Originally Posted by Sliver
It sucked from a vacation/tourist perspective. It was just another Olds with a nicer backdrop. I'm sure it was wonderful if you lived there, but it wasn't a destination for people with Banff 15 minutes down the road and totally set up for non-stop fun. It would make no sense to go to Canmore (as a tourist or vacationer) back then.
Here's something else. I don't know when you moved to Calgary, but I think you'll struggle to find any Calgarian who wouldn't trade the Calgary of today for the Calgary of 1993. It was way less busy. I knew where everything was. There wasn't a neighbourhood I hadn't heard of. I knew all the schools. We'd skateboard, LRT and just generally treat the entire city as a big playground. Skate down 17th. Skate in Kensington. It was rad, but now it's a metropolis.
Why is it that Calgarians can totally accept that things have changed and not whine about it as though you and all the other people who added to our population explosion are somehow to blame for the growth? We really do accept people here without bitching about it. Traffic sucks everywhere. The city is huge. Infrastructure projects to accommodate all the new people are disruptive, time-consuming and expensive. That's okay. Such is life. We accept it and welcome people without trying to make them feel like lesser-thans.
Nope, fk the residents. We were totally taken aback at the outright hostility from Canmore residents. And you didn't build the valley for me. Canadians and Albertans built the valley. I'm a Canadian and I'm an Albertan. You can parse yourself down further to a Canmorian if you want, but I don't have to accept it. BTW, even if you did build the valley for me, you have a funny way of letting me use what was apparently built for me.
And yeah, the ski hills? Sorry, you can thank Calgarians for that. There's no economy or money inside Canmore or Banff outside of what's injected from tourists, many of which are from Calgary. Plus, I did work in Banff and Lake Louise, so I consider myself a contributor to the area.
And understand their perspective? I do. They're all fkn #######s. We started off so supportive of the community, but at about the two-year mark we had an epiphany that was confirmed by all the other people with vacation homes I've spoken with: residents of Canmore loath us and are very open about outwardly displaying that hatred.
So yeah, Canmore is great. The people are the absolute worst. Can't wait until the new people coming into Canmore outnumber the old-stock residents so we can drown out their negativity.
I just don't have the interest in catering to the nostalgia and feelings a bunch of people have for a town that hasn't existed in 25 years when they could just enjoy their new and improved town. I'm working on my own life over here. Don't put your crap on me.
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To other CPers: If you want to experience somebody trying to treat you like you're a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of their shoe, next time you're in Canmore for the day and your server, the lady helping you check out an item at the store, or the person you run into on the street asks you where you're from (they all do this, btw...it's a way of slotting you into their pecking order), tell them you live in Calgary but have a weekend condo in Canmore. You will get THE frostiest, coldest, angriest response. You'll see their entire demeanor #### in 0.0001 seconds. It's wild.
Now if my wife and I aren't in the mood to deal with Canmore local BS we just say we're from Calgary for the day. That makes things easier, but sometimes I'll tell the truth just to see them transform to show their inner a-hole.
Another fun thing we do is say we live in Canmore. You can really get some dirt on what they think of people with a vacation property here. You see Fuzz talking about "weekenders" and "empty houses" and the ruining of "the community" so openly here, right? And he's a nice guy! Well, you should hear those words when there is a hateful tone and ugly look on somebody's face. It's seriously messed up. Closest thing a Canadian white guy will ever get to experiencing a smidgen of what racism must feel like to a minority. They seriously fkn hate us there.
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