800 battery), David Emerson of Vancouver Kingsway defected to the Conservative Party, giving the Conservatives one seat in Vancouver. In the 2008 federal election, the NDP took the Vancouver Kingsway seat vacated by Emerson, giving the NDP two seats to the Liberals' three.

Policing and crime

While most of the Lower Mainland is policed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's "E" Division, Vancouver operates the Vancouver Police Department(Dell Latitude C810 battery), with a strength of 1,174 sworn members and an operating budget of $149 million in 2005. Over 16% of the city's budget was spent on police protection in 2005.

The Vancouver Police Department's operational divisions include a bicycle squad, a marine squad, and a dog squad. It also has a mounted squad, used primarily to patrol Stanley Park and occasionally the Downtown Eastside and West End, as well as for crowd control(Dell Latitude C840 battery). The police work in conjunction with civilian and volunteer run Community Police Centres. In 2006, the police department established its own Counter Terrorism Unit. In 2005, a new transit police force, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service (now South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service), was established with full police powers(Dell Latitude CPX battery).

Although it is illegal, Vancouver police generally do not arrest people for possessing small amounts of marijuana.[124] In 2000 the Vancouver Police Department established a specialized drug squad, "Growbusters", to carry out an aggressive campaign against the city's estimated 4,000 hydroponic marijuana growing operations (or grow-ops) in residential areas. (Dell Latitude D410 battery) As with other law enforcement campaigns targeting marijuana this initiative has been sharply criticized.[126]

As of 2008, Vancouver had the seventh highest crime rate, dropping 3 spots since 2005, among Canada's 27 census metropolitan areas. However, as with other Canadian cities, the over-all crime rate has been falling "dramatically". Vancouver's property crime rate is particularly high, ranking among the highest for major North American cities(Dell Latitude D420 battery). But even property crime dropped 10.5% between 2004 and 2005. For 2006, Metro Vancouver had the highest rate of gun-related violent crime of any major metropolitan region in Canada, with 45.3 violent offences involving guns for every 100,000 people in Metro Vancouver, slightly higher than Toronto at 40.4 but far above the national average of 27.5. (Dell Latitude D430 battery) A series of gang-related incidents in early 2009 escalated into what police have dubbed a gang war. Vancouver plays host to special events such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, the Clinton-Yeltsin Summit, or the Symphony of Fire fireworks show that require significant policing. The 1994 Stanley Cup riot overwhelmed police and injured as many as 200 people. A second riot took place following the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals(Dell Latitude D500 battery).

Military

Jericho Beach in Vancouver is the location of the headquarters of 39 Canadian Brigade Group of the Canadian Army. Local primary reserve units include The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own), based at the Seaforth Armoury and the Beatty Street Drill Hall, respectively, and the 15th Field Regiment(Dell Latitude D505 battery), Royal Canadian Artillery. The Naval Reserve Unit HMCS Discovery is based on Deadman's Island in Stanley Park. RCAF Station Jericho Beach, the first air base in Western Canada, was taken over by the Canadian Army in 1947 when sea planes were replaced by long-range aircraft. Most of the base facilities were transferred to the City of Vancouver in 1969 and the area renamed "Jericho Park"(Dell Latitude D510 battery).

Education

The Vancouver School Board enrolls more than 110,000 students in its elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, making it the second-largest school district in the province. The district administers about 74 elementary schools, 17 elementary annexes, 18 secondary schools, 7 adult education centres, 2 Vancouver Learn Network schools(Dell Latitude D520 battery), all which include 18 French immersion, a Mandarin bilingual, a fine arts school, gifted, and Montessori.[137] More than 46 independent schools of a wide variety are also eligible for partial provincial funding and educate approximately 10% of pupils in the city.[139]

There are five public universities in the Greater Vancouver area, the largest being the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) (Dell Latitude D600 battery), with a combined enrolment of more than 80,000 undergraduates, graduates, and professional students in 2008.[140][141] UBC consistently ranks among the 40 best universities in the world, and is among the 20 best public universities,[142] and SFU ranked as the best comprehensive university in Canada by Maclean’s University Rankings in 2009(Dell Latitude D610 battery) and among the 200 best universities in the world.[144] UBC's main campus is located on the University Endowment Lands on Point Grey, the tip of Burrard Peninsula, with the city-proper adjacent to the east. SFU's main campus is in Burnaby. Both also maintain campuses in Downtown Vancouver. The other public universities are Capilano University in North Vancouver(Dell Latitude D620 battery), the Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island in Vancouver, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University with four campuses all outside the city proper. Five private institutions also operate in the region: Trinity Western University in Langley, and University Canada West, NYIT Canada, and Fairleigh Dickinson University and Columbia College all in Vancouver(Dell Latitude D630 battery).

Vancouver Community College and Langara College are publicly funded college-level institutions in Vancouver, as is Douglas College with three campuses outside the city. The British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby provides polytechnic education. These are augmented by private institutions and other colleges in the surrounding areas of Metro Vancouver that provide career, trade, and university-transfer programs(Dell Latitude D800 battery), while the Vancouver Film School provides one-year programs in film production and video game design.

International students and English as a Second Language (ESL) students have been significant in the enrolment of these public and private institutions. For the 2008–2009 school year, 53% of Vancouver School Board's students spoke a language other than English at home. (Dell Latitude D810 battery)

Arts and culture

Theatre, dance and film

The Vogue Theatre on Granville Street

Prominent theatre companies in Vancouver include the Arts Club Theatre Company on Granville Island, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, and Bard on the Beach. Smaller companies include Touchstone Theatre, Studio 58, and Carousel Theatre. Theatre Under the Stars produces shows in the summer at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park(Dell Latitude D820 battery). Annual festivals that are held in Vancouver include the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in January and the Vancouver Fringe Festival in September.

The Scotiabank Dance Centre, a converted bank building on the corner of Davie and Granville, functions as a gathering place and performance venue for Vancouver-based dancers and choreographers(Dell Latitude D830 battery).

The Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs for two weeks each September, shows over 350 films and is one of the larger film festivals in North America. The Vancouver International Film Centre venue, the Vancity Theatre, runs independent non-commercial films throughout the rest of the year, as do the Pacific Cinémathèque, the Festival Cinemas theatres, and the Hollywood and Rio theatres(Dell Latitude 2100 battery).

Libraries and museums

Libraries in Vancouver include the Vancouver Public Library with its main branch at Library Square, designed by Moshe Safdie. The central branch contains 1.5 million volumes. Altogether there are twenty-two branches containing 2.25 million volumes.

The Vancouver Art Gallery, formerly the Provincial Courthouse

The Vancouver Art Gallery has a permanent collection of nearly 10,000 items and is the home of a significant number of works by Emily Carr(Dell Latitude 2110 battery). However, little or none of the permanent collection is ever on view. Downtown is also home to the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver). The CAG showcases temporary exhibitions by up-and-coming Vancouver artists.

In the Kitsilano district are the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, and the Vancouver Museum(Dell Latitude E4300 battery), the largest civic museum in Canada. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC is a leading museum of Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations culture. A more interactive museum is Science World at the head of False Creek. The city also features a diverse collection of Public Art.

Visual art

See also: Public art in Vancouver

The Vancouver School of conceptual photography (often referred to as photoconceptualism) is a term applied to a grouping of artists from Vancouver who achieved international recognition starting in the 1980s(Dell Vostro 1310 battery). No formal "school" exists and the grouping remains both informal and often controversial even among the artists themselves, who often resist the term. Artists associated with the term include Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, Ken Lum, Roy Arden, Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham.

Music and nightlife

See also: Music of Vancouver

Musical contributions from Vancouver include performers of classical, folk and popular music. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the professional orchestra based in the city(Dell Vostro 1320 battery). The Vancouver Opera is a major opera company in the city. The city is home to a number of Canadian composers including Rodney Sharman, Jeffrey Ryan, and Alexina Louie.

The Granville Entertainment District downtown can attract large crowds to the street's many bars and nightclubs.

