Calgary, its citizens hold special place in Canada
Much has changed since Centennial Year, including a far deeper heterogeneity
We are a nation of more than 35 million souls, one out of five of us foreign born and nearly 1.5 million of us having an indigenous identity.
On Saturday, July 1, 2017, this diverse group of people living in the world’s second biggest country will mark 150 years of Confederation.
We will commemorate the momentous occasion in myriad ways reflecting our heterogeneity — many will celebrate with fireworks, entertainment and feats of athletic prowess, some will protest to highlight the concerns of its indigenous peoples and others might simply ignore the spectacle.
For this Canadian, the sesquicentennial has brought much reflection, on past, present and future. Having been born in 1961, I am just old enough to have a clear recollection of Canada’s last major birthday party. It’s an experience not shared by nearly 70 per cent, or 24 million, of Canadians born after me or with the millions more who have arrived on our shores over the past half-century.
The year 1967 was a big one for Canada and not just because songwriter Bobby Gimby had us all singing the catchy ditty Ca-na-da in school gyms and assembly halls from White Rock to Wabush (I loved the line, “one little two little three Canadians”).
My only concept of being one of 20 million Canadians at that time was the relief that my big brothers wouldn’t be sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Those a few years older, though, were paddling, cycling, roller skating and hitchhiking their way across the country, while more than 50,000 teenagers were experiencing new parts of the country in exchange visits.
I was well aware of Montreal’s great world’s fair, Expo 67, the $283-million centrepiece of our Centennial Year. Under the watchful eyes of its publicity chief, Peter Aykroyd — dad to a teenager named Dan, who would go on to fame as a Saturday Night Live cast member and star of films like Ghostbusters — the event attracted more than 55 million visitors from around the world.
The closest I got to that excitement was the Expo 67 ashtray that sat on a side table in our inner city Winnipeg two-storey. About 1,300 kilometres across a wide stretch of mostly flat prairie, though, the city I would call home a few years later was marking the country’s centennial in grand fashion.
While thousands of greenand-white Alberta licence plates could be seen on the streets of Montreal, three Calgarians — Albert and George Abel and Bob Poluck — journeyed, from Rocky Mountain House to Montreal voyager-style, part of a crew of Alberta paddlers in the 5,000-kilometre Centennial Canoe Pageant.
July 1 saw a Calgary parade watched by 40,000, a stage show at Mewata Stadium and a spectacular fireworks display. While earlier plans for a 183-metre golden spire downtown “high as the Seattle Space Needle” didn’t pan out, the city of 335,000 had much to celebrate: the 191-metre Husky Tower was nearing completion, its new planetarium was opened to the public and the former slough known as the North Hill Coulee in Mount Pleasant was transformed into Confederation Park.
When I first set eyes on Calgary 40 years ago this summer, it was love at first sight. Though my parents couldn’t afford the lavish show homes we toured at Lake Bonavista on Calgary’s thenmost southerly neighbourhood, I was thrilled to soon be moving to a city that sported hills, an abundance of green spaces and a view of the gob-smacking gorgeous Rocky Mountains.
Like so many of my fellow Canadians, my own national identity very much coexists with my identity as a member of an immediate community, in my case a maverick western town that felt more in synch with my own independent attitudes.
Having had the dumb luck to stumble into the journalism profession, my love and connection with this community has been an intense one, reinforced time and again over the decades.
From the late premier Peter Lougheed and football great Sugarfoot Anderson to Jann Arden and Paul Brandt, I’ve been able to meet and tell the stories of the city’s most famous faces; just as important, I’ve had the honour of spreading the word about the plethora of so-called ordinary people doing extraordinary things, from bereaved families transforming grief into acts of community service, to the armies of volunteers who came out to aid their fellow Calgarians in the wake of the 2013 Alberta floods. While I’ve also covered the worst criminal cases and wrongdoings, it’s the stories of the best of human nature that linger long after.
This July 1, my fellow citizens will indulge in a free pancake breakfast at Heritage Park, join in on a powwow at Prince’s Island Park hosted by Bow Valley College and party with hometown stars Tegan and Sara at Riverfront Avenue, before heading to the Centre Street bridge to watch the fireworks (for a full listing of local events, go to page A8 or visit swerveevents.com ).
I will reflect on the times I’ve felt most Canadian — usually when I have been far from home, in places like India and Afghanistan, reminders of how being born here is like winning the life lottery — and my centuries-long connection to this land, through a paternal family tree stretching back hundreds of years and including the Metis peoples of Manitoba.
I’ll also think about all the work yet to be done by our leaders, and for me, the stories I hope to keep telling, in a country where diversity, acceptance and understanding still reign over hostility and intolerance.
The day will be spent with loved ones, people who share in my passion for this great country, our diverse, vibrant part of Canada that may be dwarfed in population by the East, but stands tall in the passion and chutzpah of its citizens.
We Calgarians, Canadians and global citizens will honour the people who have been here for thousands of years and hope our beloved country has the will for true reconciliation; and we’ll toast to the newcomers, those who now join in our lucky happenstance of living in one of the best places on the planet.
Happy sesquicentennial, Canada — may the next century of Confederation bring continued peace, prosperity and progress to this great place we call home.