Edmonton Sun Musings on the EDM/CGY wars.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Inspired by the "our propsects are better than yours" thread in the Flames forum, I thought I'd throw this gas on the fire too given how slow this place is. The Edmonton Sun has had a series of "100 years proud" editorials featuring gems like this:


1) Calgarians go totally crazy when their hockey team merely appears in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Edmontonians have had better reasons to be truly excited. We've had five reasons - as in five Stanley Cup wins."

Yawn. Haven't heard that one lately. Notice how many of the articles talk about Edmonton's former glory days? Packer Town, GWG, Oilers. Reminds me of Winnipeg - they had their glory days too.... And please stop calling it e-town....

20 Reasons Why Edmonton Thinks They're Better

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Edmonton: We are humble folk
Our rich folk are discrete? Yeah.... right... Perhaps it's a matter of proportion....

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The city may be an urban bustle. But within a couple of hours you can find a spot where the hand of man has hardly been felt
Urban bustle? Edmonton would have to first develop to the point where a downtown core would constitute urban bustle..... I will concede that Edmonton golf is cheaper and more plentiful. Government powers your town...snicker....

A City on the Move?

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How true that is is arguable, but the point is that Edmontonians believe it. It speaks directly to the burning rivalry that has existed since Edmonton's Frank Oliver used his clout as a federal Liberal cabinet minister to ensure that his city, not larger Calgary, became the provincial capital.

Calgary's revenge was to become the most dynamic business centre in Western Canada, and home to a Conservative political dynasty which has now governed the province for 33 years. Worse yet, Calgarians seem to have a Superglue gene that unites them faster than you can say self-interest.

Edmonton, by contrast, is a never-ending argument. It often seems like the only thing you can count on Edmontonians agreeing on, at least between themselves, are the alleged shortcomings of their city. But that deepens their hunger for somebody who can forge that most rare of Edmonton attributes, a civic consensus.

Interesting, I didn't know it was a Liberal cabinet minister that parked the capital in Edmonton. Imagine Edmonton without government and the University to fund it. Distinctly Lethbridge like. Will be interesting to see if Edmonton benefits or suffers from turning Red.


City Council to Blame?

[Deelow]

Please explain to me when Winnipeg's glory days were?

[MrMastodonFarm]

If you have to write an article on why you think your city is better then... your city isn't better. Calgary goes out and proves its a superior city by being better, its a known fact throughout North America. Calgary is a major leauge city.. edmonton is a glorified industrial park.

[nik-]

I think the fact that the writers take time to write these articles is just sad ... why constantly compare yourself to another city?

EDIT: ^^ yeah that MMF, but I wouldn't say Calgary is a major league city ... in Canada it is, but compared to our neighbour to the south ... it's pretty small heh.

[looooob]

1) Calgarians go totally crazy when their hockey team merely appears in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Edmontonians have had better reasons to be truly excited. We've had five reasons - as in five Stanley Cup wins."

so I take it they are implying that if the Oilers made it to the finals next year, the city would not get excited. The city that brags about having broken some sort of NHL "noise record" for a first round game against Dallas? The same city that gets whipped into a frenzy over an outdoor hockey game in November, wouldn't be excited about a trip to the finals?

the 80s are over. Edmonton (and to a lesser extent Calgary's) days as an NHL power are 15 years removed. I would be disappointed in Edmonton if their fans did not go absolutely crazy over a trip to the finals. But I know they would...why wouldn't they?

[arsenal]

We enjoy North America's largest stretch of urban parkland, including 225 km of bike trails. Calgarians have their postage-stamp-sized Prince's Island Park.

I guess fish creek park doesnt count. Nor the fact that you ride you bike from any end of the city to the other, solely on city bike paths.

Calgary > Edmonton.

All 20 of those arguments are lame.

[RougeUnderoos]

Ha ha. West Edmonton Mall. Do they still think that dump is something to be proud of?

Will they ever get over the 80's?

[Lanny_MacDonald]

Learnig to read between the lines of what an Edmontonian has to say.