The city produced a number of notable punk rock bands, including the pioneering hardcore band D.O.A.. Other early Vancouver punk bands included the Subhumans, the Young Canadians, the Pointed Sticks, and UJ3RK5. (Dell Vostro 1510 battery) When alternative rock became popular in the 1990s, several Vancouver groups rose to prominence, including 54-40, Odds, Moist, the Matthew Good Band and Econoline Crush. Recent successful Vancouver bands include Gob and Stabilo. Today, Vancouver is home to a number of popular independent bands such as The New Pornographers, Destroyer, Tegan and Sara, and independent labels including Nettwerk and Mint(Dell Vostro 1520 battery). Vancouver also produced influential metal band Strapping Young Lad and pioneering electro-industrial bands Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly; the latter's Bill Leeb is better known for founding ambient pop super-group Delerium. Other popular musical artists who made their mark from Vancouver include Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Prism, Trooper, Chilliwack, Payolas, Images in Vogue, Michael Bublé, Marianas Trench (band) and Spirit of the West(Dell Vostro 2510 battery).

Larger musical performances are usually held at venues such as Rogers Arena, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, BC Place Stadium or the Pacific Coliseum, while smaller acts are held at places such as the Commodore Ballroom, the Orpheum Theatre and the Vogue Theatre. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival showcase music in their respective genres from around the world(Dell Vostro 1014 battery). Vancouver's Chinese population has produced several Cantopop stars. Similarly, various Indo-Canadian artists and actors have a profile in Bollywood or other aspects of India's entertainment industry.

Vancouver has a vibrant nightlife scene, whether it be food and dining, or bars and nightclubs. The Granville Entertainment District has the city's highest concentration of bars and nightclubs with closing times of 3am(Dell Inspiron 1410 battery), in addition to various after-hours clubs open until late morning on weekends. The street can attract large crowds on weekends and is closed to traffic on such nights. Gastown is also a popular area for nightlife with many upscale restaurants and nightclubs, as well as the Davie Village which is centre to the city's LGBT community(Dell Vostro 1014N battery).

Media

Main article: Media in Vancouver

Vancouver is a major film and television production centre. Nicknamed Hollywood North, a distinction it shares with Toronto, the city has been used as a film making location for nearly a century, beginning with the Edison Manufacturing Company.[158] In 2008 more than 260 productions were filmed in Vancouver, making it the third-largest film centre in North America(Dell Vostro 1015 battery) - after Los Angeles and New York City - and second only to Los Angeles in television production in the world.[non-primary source needed] In 2011 Vancouver slipped to fourth place overall at 1.19 billion, although the region still leads Canada in foreign production.

A wide mix of local, national, and international newspapers are distributed in the city. The two major English-language daily newspapers are The Vancouver Sun and The Province(Dell Inspiron 1088 battery). Also, two national newspapers distributed in the city are The Globe and Mail, which began publication of a "national edition" in B.C. in 1983 and recently expanded to include a three-page B.C. news section, and the National Post which centres around national news. Other local newspapers include 24H (a local free daily), the Vancouver franchise of the national free daily Metro(Dell Vostro A840 battery), the twice-a-week Vancouver Courier, and the independent newspaper The Georgia Straight. Three Chinese language daily newspapers, Ming Pao, Sing Tao and World Journal cater to the city's large Cantonese and Mandarin speaking population. A number of other local and international papers serve other multicultural groups in the Lower Mainland(Dell Vostro A860 battery).

Some of the local television stations include CBC, Citytv, CTV and Global BC. OMNI British Columbia produce daily newscasts in Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi and Korean, and weekly newscasts in Tagalog, as well as programs aimed at other cultural groups. Fairchild Group also has two television stations: Fairchild TV and Talentvision, serving Cantonese and Mandarin speaking audiences respectively(Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 battery).

Radio stations with news departments include CBC Radio One, CKNW and News 1130. The Franco-Columbian community is served by Radio-Canada outlets CBUFT channel 26 (Télévision de Radio-Canada), CBUF-FM 97.7 (Première Chaîne) and CBUX-FM 90.9 (Espace musique).

Media dominance is a frequently discussed issue in Vancouver as newspapers, The Vancouver Sun, The Province(SONY PCG-5G2L battery), the Vancouver Courier and other local newspapers such as the Surrey Now, the Burnaby Now and the Richmond News, are all owned by Postmedia Network. The concentration of single owned corporate media has spurred alternatives, making Vancouver a centre for independent online media including The Tyee and NowPublic., as well as hyperlocal online media, like Vancouver Is Awesome, which provide coverage of community events and local arts and culture(SONY PCG-5G3L battery).

Transportation

SkyTrain rapid transit system map

SkyTrain rapid transit system signage

Main article: Transportation in Vancouver

See also: List of roads in Vancouver

Vancouver's streetcar system began on June 28, 1890, and ran from the (first) Granville Street Bridge to Westminster Avenue (now Main Street and Kingsway). Less than a year later, the Westminster and Vancouver Tramway Company began operating Canada's first interurban line between the two cities and beyond to Chilliwack, with another line(SONY PCG-5J1L battery), the Lulu Island Railroad, from the Granville Street Bridge to Steveston via Kerrisdale, which encouraged residential neighbourhoods outside the central core to develop. The British Columbia Electric Railway became the company that operated the urban and interurban rail system, until 1958 when its last vestiges were dismantled in favour of "trackless" trolley and gasoline/diesel buses. (SONY PCG-5J2L battery) Vancouver currently has the second-largest trolleybus fleet in North America, after San Francisco.

Vancouver's SkyTrain in the Grandview Cut, with downtown Vancouver in the background. The white dome-like structure is the old roof of BC Place Stadium

Successive city councils in the 1970s and 1980s prohibited the construction of freeways as part of a long term plan. (SONY PCG-5K2L battery)As a result, the only major freeway within city limits is Highway 1, which passes through the north-eastern corner of the city. While the number of cars in Vancouver proper has been steadily rising with population growth, the rate of car ownership and the average distance driven by daily commuters have fallen since the early 1990s. Vancouver is the only major Canadian city with these trends(SONY PCG-5L1L battery). Despite the fact that the journey time per vehicle has increased by one-third and growing traffic mass, there are 7% fewer cars making trips into the downtown core. Residents have been more inclined to live in areas closer to their interests, or use more energy-efficient means of travel, such as mass transit and cycling(SONY PCG-6S2L battery). This is, in part, the result of a push by city planners for a solution to traffic problems and pro-environment campaigns. Transportation demand management policies have imposed restrictions on drivers making it more difficult and expensive to commute while introducing more benefits for non-drivers.

TransLink is responsible for roads and public transportation within Metro Vancouver(SONY PCG-6S3L battery). It provides a bus service, including the B-Line rapid bus service, a foot passenger and bicycle ferry service (known as SeaBus), an automated rapid transit service called SkyTrain, and West Coast Express commuter rail. Vancouver's SkyTrain system is currently running on three lines, the Millennium Line, the Expo Line and the Canada Line(SONY PCG-6V1L battery).

Changes are being made to the regional transportation network as part of Translink's 10-Year Transportation Plan. The recently completed Canada Line, opened on August 17, 2009, connects Vancouver International Airport and the neighbouring city of Richmond with the existing SkyTrain system. The Evergreen Line is planned to link the cities of Coquitlam and Port Moody(SONY PCG-6W1L battery) with the SkyTrain system by summer 2016.[171] There are also plans to extend the SkyTrain Millennium Line west to UBC as a subway under Broadway and capacity upgrades and an extension to the Expo Line. Several road projects will be completed within the next few years, including a replacement for the Port Mann Bridge, as part of the Provincial Government's Gateway Program. (SONY PCG-7111L battery)

Other modes of transport add to the diversity of options available in Vancouver. Inter-city passenger rail service is operated from Pacific Central Station by Via Rail to points east; Amtrak Cascades to Seattle; and Rocky Mountaineer rail tour routes. Small passenger ferries operating in False Creek provide commuter service to Granville Island, Downtown Vancouver and Kitsilano(SONY PCG-71511M battery). Vancouver has a city-wide network of bicycle lanes and routes, which supports an active population of cyclists year-round. Cycling has become Vancouver's fastest growing mode of transportation.

