From Outside In

The Day the Circus Left Town

Some take satisfaction in Ontario’s comeuppance, but beware the consequences
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The New Stereotype

The Toronto media’s version of Alberta is changing, but for the better?
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The Trouble With Ontario

It doesn’t exist. Not like Alberta does, anyway
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Sorry I Forgot Your Birthday

Alberta’s centennial doesn’t ring many bells back East
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Fame and Forgiven

Alberta’s most influential as viewed from the East
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How I Didn’t Spend My Summer Vacation

With the family road trip a thing of the past, Alberta’s a tough sell >

In Praise of Deadmonton

Toronto ain’t got nothing. Edmonton now holds the “Centre of the Universe” title >

Essoteric Odyssey

Calgary awaits, with open arms, the arrival of the imperialists

The Torontonians are coming! The Torontonians are coming!
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Somewhere Over the Rainbow

“Let’s hear it for the Rainbow Tour, It’s been an incredible success”

In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Evita, the “Rainbow Tour” was Eva Peron’s glitzy European trip calculated to impress the world with the style and sophistication of “the new Argentina.”
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As American as We Need to Be

Our eastern correspondent considers whether Albertans come equipped with a Texas drawl

by Rick Spence • illustration by Michael Zaharuk

When Torontonians tire of talking about real estate, sometimes we talk about our kids. That’s how, at a recent party, I learned that a neighbour’s daughter was born a few years back on July 4,
in Calgary (where the family was once stationed by the financial services company for which Mr. Neighbour works). “In Calgary on the Fourth of July,” my friend repeated. “That’s about as American as you can get and still be born in Canada.”

And so the great stereotype reared its head once more: Alberta as Texas North, the 51st star in the flag. That made me think of my own experiences as an 18-month Albertan: wondering where all the two-dollar bills were, why so many oilmen spoke with a drawl, and how come Alberta Mormons seemed even more clean-cut than the Osmonds. (And that was even before the Ghermezians proved that Alberta could beat the U.S. at its own game and built the world’s biggest shopping mall.)

In the aftermath of the U.S. election,­ with liberal Americans talking about transforming the border-hugging, Kerry-blue states into the United States of Canada, some catty Torontonians even suggested giving Alberta to the Republicans in exchange. (That’s a better deal than the one proposed in the Globe and Mail a few years ago, when a reader suggested trading Alberta for “a more civilized border state – preferably Minnesota or Vermont.” If we hold out long enough, maybe they’ll throw in Florida, too.)

So what’s the truth about Alberta’s love ­affair with things American? We know it goes back a long way – many of the province’s first settlers came north from the states, creating a ranching culture not so different from that of the Great Plains. By mid-century, Texas oilmen brought their Stetsons to Calgary after Bay Street declined to fund Alberta’s oil and gas development. (Just as well, considering how badly Ontario has mismanaged its own hydro resources.) And Lethbridge’s flag is still a patched-up version of Old Glory held over from the days when only the American whiskey traders at Fort Whoop-Up made life in Palliser’s Triangle worth the effort.

Even some Ontarians admit that parts of Alberta’s Americanness aren’t bad. Living in Calgary for three years, my neighbour liked the concept of buying the health care you want, instead of settling for what a cash-short government can give you. And she loved Alberta’s friendliness, its pro-business culture and its lower tax rate.

For a current view, I called Mandie Crawford, an entrepreneur who just moved to Calgary from Burlington, Ont. After one month in Cowtown, she has no regrets. “Entrepreneurialism is alive and well,” she says. “There’s such a great sense that ‘you can do it.’” Then she squenches up her nose and utters a high, nasal voice to represent the entrepreneurs she’s met in Ontario: “Idon’tknowifIcandoit,” she whines. “There’sjustsomuchcompetition ….”

Crawford finds Albertans more confident, open and accepting. They are also more willing to be themselves, she says, noting that if business people in Ontario dressed in boots and jeans, “nobody would talk to them.” Still, she sees a dark side to the American Way. Crawford has already been berated about gun control (a subject on which she knows next to nothing), and she’s worried about the “Republic of Alberta” talk from people who think the province should go it alone. “I’m a fairly conservative person,” she says, “but when I get out here I feel rather liberal.”

But for all that the eastern Canadian elite try to paint Alberta as Montana North, they have some ’splaining to do. If you Google the phrase “Canada’s most American city,” it’s not Calgary that pops up but Toronto.

It comes down to what the two solitudes consider American –­­ and anti-American. Torontonians, after all, worship the Sunday New York Times, snooty Boston accents on PBS and the giant Target store in Niagara Falls, N.Y. They’re less enamoured with the workboots culture of Houston or Denver (although Vail is fine, in season).

And frankly, I’m not sure they’re all that keen on entrepreneurial frontiers. From Eric Harvie to Peter Pocklington to the Ghermezians, Alberta has always attracted ambitious entrepreneurs whose dreams
were too big for Eastern Canada. In Quebec, they decide how big the letters on your sign can be; in Toronto, they control who can sing on the subway.

If these limitations on personal expression are part of the Canadian compromise, I choose Fort Whoop-Up.