I know , but I kind of disliked his ridiculous implication.

It's not really ridiculous. All of my native Calgarian friends are terribly racist. I never alluded to class (rednecks) or anything else and they happen to be, for the most part, extremely wealthy. My sample size may not be representative but having also visited the city many times it is not anywhere near what i would consider "diverse", having lived in both Toronto and Vancouver and travelled extensively throughout all of Canada.

Just my opinion and to be honest getting upset about it is a bit cretinous.

*cue someone to mention the new Muslim mayor as a means to highlight how diverse the city is in 5....4....3....2.....*

Few places are as diverse as the immigration centers of Toronto and Vancouver.


Presumably the ethnic diversity of Calgary would be pretty clear from the easy to find census data, even if that tells you nothing about any racist tenancies there.

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recen...nority&Custom=

20-25% visible minorites in 2006

The most racist comment I have heard in Canada was in Vancouver last week, by my taxi driver. Does that mean I apply that to the vancouver population?

Maybe your weathly racist friends are not representative of a cross section of those living in Calgary currently. Maybe those with wealthy racist friends are not really able to judge the general population. Maybe the answer is to find non-racist friends.

Not upset about it, just didn't like it, as I don't believe your view is accurate and didn't want people on here to think it was.

Sure the visible minorities may not be as high as Vancouver or Toronto, but that doesn't mean there are racist tendancies or that non-whites can't have a nice family lifestyle or find nice schools which is what you implied.

Are there even any non-whites on here? Serious question.

Yes.

It's true. Iaink himself is a black irish muslim known in the 'hood as "Poppyburner-K".

I live near Calgary and my work is like the United Nations. Everyone pretty much rubs along brilliantly.

The only "anti" comments I've ever heard uttered at work are about lack of language skills - not any blatant racism that non-Calgarian posters may hint towards.

OK this thread is going a slightly different way then I planned lol and I can't believe there are not some more pro Calgary comments or maybe I am just wanting to hear them.

I had not initially planned to live in either place - Toronto was the plan. Then we looked at housing and realised for the size and price of house we wanted we would be looking at living in Mississauga and surely both Calgary and Ottawa is better than that

I must admit I am struggling with the Calgary concept. I worry about it being so remote from anything else but on the flip side one of our favourite places in Canada was Banff National Park and you have that on your doorstep. I felt on my visit the city had no sould but only being there 3 days I hope I had missed something. I also worried when I saw people wearing cowboy hats lol.

I do want to live somewhere multi-cultural with liberal attitiudes. On a side note the only direct form of racism I had in Canada was at a service station in Quebec. I had bumped the hire car, a brand new Chrysler 300 which had just being released. An old couple called me over and asked what happened. I said "I had a bump with a taxi driver in Montreal". To my complete shock the old man replied with "I bet it was a ni**a eh?, they can't drive for sh*t".

I haven't lived in Calgary but have visited a few times, I have some clients there (the people I deal with are Asian and Newfie so there is some diversity, nothing like Mississauga but some). I'd say that the comment about it being better than Mississauga is wide of the mark, it looks like Mississauga and feels like Mississauga, the comments people make here in praise of it; lots to do with small children, lots of bylaws to reign in eccentricity (unleashed cat keeping, hanging laundry, that sort of thing) apply, albeit to a lesser degree, in Mississauga as well. Have a look at Ann M's blog or pictures of houses and whatnot posted here from time to time, based on those, I don't think Mississauga with Mountains is an unfair characterisation. The knock against Mississauga is, of course, that it's an ugly suburb, the case for it relatively to Calgary is that it is a suburb; it's near somewhere.

I'm a bit surprised though to hear Calgary being considered based on housing cost, Ottawa yes but Calgary hasn't been cheap since the last oil industry bust.

Mindnumbingly bureaucratic, tinged with corruption and largely ineffectual?

lol please explain more - not quite sure what you mean. I also do have a cat

Compared to Toronto it seems amazing - we want a 3 or 4 bedroom house and looking to spend around $1500 a month.

Calgary, or parts of Calgary, or Calgary's dormitory towns (I'm not a lawyer in Alberta, I only read it here) have bylaws requiring that cats remain on the owner's property. As a cat owner this bemuses me, I can talk to the cat until I'm blue in the face but it won't respect the fence line. Still less will it respect a boundary where the fence would be in a development without fences.

That'd be out of the question in Toronto, iffy in Mississauga, I find it a bit improbable for Calgary but you've obviously looked, I haven't.

I think people from Calgary get fed up with the slagging off it gets by easterners and we can no longer be bothered to post about it.

Calgary is a big city in itself, why are you are worried its far from everything?

Calgary is surburban, but the surburbs have way more community spirit than UK suburbs, so its difficult to anchor what it will be like based on your UK experiences.

Calgary has a load of silly by laws, some are city wide but some are even more local. One is to do with cats. Not sure what it is, but its something like you have to contain it on your own land. This can mean a lot of cats are indoor cats. But the coyotes may also get them if they wander at night.

Calgary is generally short of people- this can make career opportunities good.

We like calgary. Will we retire here, proabably not?

PS the city does wear cowboy for stampede, its fun and different. go with the flow, no need to be uptight about wearing a cowboy hat. It all part of the experience.

I'd say its easily possible to spend 1500 rent per month, but i would want a budget 200-400 more than that.
Wages are genreally higher in calgary

It`s not limited to cats; it encompasses all animals. One is not allowed to allow one`s horse, rat, dog, pot bellied pig or cow, etc. to be on anyone`s property other than the owners within the City limits. Other than cat owners from foreign lands, I don`t know of anybody that has a problem with this. Now, that may be because they feel "that`s the way it`s always been" in the same way that they don`t feel there`s anything wrong with paying a realtor 7% commission to achieve what anyone with a pulse could achieve. Who knows.

To the OP: you may find the reason why those in Calgary don`t sing its praises on this forum as much as you would like it because they tire of those that have only ever visited for short periods shooting down their comments with cliched non-facts.

I have been to Ottawa once. I landed there, changed planes and took off 2 hours later. That is the only time I have been to Ontario. I suspect many that believe they are qualified to comment on life in Calgary, have spent as much "real time" in Calgary as I have in Ontario. I suspect that attending a conference in a downtown hotel in Calgary gives one as much of an idea about day to day living in Calgary as reading the City of Calgary`s website about how wonderful the City is.

IMVHO one has to live in a place before one can comment upon what it is like to live there with any credibility.