Vancouver is served by Vancouver International Airport (YVR), located on Sea Island in the City of Richmond, immediately south of Vancouver. Vancouver's airport is Canada's second-busiest airport(SONY PCG-6W3L battery), and the second-largest gateway on the west coast of North America for international passengers. HeliJet and float plane companies operate scheduled air service from Vancouver harbour and YVR south terminal. The city is also served by two BC Ferry terminals. One is to the northwest at Horseshoe Bay (in West Vancouver), and the other is to the south, at Tsawwassen (in Delta) (SONY PCG-7113L battery).

Sports and recreation

Main article: Sports in Vancouver

BC Place, home of the BC Lions and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and also the site of the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Renovations completed in 2011 included a new retractable roof.

The mild climate of the city and close proximity to ocean, mountains, rivers and lakes make the area a popular destination for outdoor recreation. Vancouver has over 1,298 hectares (SONY PCG-7133L battery) (3,210 acres) of parks, of which, Stanley Park, at 404 hectares (1,000 acres), is the largest.[176] The city has several large beaches, many adjacent to one another, extending from the shoreline of Stanley Park around False Creek to the south side of English Bay, from Kitsilano to the University Endowment Lands, (which also has beaches that are not part of the city proper) (SONY PCG-7Z1L battery). The 18 kilometres (11 mi) of beaches include Second and Third Beaches in Stanley Park, English Bay (First Beach), Sunset, Kitsilano Beach, Jericho, Locarno, Spanish Banks, Spanish Banks Extension, Spanish Banks West, and Wreck Beach. There is also a freshwater beach at Trout Lake. The coastline provides for many types of water sport, and the city is a popular destination for boating enthusiasts(SONY PCG-7Z2L battery) .

Within a 20-to-30-minute drive from downtown Vancouver are the North Shore Mountains, with three ski areas: Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour. Mountain bikers have created world-renowned trails across the North Shore. The Capilano River, Lynn Creek and Seymour River, also on the North Shore(SONY PCG-8Y1L battery), provide opportunities to whitewater enthusiasts during periods of rain and spring melt, though the canyons of those rivers are more utilized for hiking and swimming than whitewater.

Running races include the Vancouver Sun Run (a 10 km (6.2 mi) race) every April; the Vancouver Marathon, held every May; and the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon held every June. The Grouse Grind is a 2.9-kilometre (1.8 mi) climb up Grouse Mountain open throughout the summer and fall months, including the annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run(SONY PCG-8Y2L battery). Hiking trails include the Baden-Powell Trail, an arduous 42-kilometre (26 mi) long hike from West Vancouver's Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove in the District of North Vancouver.

Vancouver is also home to notable cycling races. Most summers since 1973, the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix has been held on the cobblestone streets of Gastown. This race and the UBC Grand Prix are part of BC Superweek, an annual series of professional cycling races in Metro Vancouver(SONY PCG-8Z2L battery).

In 2009, Metro Vancouver hosted the World Police and Fire Games. Swangard Stadium, in the neighbouring city of Burnaby, hosted games for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver, along with Whistler and Richmond, was the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympic and the Paralympic Games(SONY PCG-8Z1L battery). On June 12, 2010, it played host to Ultimate Fighting Championship 115 (UFC 115) which was the fourth UFC event to be held in Canada (the other 3 were held in Montreal).

In 2011, Vancouver hosted the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship game which is awarded every year to a different city which has a CFL team. The BC Titans of the International Basketball League played their inaugural season in 2009(SONY PCG-7112L battery), with home games at the Langley Event Centre. Vancouver is a centre for the fast-growing sport of Ultimate. During the summer of 2008 Vancouver hosted the World Ultimate Championships.

Vancouver has an adult obesity rate of 12% compared to the Canadian average of 23%. 51.8% of Vancouverites are overweight, making it the fourth thinnest city in Canada after Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax(SONY PCG-6W2L battery).

Sister cities

The City of Vancouver was one of the first cities in Canada to enter into an international sister cities arrangement. Special arrangements for cultural, social and economic benefits have been created with these sister cities.

Calgary is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city is located in the grassland and parkland natural regions of Alberta(SONY PCG-5K1L battery).

As of the 2011 census, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,096,833 and a metropolitan population of 1,214,839, making it the largest city in Alberta, and the third-largest municipality and fifth-largest metropolitan area in Canada.

Located 294 km (183 mi) south of Edmonton, Statistics Canada defines the area between these cities as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. (SONY VGP-BPS8 battery)"

Economic activity in Calgary is mostly centred on the petroleum industry and agriculture. In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Winter Games.

History

Main article: Timeline of Calgary history

First settlement

Before the Calgary area was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by pre-Clovis people whose presence has been traced back at least 11,000 years.[6] In 1787, cartographer David Thompson spent the winter with a band of Peigan encamped along the Bow River(SONY VGP-BPS8A battery). He was the first recorded European to visit the area, and John Glenn was the first documented European settler in the Calgary area, in 1873.

Calgary as it appeared circa 1885

The site became a post of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP). The NWMP detachment was assigned in 1875 to protect the western plains from U.S. whisky traders, and protect the fur trade(SONY VGP-BPL8 battery). Originally named Fort Brisebois, after NWMP officer Éphrem-A. Brisebois, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. It was named after Calgary on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. While there is some disagreement on the naming of the town, the museum on the Isle of Mull explains that kald and gart are similar Old Norse words, meaning "cold" and "garden"(SONY VGP-BPS9 battery), that were likely used when named by the Vikings who inhabited the Inner Hebrides.[8] Alternatively, the name might come from the Gaelic, Cala ghearraidh, meaning 'beach of the meadow (pasture)'.

The Calgary Fire of 1886 occurred on November 7, 1886. Fourteen buildings were destroyed with losses estimated at $103,200. Although no one was killed or injured,[9] city officials drafted a law requiring all large downtown buildings to be built with Paskapoo sandstone, to prevent this from happening again. (SONY VGP-BPS9/S battery)

When the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the area in 1883, and a rail station was constructed, Calgary began to grow into an important commercial and agricultural centre. The Canadian Pacific Railway headquarters moved to Calgary in the 1990s. Calgary was officially incorporated as a town in 1884, and elected its first mayor, George Murdoch(SONY VGP-BPS9A battery). In 1894, it was incorporated as "The City of Calgary" in what was then the North-West Territories. After the arrival of the railway, the Dominion Government started leasing grazing land at minimal cost (up to 100,000 acres (400 km2) for one cent per acre per year). As a result of this policy, large ranching operations were established in the outlying country near Calgary. Already a transportation and distribution hub(SONY VGP-BPS9A/B battery), Calgary quickly became the centre of Canada's cattle marketing and meatpacking industries.

Between 1896 and 1914 settlers from all over the world poured into the area in response to the offer of free "homestead" land. Agriculture and ranching became key components of the local economy, shaping the future of Calgary for years to come. The world famous Calgary Stampede, still held annually in July, grew from a small agricultural show and rodeo started in 1912 by four wealthy ranchers to "the greatest outdoor show on earth"(SONY VGP-BPS9/B battery).

The oil boom

Oil was first discovered in Alberta in 1902, but it did not become a significant industry in the province until 1947 when huge reserves of it were discovered. Calgary quickly found itself at the centre of the ensuing oil boom. The city's economy grew when oil prices increased with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973(SONY VGP-BPS9A/S battery). The population increased by 272,000 in the eighteen years between 1971 (403,000) and 1989 (675,000) and another 345,000 in the next eighteen years (to 1,020,000 in 2007). During these boom years, skyscrapers were constructed and the relatively low-rise downtown quickly became dense with tall buildings, a trend that continues to this day(SONY VGP-BPL9 battery).

Calgary's economy was so closely tied to the oil industry that the city's boom peaked with the average annual price of oil in 1981. The subsequent drop in oil prices were cited by industry as reasons for a collapse in the oil industry and consequently the overall Calgary economy. Low oil prices prevented a full recovery until the 1990s(SONY VGP-BPS10 battery).

