Calgary tried and failed — good on them though

So, Calgary is out of the running for Amazon’s second headquarters. So is Edmonton, and every Canadian city besides Toronto — off the list for a supposed billion-dollar investment that was floated like a balloon last summer.

This column has been quick in the past to note that Calgary seems to have quite a high opinion of itself.

The joke about Calgarians and screwing in lightbulbs used to end with “only one — the other million are too busy talking about the ’88 Olympics.”

That might soon be updated to the 2026 Olympics.

But perhaps we’re being too hard.

Calgary might be the selfappointed centre of the Western Canadian universe, but what’s wrong with thinking big once and a while? Other cities are doing it. Red Deer is the new home of the Canadian Finals Rodeo, it was announced this week.

Less flashy — but worth $300 million — is a proposed potato plant in Lethbridge.

The mood in Medicine Hat has subsided since the torch and pitch-fork crowd called for new industrial growth in the 2013 election. But there is still a notable yearning for new industry and a more diversified economy as we approach the 10year anniversary of the natural gas price crash this summer.

Diplomacy

This week Medicine Hat wound up in the middle of an interprovincial tussle at no fault of its own. That fight, between respective premiers Rachel Notley and Brad Wall, broke out into pretty much all-out warfare on Thursday.

The Saskatchewan government spitballed that it would prefer to hash out a construction vehicle licensing controversy here in Medicine Hat next week.

That’s after both sides agreed to a meeting in Lloydminster. Such a meeting would also be a week after Alberta says it’ll file for a judicial resolution.

One can only surmise the venue switch is based on logistics.

Medicine Hat is about halfway between Calgary and Regina. Lloydminster is about halfway between Saskatoon and Edmonton. Unfortunately neither pair of locations includes both provincial capitals.

One should remember that the Paris Peace discussions, aimed at ending the Vietnam War, were delayed for months as procedural matters were hammered out, including an agreement on the shape of the negotiating table.

And that was when the two sides admitted there was a war going on and each knew what it was about.

Quick ones

Skip Casey Scheidegger walked away as provincial champions at the Alberta Scotties last weekend at the Medicine Hat Curling Club. One recalls how the former junior provincial champion won her first major cash spiel in 2008 as a 20-year-old leading a very young rink in the Meyers Norris Penny Charity Classic.

Staying with sports, might Trevor Linden’s title as the best known Hockey Hatter be in jeopardy considering the job that Murray Craven has done with the Las Vegas Knights?

A look ahead

City council members will emerge from strategic planning sessions this weekend for council’s regular meeting on Monday evening. Expect few details until at least February on the plan, say several council members.

100 years ago

E. Brown, proprietor of the American Hotel in Alderson, was sentenced to six months hard labour after his third conviction under the liquor act that prohibited selling alcohol, the

News reported this week in 1918.

Should shops be considered the same as factories, both local merchants and labour groups asked. Brown’s Department Store in Medicine Hat had remained open despite measures in the Factories Act stating places of business should not be open past 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The Trades and Labour Council made a complaint to police on behalf of clerks.

The Medicine Hat Hospital board reported that the facility treated 2,348 patients in 1917. It was a 10 per cent increase over the previous year and board members warned expansion may soon be needed.

At the maternity hospital, 308 babies had been born in 1917. Infant mortality accounted for 21 of those, though no maternal fatalities were recorded.