The Economist: The charms of Calgary and the gloom in Toronto

[Red Mosquito]

If I had a dollar for every time I got that answer, Calgary would already be the financial capital of Canada. (P.S. I think you meant no government regulation)


In the sense that Somalia does not have an internationally recognized central power, it is in anarchy. Otherwise, it is not an anarchy.

Immediately after the withdrawal of the US from Somalia in 1993, it very much resembled a true anarchy. Ten years later, with the advance of the ICU in the South and with the recent interference of Ethiopia, the AU and other foreign actors, Somalia is far from the near-true anarchy that it was in the mid-90's.

It previously had an ultra communist regime that laid waste to the country; it improved compared to its past and relative to other African countries of a similar nature, it is better off… you can't expect it to go from complete ruin to economic powerhouse in a few years.


I don't wanna get into this for the umpteenth time, so here's a video instead: http://fee.org/media/video/stateless-in-somalia/


Cheers

So you're moving there next week?

 

[kettal]

If somalia would only cut taxes, all their problems would be solved.

 

[Cooool]

What has the world come to? People are flocking to Calgary, which is a frigid desert of urban sprawl. And even worse, in the US people are gravitating towards sunbelt cities like Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. I think every one of the cities mentioned are growing much faster than Toronto.These cities are an embarassment. They are "donut cities". Everyone lives in the suburban areas, meanwhile, the centre cities have absolutely nothing but inner city poverty and gang violence.

I mean, truthfully, do you think anyone would rather visit Calgary, Phoenix, and Dallas or Toronto, Vancouver, and San Francisco? I don't care which cities have booming populations, these sprawling cities are unsustainable and will probably never be true world cities.

 

[northstar]

I wish Torontonians would stop dissing other cities like Calgary, and start focusing on "real" problems in this city.
I like Toronto, but we gotta stop thinking that this is "the city that works", and find a way to get it back on track.
The 1980's ended a long time ago.

For all the talk of Calgary sprawl... the reality is that Toronto is no different.
Let's compare apples to apples, not 19th century vs. 20th century downtowns.
Post WWII urban sprawl in Toronto rivals some of the worst offenders in North America.
Toronto now has created gridlock that is costing this city $5 Billion dollars.
It is even worse than L.A.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/03/29/tor-last-traffic-report.html

Meanwhile, Toronto dithers about LRT's because they aren't "good enough" for a "world class" city.
At the same time, Calgary and Vancouver build LRTs, so at least public transportation can move forward.

While people blindly diss emerging cities out West...
One wonders if Montreal had the same blasé attitude about Toronto back in the mid 1950's

 

[SunriseChampion]

^Did you just try comparing Transfer Shitty (or whatever you wanna call it) to the rapid transit systems of Calgary and Van City?
I'll have some of what you're toking/snorting/munching/drinking, please and thank you.

Calgary is emerging only insofar as energy (and a certain type at that) is concerned. Mr Bronconnier, the mayor, said it himself: their rivals are Houston, Dallas, and Dubai...not Toronto.

Toronto and Calgary are very different cities with very different economic focus points. Plus, Calgary is sooooo lame-o! Duh.

 

[highlife]

i personally like to see all our Canadian cities prosper.

We all know Toronto is number one (and working hard to stay that way). So, we shouldn't get into a tizzy that Toronto gets hosed while the Economist chirps about Calgary.

Yes, Intelligent Life thinks Toronto is boring, blah, blah, blah but also note that the Economist's research division (EIU) has consistently ranked Toronto as the top places to live in the world.

 

[northstar]

.... Plus, Calgary is sooooo lame-o! Duh.

^ Is that the best you can come up with?
If so, then I rest my case.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Wow, Torontonians can be really thin skinned.

 

[adma]

What's Calgary got that Toronto hasn't got?