Recent history

With the energy sector employing a huge number of Calgarians, the fallout from the economic slump of the early 1980s was understandably significant, and the unemployment rate soared.[15] By the end of the decade, however, the economy was in recovery. Calgary quickly realized that it could not afford to put so much emphasis on oil and gas(SONY VGP-BPL10 battery), and the city has since become much more diverse, both economically and culturally. The period during this recession marked Calgary's transition from a mid-sized and relatively nondescript prairie city into a major cosmopolitan and diverse centre. This transition culminated in February 1988, when the city hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. The success of these games essentially put the city on the world stage(SONY VGP-BPS11 battery).

Thanks in part to escalating oil prices, the economy in Calgary and Alberta was booming until the end of 2008, and the region of nearly 1.1 million people was home to the fastest growing economy in the country. While the oil and gas industry comprise an important part of the economy, the city has invested a great deal into other areas such as tourism and high-tech manufacturing(SONY VGP-BPL11 battery). Over 3.1 million people now visit the city annually[19] for its many festivals and attractions, especially the Calgary Stampede. The nearby mountain resort towns of Banff, Lake Louise, and Canmore are also becoming increasingly popular with tourists, and are bringing people into Calgary as a result. Other modern industries include light manufacturing, high-tech, film, e-commerce(SONY VGP-BPL12 battery), transportation, and services. Calgary is considered a beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) study group.[20] The city has ranked highly[21] in quality of life surveys: 25th in 2006, 24th in 2007, 25th in 2008, 26th in 2009, 28th in 2010, and 33rd in the 2011 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, and tied for 5th best city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Calgary ranked as the world's cleanest city by Forbes Magazine in 2007(SONY VGP-BPS12 battery). Mercer also ranked the city as the world's first-placed eco-city for 2010.

Geography

Map of Calgary: Purple indicates industrial zones

Calgary is located at the transition zone between the Canadian Rockies foothills and the Canadian Prairies. The city lies within the foothills parkland natural subregion of the parkland natural region and the foothills fescue subregion of the grasslands natural region. Calgary's elevation is approximately 1,048 m (3,438 ft) above sea level downtown, and 1,084 m (3,557 ft) at the airport(SONY VGP-BPS13 battery). The city proper covers a land area of 726.5 km2 (280.5 sq mi) (as of 2006) and as such exceeds the land area of the City of Toronto.

There are two major rivers that run through the city. The Bow River is the largest and flows from the west to the south. The Elbow River flows northwards from the south until it converges with the Bow River near downtown. Since the climate of the region is generally dry(SONY VGP-BPS13Q battery), dense vegetation occurs naturally only in the river valleys, on some north-facing slopes, and within Fish Creek Provincial Park.

The city is large in physical area, consisting of an inner city surrounded by communities of various 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 City of Airdrie to the north(SONY VGP-BPS13A/Q battery), Cochrane to the northwest, Strathmore to the east, and the Springbank and Bearspaw acreages to the west. Though it is not technically within Calgary's metropolitan area, the Town of Okotoks is only a short distance to the south and is considered a suburb as well. The Calgary Economic Region includes slightly more area than the CMA and has a population of 1,251,600[29] in 2008(SONY VGP-BPS13B/Q battery).

The city has undertaken numerous land annexation procedures over the years to keep up with growth; the most recent was completed in July 2007 and saw the city annex the neighbouring hamlet of Shepard, and place its boundaries adjacent to the hamlet of Balzac and within very short distances of the City of Airdrie and Town of Chestermere. Despite this proximity(SONY VGP-BPS13/B battery), there are presently no plans for Calgary to annex either Airdrie or Chestermere, and in fact Chestermere's administration has a growth plan in the works that calls for it annexing the intervening land between the town and Calgary. The City of Calgary is immediately surrounded by two municipal districts, Rocky View County to the north, west and east; and Foothills No. 31 to the south(SONY VGP-BPS13B/B battery).

Climate

Northern lights over the City of Calgary

Calgary experiences a dry humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 3a). with long, cold, dry, but highly variable winters and short, moderately warm summers. The climate is greatly influenced by the city's elevation and proximity to the Rocky Mountains. Calgary's winters can be uncomfortably cold; but warm(SONY VGP-BPS13A/S battery), dry Chinook winds routinely blow into the city from over the mountains during the winter months, giving Calgarians a break from the cold. These winds have been known to raise the winter temperature by up to 15 °C (27 °F) in just a few hours, and may last several days. The chinooks are such a common feature of Calgary's winters that only one month (January 1950) (SONY VGP-BPS21A/B battery) has failed to witness a thaw over more than 100 years of weather observations.[citation needed] More than one half of all winter days see the daily maximum rise above 0 °C (32 °F).

Calgary is a city of extremes, and temperatures have ranged anywhere from a record low of −45 °C (−49.0 °F) in 1893 to a record high of 36.1 °C (97.0 °F) in 1919. Temperatures fall below −30 °C (−22 °F) on about five days per year,[35] though extreme cold spells usually do not last very long(SONY VGP-BPS21B battery). According to Environment Canada, the average temperature in Calgary ranges from a January daily average of −8.9 °C (16.0 °F) to a July daily average of 16.2 °C (61.2 °F).

A chinook over Calgary.

As a consequence of Calgary's high elevation and aridity, summer evenings can be very cool. The average summer minimum temperature drops to 8 °C (46 °F). Calgary may experience summer daytime temperatures exceeding 29 °C (84 °F) anytime in June(SONY VGP-BPS21 battery), July and August, and occasionally as late as September or as early as May. With an average relative humidity of 55% in the winter and 45% in the summer (15:00 MST), Calgary has a dry climate similar to other cities in the western Great Plains and Canadian Prairies. Unlike cities further east such as Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa or even Winnipeg, humidity is rarely a factor during the Calgary summer(SONY VGP-BPS21/S battery).

The city is among the sunniest in Canada, with 2,405 hours of annual sunshine, on average. Calgary International Airport in the northeastern section of the city receives an average of 412.6 mm (16.24 in) of precipitation annually, with 320.6 mm (12.62 in) of that occurring in the form of rain, and 126.7 cm (49.9 in) as snow. Most of the precipitation occurs from May to August(SONY VGP-BPS13AS battery), with June averaging the most monthly rainfall. In June 2005, Calgary received 248 mm (9.8 in) of precipitation, making it the wettest month in the city's recorded history. Droughts are not uncommon and may occur at any time of the year, lasting sometimes for months or even several years. Precipitation decreases somewhat from west to east; consequently(SONY VGP-BPS13S battery), groves of trees on the western outskirts largely give way to treeless grassland around the eastern city limit.

Located in southern Alberta, Calgary can endure several very cold spells in most winters (although they are punctuated by warm spells). Snow depths of greater than 1 cm (0.39 in) are seen on about 88 days each year in Calgary, compared with about 74 days in Toronto. However, snowfall (and temperatures) (SONY VGP-BPS13B/S battery) can vary considerably throughout the Calgary region – mostly due to the elevation changes, and proximity to the mountains. The town of High River (37 km (23 mi) south of Calgary) receives on average 42 cm (17 in) more snow a year than at the Calgary Airport in north-east Calgary. Temperatures tend to be slightly warmer in the southern areas of Calgary as well(SONY VGP-BPS13B/G battery).

Calgary averages more than 22 days a year with thunderstorms, with most all of them occurring in the summer months. Calgary lies on the edge of Alberta's hailstorm alley and is prone to damaging hailstorms every few years. A hailstorm that struck Calgary on September 7, 1991, was one of the most destructive natural disasters in Canadian history(SONY VGP-BPS14 battery), with over $400 million dollars in damage.[38] Being west of the dry line on most occasions, tornadoes are rare in the region.

Climate data for Calgary International Airport

Flora and fauna

Numerous plant and animal species are found within and around Calgary. The Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca) comes near the northern limit of its range at Calgary.[39] Another conifer of widespread distribution found in the Calgary area is the White Spruce (Picea glauca) (SONY VGP-BPL14 battery).

