My love letter to Calgary
By: Thomas Spoletini
In the middle of last spring, I vividly remember sitting in one of those new age cafés on Bloor Street in downtown Toronto with my Albertan roommate sitting and chatting over vanilla lattes and pastries about how much we missed Alberta. I thought back to my fond upbringing in Calgary and how different I felt to be in Canada’s biggest and loudest city. As our conversation became louder and livelier, a stranger sitting down next to us abruptly stopped typing on her laptop, looked up at us with a smile, and started to recall her own upbringing in Calgary.
FYI: Calgary is the friendliest city in the world, according to the Condé Nast 2023 Readers Choice Awards, published Tuesday. The media company recognized Calgary's “welcoming multi-cultural community,” and highlights a mix of urban living and nature being close to the Rocky Mountains.
Just one of many neighbourhood festivals and events that foster a sense of community in Calgary. FYI: Calgary is home to over 200 different communities each with its own name, community centre, park and playgrounds. In Calgary while you live in a city of 1.5 million, you also live in a community of about 5,000 to 10,000 people i.e. a small town with its own identity..
Specifically, how she longed for the hospitality and sense of connectedness she felt in Calgary, missing from her life in Toronto. She told us that she had moved to Toronto in 2016, in pursuit of a job in the tech industry. Very worried about the job market in Alberta at the time, she felt that she would have more opportunities available in Ontario. Only a few short years later, in 2019, I made the same decision to move to Toronto, for a very different reason, to pursue education.
Chatting with her reassured me that a.) we weren’t the only Albertans living here and b.) we weren’t the only ones that missed so much about our hometown.
We spent the next half hour recounting many of our favourite things to do in Calgary, how we’d spent many of our weekends barhopping on the Beltline, hitting up all our favorite spots like Bridgette Bar or Ten Foot Henry or how an entire day could be spent perusing all the local shops in Kensington or Inglewood.
Book lovers like myself are especially excited at the sight of local book stores like Fair’s Fare Books or Pages on Kensington.
Time To Move Back
This moment made me realize that I wasn’t completely “done” with Calgary yet, and that inevitably, something would always bring me back home to Cowtown. And so, just last August, I made the important decision to move back here and jumpstart my life.
Indescribable at first, I realized that Calgary gives you a sense of belonging no matter where you’re from or where you go. I have found it near impossible to find this feeling in Vancouver or Toronto. While Calgary might not be as big or lively as Toronto, it makes everyone feel welcome and that’s what brings many of us back, time and time again. It’s not just the city itself, it’s the warmness of the people and the feeling of comfort you get just by being here.
Calgary locals, like me, will tell you how our city is a textbook example of hospitality. I have seen this time and time again, especially in times of need. Most Calgarians remember how devastating the 2013 floodswere. Tens of thousands of families lost their homes and businesses within a matter of days. What astonished me, however, was how quickly Calgarians came together as a community to help those who were most affected. First responders, community members and local officials all helped to support each other in an effort to rebuild the city through food donations, fundraisers, and local benefits. One of the more prominent fundraisers, held by Alberta Flood Aid, raised over 2.2 million dollars in donations through a local concert at McMahon Stadium.
Western Hospitality
I remember experiencing the same level of kindness in my own time of need, back when my first car broke down in the middle of Shaganappi Trail in thirty below. It was 2018 and my 2008 Toyota Corolla broke down in the middle of the road. As I was waiting on the shoulder for my ride home, it was incredibly heartwarming to see just how many people stopped on the side of the road to offer me help. I have never felt prouder to be part of a community of people who put their own needs aside to help someone out in their time of need.
Calgary has some amazing indoor rock climbing facilities which help you train for the real thing in the nearby Rocky Mountains.
It's this same community that old friends welcome you back with open arms. I remember being back in the city for the first-time last August, wondering if my friends had forgotten about me. I was amazed at how openly and warmly my friends welcomed me back into their circle, as if no time had passed at all. This experience gave me so much gratitude to live in the same inclusive and welcoming city I remember growing up in.
Beyond this, I have found it surprisingly easy to make new friends in Calgary. I’m not the only one either. Many of my own friends have echoed this experience in sharing their own stories about how easygoing and friendly Calgarians are.
A friend of mine who immigrated here from the Philippines in 2012 told me how nervous she felt when her family first told her that they were moving to Canada. She was scared of leaving everything behind for a place where she had no friends, didn’t speak the language, and had to start all over again. She told me that Calgary welcomed her in as a newcomer with open arms, and it took no time before she was meeting people with similar experiences to her. After only a year, she had already made so many amazing friends, learned English, and established her life here in Calgary. She believes that if it weren’t for the kind people who made her feel so welcome when she first arrived here, it wouldn’t have been so easy for her to assimilate into Canadian culture.
If you ask a local, most people would tell you the best time of year to visit Cowtown is within the first couple weeks of July, when summer is in full effect and Stampede season has got the whole city cheering. It certainly is the most exciting time of year for many of us Calgarians, but there is no besttime to visit Calgary.
Year-round you’ll see spectacular sights and festivals catered to a Western crowd. For example, if you’re looking to shake off the winter blues, Chinook Blast is an awesome winter festival that boasts live music and art installations, winter markets, and a display of Calgary’s diverse street food scene. In the summertime, art lovers of all calibers can appreciate the fusion of live music and art installations through several installations and shows at the Sled Island Music and Arts Festival.
Calgary’s Shaw Millennium Park is very popular with skaters of all skill levels.
Calgary’s Glenmore Reservoir provides opportunities for rowing, paddling and sailing in the middle of the city.
In the summer, Calgarians of all ages and backgrounds love floating along its two major rivers, often making new friends along the way.
Last Word
For these reasons and so many more, I believe Calgary will always be the place that I call home, regardless of where life takes me. So, this is my love letter not only to the city itself, but the people who make Cowtown warm, spirited, and lively.
Everyday Tourist Note:
Back in 2015 and 2016 some of Calgary’s leaders where shocked and lamenting about when they found out how many of Calgary’s young adults were leaving the city given the lack of jobs due to the economic downturn of the oil patch. How quickly we forget the boom and bust of Calgary’s economic, fast forward to 2024 and it is boom time again. We also forget that young people always think the grass is greener in other cities, and in some cases it is (I left Hamilton and never returned), but in many cases they come home with a new respect for their hometown. Especially a city like Calgary that has so much to offer from festivals, to live music venues, from a plethora of craft breweries to an array of recreational activities. Calgary isn’t for everyone but it is for many looking for a friendly place to live.