 

[Tewder]

For all the talk of Calgary sprawl... the reality is that Toronto is no different.
Let's compare apples to apples, not 19th century vs. 20th century downtowns.
Post WWII urban sprawl in Toronto rivals some of the worst offenders in North America.
Toronto now has created gridlock that is costing this city $5 Billion dollars.
It is even worse than L.A.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/03/29/tor-last-traffic-report.html

Meanwhile, Toronto dithers about LRT's because they aren't "good enough" for a "world class" city.
At the same time, Calgary and Vancouver build LRTs, so at least public transportation can move forward.

While people blindly diss emerging cities out West...
One wonders if Montreal had the same blasé attitude about Toronto back in the mid 1950's

Good points all. The lame-o and insecure Toronto boosters here are the first to criticize the environmental implications of an oil-based economy in Calgary while conveniently completely overlooking horrendous levels of pollution throughout the GTA due to traffic and manufacturing. We continue to pollute our lakes and air while refusing to invest responsibly in basic necessities such as mass transit. At least Calgary is profiting on its environmental exploitation...

Regardless, I wouldn't want to live in Calgary because I love where I live here but I'm not so blind to understand that given twenty or fifty years the city of Calgary will be a vastly different place and the power structure in Canada will indeed no longer be as simple as it has been since the days of the separatist movement in Quebec... which, come to think of it wasn't all that long ago either. Plus ca change...

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Calgary has loads of potential, especially neighbourhoods like the Beltline (if memory serves me correctly, the south avenues from 10th to 20th)...I can imagine 10,000 young Gordon Gekkos moving in to that area. Too bad the university isn't downtown. Toronto's suburbs are 'better' than Calgary's, and I suspect Toronto has more and larger cultural subgroups leaving imprints on neighbourhoods, but if Calgary keeps their downtown wildly strong and successful and if they build another 3 C-Train lines and don't expand to 3 million people instantaneously like Atlanta or Dallas, there's lots of great chances for positive urban change. Calgary's a confident city, which works for them. I really hope they don't mess it up.

 

[Archivist]

Re: Defensiveness. In relation to the headquarters for the securities regulator, this should be in Toronto and any government ought to see that. It would be an outrage if it is in Calgary. I don't consider this thin-skinned, just sensible. Especially given our higher unemployment rate, etc.

Albertans still speak about the National Energy Policy of Trudeau as if Central Canada rolled tanks over their farmlands, raped their daughters, and sacked Red Deer. Bad plan, but the oil industry collapsed everywhere in the 80's with no government help at all. Also, it was 30 years ago. Let's move on folks.

 

[Hipster Duck]

^No, the article indirectly shows that Calgarians such as their mayor display some humility, acknowledging that while they have a competitive streak, Toronto is clearly out of their league. And what is this forum's general response? To hurl a bunch of epithets at Calgary calling them everything from a "lame-o" city to a "frigid desert of urban sprawl".

 

[ladyscraper]

^No, the article indirectly shows that Calgarians such as their mayor display some humility, acknowledging that while they have a competitive streak, Toronto is clearly out of their league. And what is this forum's general response? To hurl a bunch of epithets at Calgary calling them everything from a "lame-o" city to a "frigid desert of urban sprawl".

Although this whole thread is a joke and people are throwing around insults senslessly, you would have to be pretty naive to think that the average Calgarian has humility and wouldn't insult Toronto in exactly this same way.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Although this whole thread is a joke and people are throwing around insults senslessly, you would have to be pretty naive to think that the average Calgarian has humility and wouldn't insult Toronto in exactly this same way.

In my experience, Calgarians don't have a low opinion of other cities as much as they have a high opinion of Calgary. Torontonians seem to have a lower opinion of our own city, so our opinion of other cities can get downright nasty in comparison because we're starting from lower levels of pride and happiness and so on. I'm not sure that Calgarians are as petty or thin-skinned and reactive/defensive as Torontonians, but I do think that a typical Calgarian can talk about their city and other cities without automatically punching as low as their inventory of stereotypes allows them. Part of it is the high amount of migrants and cultures in Toronto as well as the many strong neighbourhoods, whereas Calgary has less demographic variety and more of a municipal mono-culture binding them together, including few substantial suburbs...Calgary is almost a city-state.