Neighbourhoods

Main article: List of neighbourhoods in Calgary

New Brighton

The downtown region of the city consists of five neighbourhoods: Eau Claire (including the Festival District), the Downtown West End, the Downtown Commercial Core, Chinatown, and the Downtown East Village (also part of the Rivers District). The commercial core is itself divided into a number of districts including the Stephen Avenue Retail Core(SONY VGP-BPS14/B battery), the Entertainment District, the Arts District and the Government District. Distinct from downtown and south of 9th Avenue is Calgary's densest neighbourhood, the Beltline. The area includes a number of communities such as Connaught, Victoria Crossing and a portion of the Rivers District. The Beltline is the focus of major planning and rejuvenation initiatives on the part of the municipal government(SONY VGP-BPS14/S battery) to increase the density and liveliness of Calgary's centre.[citation needed]

Adjacent to, or directly radiating from the downtown are the first of the inner-city communities. These include Crescent Heights, Hounsfield Heights/Briar Hill, Hillhurst/Sunnyside (including Kensington BRZ), Bridgeland, Renfrew, Mount Royal, Mission, Ramsay and Inglewood and Albert Park/Radisson Heights directly to the east. (SONY VGP-BPS14B battery) The inner city is, in turn, surrounded by relatively dense and established neighbourhoods such as Rosedale and Mount Pleasant to the north; Bowness, Parkdale and Glendale to the west; Park Hill, South Calgary (including Marda Loop), Bankview, Altadore, and Killarney to the south; and Forest Lawn/International Avenue to the east. Lying beyond these(SONY VGP-BPS22 battery), and usually separated from one another by highways, are suburban communities including Somerset, Country Hills, Sundance, and McKenzie Towne. In all, there are over 180 distinct neighbourhoods within the city limits.[41]

Several of Calgary's neighbourhoods were initially separate municipalities that were annexed by the city as it grew. These include Bowness, Montgomery, and Forest Lawn(SONY VGP-BPS22 battery).

Demographics

Population history

Main article: Demographics of Calgary

Calgary Stampede grounds

The City of Calgary's 2012 municipal census counted a population of 1,120,225, a 2.7% increase over its 2011 municipal census population of 1,090,936.

In the 2011 Census, the City of Calgary had a population of 1,096,833 living in 423,417 of its 445,848 total dwellings, a 10.9% change from its 2006 adjusted population of 988,812. With a land area of 825.29 km2 (318.65 sq mi) (SONY VGP-BPS18 battery), it had a population density of 1,329.027/km2 (3,442.165/sq mi) in 2011.

According the 2006 Statistics Canada federal census, there were 988,193 people living within the city proper.[28] Of this population, 49.9% were male and 50.1% were female.[28] Children under five accounted for approximately 6.1% of the resident population. This compares with 6.2% in Alberta, and 5.3% for Canada overall(SONY VGP-BPS22/A battery).

In 2006, the average age in the city was 35.7 years of age compared with 36.0 for Alberta and 39.5 years of age for all of Canada.

In 2001, the population was 878,866, while in 1996 Calgary had 768,082 inhabitants.

Between 2001 and 2006, Calgary's population grew by 12.4%. During the same time period, the population of Alberta increased by 10.6%, while that of Canada grew by 5.4%. The population density of the city averaged 1,360.2 /km2 (3,523 /sq mi) (SONY VGP-BPS22A battery), compared with an average of 5.1 /km2 (13 /sq mi) for the province.

A city-administered census, conducted annually to assist in negotiating financial agreements with the provincial and federal governments, showed a population of just over 991,000 in 2006. The population of the Calgary Census Metropolitan Area was just over 1.1 million, and the Calgary Economic Region posted a population of just under 1.17 million in 2006(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/W battery). On July 25, 2006, the municipal government officially acknowledged the birth of the city's one millionth resident, with the census indicating that the population was increasing by approximately 98 people per day at that time.[68] This date was arrived at only by means of assumption and statistical approximation and only took into account children born to Calgarian parents(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/R battery). A net migration of 25,794 persons/year was recorded in 2006, a significant increase from 12,117 in 2005.

Christians make up 67% of the population, while 25% have no religious affiliation. There are also Muslims (2.7%), Buddhists (1.8%), and Sikhs (1.4%).

In 2006, Calgary's largest visible minority groups were Chinese (6.7%), South Asian (5.7%), Filipino (2.5%), and Black (2.1%), while 2.5% of the city's population identified themselves as Aboriginal(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/P battery).

Economy

Calgary is recognized as a Canadian leader in the oil and gas industry as well as for being a leader in economic expansion. Its high personal income, low unemployment and high GDP per capitahave all benefited from increased sales and prices due to a resource boom, and increasing economic diversification. Because of these strengths, Calgary is designated as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E/L battery). Also, Calgary was one of the top 200 cities worldwide, by the Brookings Institution, that had a top performing local economy for 2011. The city was ranked first nationally, and 51st in the world, in that aspect.

Calgary benefits from a relatively stronger job market in Alberta, is part of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor, one of the fastest growing regions in the country(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120E battery). It is the head office for many major oil and gas related companies, and many financial service business have grown up around them. Small business and self-employment levels also rank amongst the highest in Canada. It is also a major distribution and transportation hub with high retail sales(SONY Vaio VGN-CR120 battery).

Calgary's economy is decreasingly dominated by the oil and gas industry, although it is still the single largest contributor to the city's GDP. In 2006, Calgary's real GDP (in constant 1997 dollars) was C$52.386 billion, of which oil, gas and mining contributed 12%). The larger oil and gas companies are BP Canada, Canadian Natural Resources Limited(SONY Vaio VGN-CR11H/B battery), Cenovus Energy, Encana, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy, Shell Canada, TransCanada, and Nexen, making the city home to 87% of Canada's oil and natural gas producers and 66% of coal producers.

As of 2010, the city had a labour force of 618,000 (a 74.6% participation rate) and 7.0% unemployment rate. In 2006, the unemployment rate was amongst the lowest of the major cities in Canada at 3.2%,(SONY Vaio VGN-CR116E battery) causing a shortage of both skilled and unskilled workers.

In 2010 the "Professional, Technical and Management" Industry accounted for over 14% of employment and the areas of "Architectural, Engineering and Design Services" and "Management, Scientific and Technical Services" employment levels far exceed Canadian levels. Though Trade employs 14.7% of the work force(SONY Vaio VGN-CR116 battery), its percentage of total employment is not higher than the Canadian average. Levels of employment in Construction are both fairly high, exceed Canadian averages, and have grown 16% between 2006 and 2010. Health and Welfare services, which account for 10% of employment, have grown 20% in that period(SONY Vaio VGN-CR115E battery).

Calgary Economic Development "Top Calgary Employers" (2006) lists top employers as such:[83] large industrial employers include Nova Chemicals leading this category with 4,900 employees while others with more than 2,000 employees include Nexen, Canadian Pacific Railway, CNRL, Shell Canada and Dow Chemical Canada(SONY Vaio VGN-CR115 battery). Other private sector employers include Shaw Communications (7,500 employees), along with Telus, Mark's Work Wearhouse, and Calgary Co-op. In the public sector, the largest employer is the Calgary Zone of the Alberta Health Services (22,000). The City of Calgary (15,000), the Calgary Board of Education and the University of Calgary are also large employers(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11S battery).

Calgary is increasingly becoming home to Canadian corporate head offices. It has the second highest concentration of head offices in Canada, behind only Toronto, and has the highest head office employment per capita in the country. Some large employers with Calgary head offices include Canada Safeway Limited, Westfair Foods Ltd. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ15T battery), Suncor Energy, Agrium, Flint Energy Services Ltd., Shaw Communication, and Canadian Pacific Railway.[84] CPR moved its head office from Montreal in 1996 and Imperial Oil moved from Toronto in 2005. EnCana's new 58-floor corporate headquarters, the Bow, will become the tallest building in Canada outside of Toronto(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ15G battery).

WestJet is headquartered close to the Calgary International Airport, and Enerjet has its headquarters on the airport grounds.[89] Prior to their dissolution, Canadian Airlines [90] and Air Canada's subsidiary Zip were also headquartered near the city's airport. Although the main office is now based in Yellowknife, Canadian North, purchased from Canadian Airlines in September 1998, still maintain the operations and charter offices in Calgary(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ4000 battery).

