Calgary, a cosmopolitan Alberta city with numerous skyscrapers, owes its rapid growth to its status as the centre of Canada’s oil industry. However, it’s still steeped in the western culture that earned it the nickname “Cowtown,” evident in the Calgary Stampede, its massive July rodeo and festival that grew out of the farming exhibitions once presented here.
Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, about 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the “Calgary–Edmonton Corridor”.[13]
The city had a population of 1,239,220 in 2016, making it Alberta’s largest city and Canada’s third-largest municipality.[7] Also in 2016, Calgary had a metropolitan population of 1,392,609, making it the fourth-largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in Canada.[9]
The economy of Calgary includes activity in the energy, financial services, film and television, transportation and logistics, technology, manufacturing, aerospace, health and wellness, retail, and tourism sectors.[14] The Calgary CMA is home to the second-highest number of corporate head offices in Canada among the country’s 800 largest corporations.[15]
In 1988, Calgary became the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympic Games, followed in 2010 by Vancouver.