EDMONTON – The City of Calgary took out a half-page ad in Friday’s Edmonton Journal, to show its northern neighbour some appreciation.
The ad reads, “Edmonton, Your Generosity Runs Deep. Thank you for your overwhelming generosity and support. During the flood of 2013, Calgarians had no better friends than you.”
The words echo those spoken by Calgary’s mayor Naheed Nenshi in the midst of the crisis, when Edmonton sent down its soldiers, firefighters and police to help.
“Just knowing now that Calgary would probably respond in the same way we did,” says Acting Insp. Erik Johnson with the Edmonton Police Service. “Not only as police organization, but as a city sending our people down there to assist. I know in my heart they would do the same thing.”
That spirit of camaraderie may signify a shift in the relationship between the two competing Alberta cities whose long-standing rivalry dates back more than a century, to when Alberta entered the Confederation.
The province’s first premier Alexander Rutherford, who was from Edmonton, managed to snag all three of what were considered to be the most coveted possessions at the time: the legislature, the university, and the penitentiary.
“These were all stable and long-term employment operations funded by the public purse,” explains Jim Lightbody of the University of Alberta’s Political Science department.
“It was a very serious rivalry early on,” he adds. “I think even up until the Klein era there was a sense of injustice that had never been addressed.”
Over the years, Calgary levelled the playing field by acquiring big business. And eventually, the strong rivalry softened into more of a superficial one, centred mostly around sports.
Lightbody points out even those rivalries “go by the board when we are united against Mother Nature.”
Whether it will remain that way when the hockey season starts back up, though, is another matter.
With files from Laurel Clark, Global News
Comments