Arts and culture

Olympic Plaza in the Arts District

Calgary has a number of multicultural areas. Forest Lawn is among the most diverse areas in the city and as such, the area around 17 Avenue SE within the neighbourhood is also known as International Avenue. The district is home to many ethnic restaurants and stores.

While many Calgarians continue to live in the city's suburbs, more central districts such as 17 Avenue, Kensington, Inglewood, Forest Lawn(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ460E battery), Marda Loop and the Mission District have become more popular and density in those areas has increased. The nightlife and the availability of cultural venues in these areas has gradually begun to evolve as a result.

The Calgary Public Library is the city's public library network, with seventeen branches loaning books, e-books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, audio books, and more(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ440N battery). Based on borrowing, the library is the second largest in Canada, and sixth-largest municipal library system in North America. Nonetheless, it ranks twenty-fourth in Canadian per capita municipal funding, according to the Urban Libraries Council.[citation needed]

Calgary is the site of the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium performing arts, culture and community facility(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ440E battery). The auditorium is one of two "twin" facilities in the province, the other located in Edmonton, each being locally known as the "Jube." The 2,538-seat auditorium was opened in 1957[94] and has been host to hundreds of Broadway musical, theatrical, stage and local productions. The Calgary Jube is the resident home of the Alberta Ballet Company, the Calgary Opera(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ430E battery), the Kiwanis Music Festival, and the annual civic Remembrance Day ceremonies. Both auditoriums operate 365 days a year, and are run by the provincial government. Both received major renovations as part of the province's centennial in 2005.

Suncor Energy Centre

The city is also home to a number of theatre companies; among them are One Yellow Rabbit, which shares the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects and Theatre Junction Grand(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ280E battery), culture house dedicated for the contemporary live arts. Calgary was also the birthplace of the improvisational theatre games known as Theatresports. The Calgary International Film Festival is also held in the city annually, as well as the International Festival of Animated Objects.

Visual and conceptual artists like the art collective United Congress are active in the city. There are a number of art galleries in the downtown, many of them concentrated along the Stephen Avenue and 17 Avenue corridors. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ190 battery) The largest of these is the Art Gallery of Calgary (AGC). Calgary is also home to the Alberta College of Art and Design.

A number of marching bands are based in Calgary. They include the Calgary Round-Up Band, the Calgary Stetson Show Band, the Bishop Grandin Marching Ghosts, and the two-time World Association for Marching Show Bands champions, the Calgary Stampede Showband, as well as military bands including the Band of HMCS Tecumseh(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ150E battery), the Regimental Band of the King's Own Calgary Regiment, and the Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders. There are many other civilian pipe bands in the city, notably the Calgary Police Service Pipe Band.[96]

Calgary hosts a number of annual festivals and events. These include the Calgary International Film Festival, the Calgary Folk Music Festival(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ160 battery), FunnyFest Calgary Comedy Festival, the Folk Music Festival, the Greek Festival, Carifest, Wordfest: Banff Calgary International Writers Festival, the Lilac Festival, GlobalFest, the Calgary Fringe Festival, Summerstock, Expo Latino, Calgary Gay Pride, Calgary International Spoken Word Festival,[97] and many other cultural and ethnic festivals. Calgary's best-known event is the Calgary Stampede(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ260E battery), which has occurred each July since 1912. It is one of the largest festivals in Canada, with a 2005 attendance of 1,242,928 at the 10-day rodeo and exhibition.

Several museums are located in the city. The Glenbow Museum is the largest in western Canada and includes an art gallery and First Nations gallery.[99] Other major museums include the Chinese Cultural Centre (at 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2), (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E battery) the largest stand-alone cultural centre in Canada),[100] the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum (at Canada Olympic Park), The Military Museums, the Cantos Music Museum and the Aero Space Museum.

Numerous films have been shot in the general area. The television film Crossfire Trail (2001), starring Tom Selleck, was shot on a ranch near Calgary though the stated setting of the film is Wyoming(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L battery).

The Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun are the main newspapers in Calgary. Global, Citytv, CTV and CBC television networks have local studios in the city.

Attractions

Main article: List of attractions and landmarks in Calgary

Downtown Calgary seen from Prince's Island

Stephen Avenue

Calgary Tower, August 2007

Downtown features an eclectic mix of restaurants and bars, cultural venues, public squares (including Olympic Plaza) and shopping. Notable shopping areas include such as The Core Shopping Centre (formerly Calgary Eaton Centre/TD Square) (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z battery), Stephen Avenue and Eau Claire Market. Downtown tourist attractions include the Calgary Zoo, the Telus World of Science, the Telus Convention Centre, the Chinatown district, the Glenbow Museum, the Calgary Tower, the Art Gallery of Calgary (AGC), Military Museum and the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. At 2.5 acres (10,000 m2), the Devonian Gardens is one of the largest urban indoor gardens in the world, (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M battery) and it is located on the 4th floor of The Core Shopping Centre (above the shopping). The downtown region is also home to Prince's Island Park, an urban park located just north of the Eau Claire district. Directly to the south of downtown is Midtown and the Beltline. This area is quickly becoming one of the city's densest and most active mixed use areas. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18M battery) At the district's core is the popular "17 Avenue", which is known for its many bars and nightclubs, restaurants, and shopping venues. During the Calgary Flames' playoff run in 2004, 17 Avenue was frequented by over 50,000 fans and supporters per game night. The concentration of red jersey-wearing fans led to the street's playoff moniker, the "Red Mile(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18 battery)." Downtown is easily accessed using the city's C-Train light rail (LRT) transit system.

Attractions on the west side of the city include the Heritage Park Historical Village historical park, depicting life in pre-1914 Alberta and featuring working historic vehicles such as a steam train, paddle steamer and electric streetcar. The village itself comprises a mixture of replica buildings and historic structures relocated from southern Alberta(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ210CE battery). Other major city attractions include Canada Olympic Park, which features Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and Spruce Meadows. In addition to the many shopping areas in the city centre, there are a number of large suburban shopping complexes in the city. Among the largest are Chinook Centre and Southcentre Mall in the south, Westhills and Signal Hill in the southwest(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31S battery), South Trail Crossing and Deerfoot Meadows in the southeast, Market Mall in the northwest, Sunridge Mall in the northeast, and the newly built CrossIron Mills just north of the Calgary city limits, and south of the City of Airdrie.

Downtown can be recognized by its numerous skyscrapers. Some of these structures, such as the Calgary Tower and the Scotiabank Saddledome are unique enough to be symbols of Calgary. Office buildings tend to concentrate within the commercial core(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31Z battery), while residential towers occur most frequently within the Downtown West End and the Beltline, south of downtown. These buildings are iconographic of the city's booms and busts, and it is easy to recognize the various phases of development that have shaped the image of downtown. The first skyscraper building boom occurred during the late 1950s and continued through to the 1970s. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E battery) After 1980, during the recession, many high-rise construction projects were immediately halted.[citation needed] It was not until the late 1980s and through to the early 1990s that major construction began again, initiated by the 1988 Winter Olympics and stimulated by the growing economy.

In total, there are 10 office towers that are at least 150 m (490 ft) (usually around 40 floors) or higher. The tallest of these is The Bow(Encana headquarters) (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J battery), which is the tallest office tower in Canada outside Toronto. Calgary's Bankers Hall Towers are also the tallest twin towers in Canada. Several larger office towers are planned for downtown: Jamieson Place, Eighth Avenue Place (two towers), Centennial Place (two towers), City Centre (two towers), and the highly anticipated (although only rumoured) Imperial Oil and First Canadian Centre II towers(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M battery).

As of 2008, there were 264 completed high-rise buildings, with 42 more under construction, another 13 approved for construction and 63 more proposed.[citation needed]

To connect many of the downtown office buildings, the city also boasts the world's most extensive skyway network (elevated indoor pedestrian bridges), officially called the +15. The name derives from the fact that the bridges are usually 15 ft (4.6 m) above grade(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31B battery).

In nearby Airdrie at the Calgary/Airdrie Airport the Airdrie Regional Airshow is held every two years. In 2011 the airshow featured the Canadian Snowbirds, a CF-18 demo and a United States Air Force F-16.

In large part due to its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, Calgary has traditionally been a popular destination for winter sports. Since hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics, the city has also been home to a number of major winter sporting facilities such as Canada Olympic Park(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ32 battery) (luge, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, downhill skiing, snowboarding, and some summer sports) and the Olympic Oval (speed skating and hockey). These facilities serve as the primary training venues for a number of competitive athletes. Also, Canada Olympic Park serves as a mountain biking trail in the summer months.

In the summer, the Bow River is very popular among fly-fishermen. Golfing is also an extremely popular activity for Calgarians and the region has a large number of courses(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ410 battery).

Calgary hosted the 2009 World Water Ski Championship Festival in August, at the Predator Bay Water Ski Club which is situated approximately 40 km (25 mi) south of the city.

Scotiabank Saddledome

As part of the wider Battle of Alberta, the city's sports teams enjoy a popular rivalry with their Edmonton counterparts, most notably the rivalries between the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21 battery), and the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos.

The city also has a large number of urban parks including Fish Creek Provincial Park, Nose Hill Park, Bowness Park, Edworthy Park, the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Confederation Park, and Prince's Island Park. Nose Hill Park is the largest municipal park in Canada. Connecting these parks and most of the city's neighbourhoods is one of the most extensive multi-use (walking, bike, rollerblading, etc.) path systems in North America(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S battery).

Calgary is renowned in professional wrestling tradition as both the home-city of the prominent Hart wrestling family and the location of the infamous Hart family "Dungeon", wherein WWE Hall of Fame member and patriarch of the Hart Family, Stu Hart,[107] trained numerous professional wrestlers including "Superstar" Billy Graham, Brian Pillman, the British Bulldogs(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M battery), Edge, Christian, Greg Valentine, Chris Jericho, Jushin Liger and many more. Also among the trainees were the Hart family members themselves, including WWE Hall of Fame member and former WWE champion Bret Hart and his brother, the 1994 WWF King of the Ring, Owen Hart.

Government

Calgary is generally considered a conservative city, dominated by traditional social conservatives and fiscal conservatives(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M battery). As the city is a corporate power-centre, a high percentage of the workforce is employed in white-collar jobs. The high concentration of oil and gas corporation led to the rise of Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservative Party in 1971. During the 1990s the city's mainstream political culture was dominated by the right-wing Reform Party of Canada federally, and the Progressive Conservatives provincially(Sony VGN-NR11S/S Battery).

The Green Party of Canada has also made inroads in Calgary, exemplified by results of the 2011 federal election where they achieved 7.7% of the vote across the city, ranging from 4.7% in Calgary Northeast to 13.1% in the Calgary Centre-North riding. The right-wing Alberta Alliance became active during the 26th Alberta general election and campaigned for fiscally and socially conservative reforms(Sony VGN-NR11M/S Battery). However, the Alberta Alliance and its successor, the Wildrose Alliance, did not manage to make inroads in the 2008 provincial election.

However, as Calgary's population has increased, so has the diversity of its politics. One growing alternative movement was recently active during the 2000 World Petroleum Congress demonstrations and the 2002 J26 G8 Protests(Sony VGN-NR260E/S Battery). Protesters were a mix of locals and outsiders. The city has chapters of various activist organizations, as well as an Anti-Capitalist Convergence.

Municipal politics

Calgary's New City Hall and Old City Hall

Calgary is governed in accordance with Alberta's Municipal Government Act (1995). Calgarians elect 14 ward aldermen and a mayor to Calgary City Council every three years. The next election is scheduled for October 2013, at which point the title of alderman will be changed to councillor.[112] Naheed Nenshi was elected mayor in the 2010 municipal election(Sony VGN-NR260E/T Battery).

The city has an operating budget of $2.1 billion for 2007, supported 41% by property taxes. Property taxes collected equal $757 million annually, with $386 million from residential and $371 million from non-residential properties. City employees salary, wages, and benefits make up 54% of expenditures(Sony VGN-NR260E/W Battery).

Two school boards operate independently of each other in Calgary, the public and the separate systems. Both boards have 7 elected trustees each representing 2 of 14 wards. The School Boards are considered to be part of municipal politics in Calgary as they are elected at the same time as City Council(Sony VGN-NR11Z/S Battery).

Provincial politics

Calgary is represented by twenty-five provincial MLAs, including twenty Progressive Conservatives, three Liberals, and two members of the Wildrose Party. For exactly fourteen years (from December 14, 1992, to December 14, 2006), the provincial premier and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, Ralph Klein, held the Calgary-Elbow seat(Sony VGN-NR11Z/T Battery). Klein was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 1989 and resigned on September 20, 2006.[114] He was succeeded as provincial premier and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party by Ed Stelmach, MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. Following this leadership change, Calgary saw its leadership and representation on provincial matters further reduced as its representation on the provincial cabinet was reduced from eight to three with only one Calgary MLA, Greg Melchin(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E battery), retaining a cabinet seat. In June 2007, Ralph Klein's old riding, a seat the PC Party held since it took office in 1971 fell to Alberta Liberal Craig Cheffins during a by-election. In the run up to the 2008 general election, pundits predicted significant Tory losses in traditional stronghold that many felt was being taken for granted and ignored. (Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z battery)

The 2008 Alberta general election saw the Liberals increase their seat count in the city by one to five. While the results in Calgary were not particularly surprising given the grievances especially in Central Calgary with the Stelmach administration, the fact that they happened in the face of significant PC gains in Edmonton was. The Liberals were reduced to nine seats overall(Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J battery), meaning for the first time ever the majority of their caucus represented Calgary ridings.

Federal politics

All eight of Calgary's federal MPs are members of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).[117] The CPC's predecessors have traditionally held the majority of the city's federal seats. The federal electoral district of Calgary Southwest is held by Prime Minister and CPC leader Stephen Harper(Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 battery). Coincidentally, the same seat was also held by Preston Manning, the leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a predecessor of the CPC. Joe Clark, former Prime Minister and former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (also a predecessor of the CPC), held the riding of Calgary Centre. Of Canada's 22 prime ministers, two have represented a Calgary riding while prime minister. The first was R. B. Bennett from Calgary West, who held that position from 1930 to 1935(Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M battery).

Main article: Transportation in Calgary

See also: List of airports in the Calgary area

Calgary International Airport (YYC), in the city's northeast, is a transportation hub for much of central and western Canada. In 2010 it was the fourth busiest in Canada by passenger movement,[118] and third busiest by aircraft movements,[119] is a major cargo hub,[citation needed] and is a staging point for people destined for Banff National Park. (Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S battery)Non-stop destinations include cities throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, Central America, and Asia. Calgary/Springbank Airport, Canada's eleventh busiest,[119] serves as a reliever for the Calgary International taking the general aviation traffic and is also a base for aerial firefighting aircraft.

Calgary's presence on the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) mainline (which includes the CPR Alyth Yard) also make it an important hub for freight(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E battery). The Rocky Mountaineer and Royal Canadian Pacific operates railtour service to Calgary; Via Rail no longer provides intercity rail service to Calgary since Via Rail discontinued the Super Continental.

Much of Calgary's street network is on a grid where roads are numbered with avenues running east–west and streets running north–south. Until 1904 the streets were named; after that date, all streets were given numbers radiating outwards from the city centre(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21J battery). Roads in predominantly residential areas as well as freeways and expressways do not generally conform to the grid and are usually not numbered as a result. However, it is a developer and city convention in Calgary that non-numbered streets within a new community have the same name prefix as the community itself so that streets can more easily be located within the city(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L battery).

Calgary Transit provides public transportation services throughout the city with buses and light rail. Calgary's rail system, known as the C-Train was one of the first such systems in North America (behind Edmonton LRT and San Diego Trolley) and consists of three lines (two routes) on 51.7 km (32.1 mi) of track (Sony VAIO VGN-FW41M battery) (mostly at grade with a dedicated right-of-way carrying 42% of the downtown working population). In the fourth quarter of 2009, the C-Train system had an average of 266,100 riders per weekday, the third-busiest light-rail system in North America behind the Monterrey Metro, and the Toronto streetcar system. The bus system has over 160 routes and is operated by 800 vehicles(Sony VAIO VGN-FW41M/H battery).

As an alternative to the over 260 km (160 mi) of shared bikeways on streets, the city has a network of multi-use (bicycle, walking, rollerblading, etc.) paths spanning over 635 km (395 mi).[106]

Health care

Alberta Children's Hospital

Rockyview General Hospital overlooking the Glenmore Reservoir

Medical centres and hospitals

Main article: Health care in Calgary

Calgary has three major adult acute care hospitals and one major pediatric acute care site; the Foothills Medical Centre, which is the largest hospital in Alberta, the Peter Lougheed Centre(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M battery), the Rockyview General Hospital, and the Alberta Children's Hospital, which is the largest hospital in the prairie provinces for sick children, respectively. They are all overseen by the Calgary Zone of the Alberta Health Services, formerly the Calgary Health Region. Calgary is also home to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, the leading cancer centre in Alberta (located at the Foothills Medical Centre), the Grace Women's Health Centre, which provides a variety of care, and the Libin Cardiovascular Institute(Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z battery). In addition, the Sheldon M. Chumir Centre (a large 24 hour assessment clinic), and the Richmond Road Diagnostic and Treatment Centre (RRDTC), as well as hundreds of smaller medical and dental clinics operate in Calgary. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Calgary also operates in partnership with Alberta Health Services, by researching cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, joint injury, arthritis and genetics(Sony VAIO VGN-FW32J battery).

The four largest Calgary hospitals have a combined total of more than 2,100 beds, and employ over 11,500 people.

Education

SAIT Heritage Hall

In the 2011-2012 school year, 100,632 K-12 students enrolled in 221 schools in the English language public school system run by the Calgary Board of Education.[128] With other students enrolled in the associated CBe-learn and Chinook Learning Service programs, the school system's total enrollment is 104,182 students. (Sony VAIO VGN-FW17W battery) Another 43,000 attend about 95 schools in the separate English language Calgary Catholic School District board.[129] The much smaller Francophone community has their own French language school boards (public and Catholic), which are both based in Calgary, but serve a larger regional district. There are also several public charter schools in the city(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E battery). Calgary has a number of unique schools, including the country's first high school exclusively designed for Olympic-calibre athletes, the National Sport School.[130] Calgary is also home to many private schools including Mountain View Academy, Rundle College, Rundle Academy, Clear Water Academy, Chinook Winds Adventist Academy, Webber Academy(Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E battery), Delta West Academy, Masters Academy, Menno Simons Christian School, West Island College and Edge School.

Calgary is also home to Western Canada's largest public high school, Lord Beaverbrook High School, with 2,241 students enrolled in the 2005–2006 school year.[dated info][131] Currently the student population of Lord Beaverbrook is 2,013 students (2009) and several other schools are equally as large; Western Canada High School with 2035 students (2009) and Sir Winston Churchill High School with 1983 students (2009) (Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E/H battery).

Calgary is the site of five major public post-secondary institutions. The University of Calgary is Calgary's primary large degree-granting facility, and enrolled 28,807 students in 2006.[132] Other post-secondary institutions include Mount Royal University, with 13,000 students, granting degrees in a number of fields; and SAIT Polytechnic, with over 14,000 students(Sony VAIO VGN-FW465J battery), provides polytechnic and apprentice education, granting certificates, diplomas and applied degrees.

Smaller post-secondary institutions include Bow Valley College, and Alberta College of Art and Design.

There are also several private institutions including Ambrose University College, the official Canadian university college of the Church of the Nazarene, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, St. Mary's University College, and DeVry University(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M battery).

Media

Main article: Media in Calgary

Calgary's daily newspapers include the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun. Like most other major Canadian cities, Calgary is served by cable television stations Global, CTV, CBC, and CityTV. Network affiliate programming from the United States originates from Spokane, Washington. There are a wide range of radio stations, including a station for First Nations and the Asian Canadian community(Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J battery).

The presence of the Canadian military has been part of the local economy and culture since the early years of the 20th century, beginning with the assignment of a squadron of Strathcona's Horse. After many failed attempts to create the city's own unit, the 103rd Regiment (Calgary Rifles) was finally authorized on April 1, 1910. Canadian Forces Base (CFB) (Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z battery) Calgary was established as Currie Barracks and Harvie Barracks following the Second World War. The base remained the most significant Department of National Defence (DND) institution in the city until it was decommissioned in 1998, when most of the units moved to CFB Edmonton. Despite this closure there is still a number of Canadian Forces Reserve units, and cadet units garrisoned throughout the city(Sony VGN-NR11Z Battery). They include HMCS Tecumseh Naval Reserve unit, The King's Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC), The Calgary Highlanders, both headquartered at the Mewata Armouries, 746 Communication Squadron, 41 Canadian Brigade Group, headquartered at the former location of CFB Calgary, 14 (Calgary) Service Battalion, 15 (Edmonton) Field Ambulance Detachment Calgary(Sony VGN-NR11S Battery), 14 (Edmonton) Military Police Platoon Calgary, 41 Combat Engineer Regiment detachment Calgary (33 Engineer Squadron), along with a small cadre of Regular Force support. Several units have been granted Freedom of the City.

The Calgary Soldiers' Memorial commemorates those who died during war time or while serving overseas. Along with those from units currently stationed in Calgary it represents the 10th Battalion, CEF and the 50th Battalion, CEF of the Canadian Expeditionary Force(Sony VGN-NR110E Battery).

Contemporary issues

The economic boom and rapid growth recently experienced in Calgary has led to issues such as urban sprawl and an infrastructure backlog. With no geographical barriers to its growth besides the Tsuu T'ina First Nation, the city has seen suburbs spread increasingly further out at an accelerated rate. This has led to difficulties in providing necessary transportation infrastructure to Calgary's population(Sony VGN-CR11Z Battery).

Condominiums in the Downtown West End

With the redevelopment of the Beltline and the Downtown East Village at the forefront, efforts are underway to vastly increase the density of the inner city, but this has not stopped the rate of sprawl. In 2003, the combined population of the downtown neighbourhoods (the Downtown Commercial Core, the Downtown East Village, the Downtown West End, Eau Claire, and Chinatown) was just over 12,600(Sony VGN-CR11S Battery). In addition, the Beltline to the south of downtown had a population of 17,200, for a total of around 30,000.

Because of the growth of the city, its southwest borders are now immediately adjacent to the Tsuu T'ina reserve. Recent residential developments in the deep southwest of the city have created a demand for a major roadway heading into the interior of the city, but because of complications in negotiations with the Tsuu T'ina, the construction has not yet begun(Sony VGN-CR11M Battery).

The city has many socioeconomic issues including homelessness. Certain portions of downtown core and inner city have been singled out as being home to much higher proportions of disadvantaged residents, as well as some neighbourhoods in the city's east. The share of poor families living in very poor neighbourhoods increased from 6.4% to 20.3% between 1980 and 1990(Sony VGN-CR11E Battery).

Although Calgary and Alberta have traditionally been affordable places to live, substantial growth (much of it due to the prosperous energy sector and the northern oil sands projects) has led to increasing demand on real-estate. As a result, house prices in Calgary have increased significantly in recent years, but have stagnated over the last half of 2007, and into 2008. (Sony VGN-CR21E Battery) As of November 2006, Calgary is the most expensive city in Canada for commercial/downtown office space,[142] and the second most expensive city (second to Vancouver) for residential real-estate. The cost of living and inflation is now the highest in the country, recent figures show that inflation was running at six per cent in April 2007(Sony VGN-CR21S Battery).

Crime

In March 2008, City Council approved a pilot project to test closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras. A total of sixteen CCTV cameras were to be installed in three downtown locations. They were to be deployed in the East Village and along the Stephen Avenue Mall. The project began in early 2009, primarily being led by Animal & Bylaw Services(Sony VGN-CR21Z Battery).

Although the city has a relatively low crime rate when compared to other North American cities, gangs and drug-related crime have increased along with the recent economy growth. In 2009, 62 additional police officers were deployed as foot patrols in the downtown area(Sony VGN-CR31S Battery).