"The city may be an urban bustle. But within a couple of hours you can find a spot where the hand of man has hardly been felt."

We live in the middle of freakin' no where! Within a couple hours of Edmonton you can find where the hand of man has hardly been felt, and for good reason.

"As do the mountains - even though Jasper is a three-hour drive."

They're there. You can't see them, but they are there. No worries though as you get to pass through a spot where the hand of man has hardly been felt, to get to those mountains. We really wish they were closer, but Calgary beat us to them.

"Calgarians go totally crazy when their hockey team merely appears in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Edmontonians have had better reasons to be truly excited. We've had five reasons - as in five Stanley Cup wins."

I wish our boys could merely appear in the Stanley Cup again. Heck, it would be nice if our boys appeared to merely be more than first round fodder for Dallas. Don't worry though boys, we still have the statue of Gretz to worship at! Someday we'll have a statue of Robbie Schremp right next to him holding up another cup. I hope they remember to take the pencils out and remove the sign that says "save our Oilers" when they cast it.

And a parting shot on my behalf...

"We are REAL people, not a society parading about pretending to be movie stars. "

Coulda fooled me. Every time I visit Edmonton I feel like I'm surrounded by the extras for the movies "Deliverance", "Joe Dirt", and "Jackass". Embrace your mulletness! A sequel is sure to find its way to the 'chuk!

[Pagal4321]

Wow they have an outstanding collection of trees.

LET'S ALL MOVE TO EDMONTON THEN!!!!

[Resolute 14]

I have to agree. The Edmonton inferiority complex strikes again.

We know we are better.

They are still trying to convince themselves otherwise.

[Thunderball]

"19) Edmonton has three entertainment districts with dozens of bars and clubs: Whyte Avenue, West Edmonton Mall and the downtown. Cowtown has but one true entertainment district: 17 Avenue.

Edmonton has a downtown???? Funny, all I remember is a couple buildings sparsely positioned around a power plant that looks like our U of C. (sans the power plant of course)

If they are calling West Ed and Whyte Ave "entertainment districts" what about Macleod Tr S, Stephen Ave, Chinook Centre, Sunridge Mall?? come on, malls are not entertainment districts even if they are morbidly obese.


20) Edmonton has trees - lots of them, including one of the world's largest collections of elms. Cowtown has little more than a ragtag collection of saplings. "


Ragtag trees?? thats the best?? ragtag trees... funny, I live 3 minutes away from as many trees as there are in Edmonton (Fish Creek).

I could deconstruct the rest, and I just might later, but I did my last final this morning and I'm tired.

[Faid1]

My large metropolitan area is better than your large metropolitan area

[Bertuzzied]

Yawn. wasn't there another Edmonton Sun article saying Calgary sucks about 3 months ago. Whats the point? Slow news day? Why don't they write about Edmonton's record breaking 37th murder of the year.

Anyone whose actually been to both cities knows there is no comparison.
The only good thing Edmonton has going for them is they don't have Eric Francis and Dohboy writing in their papers.

[Bertuzzied]

hahaha he's probably p*ssed he got demoted from Calgary to Edmonton.

hmmm does this guy write like a 6 year old? "my daddys better than your daddy" by Kerry Diotte. If you scramble the letters in his last name around you get IDIOT. Well i guess it is a Sun newspaper.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally posted by Deelow@Dec 21 2004, 01:37 PM
Please explain to me when Winnipeg's glory days were?

Post WW2. Ever been there? Just look at the construction. All this great 1945-50 era stuff, some not so good 50's stuff and then it just stops...... almost like a time warp. A few 'revitalization' projects scattered here and there and signs of new development - Portage mall developments, Investors Group "Tower", True North, but it's almost painful to see how it came to a screeching halt.

[Resolute 14]

10) It's true Calgary has way more freeways that are superior to ours. The bad news is they're so clogged with traffic it's actually a fair bit easier to drive in Edmonton.

This one was particularly funny. Obviously this writer has never ventured down to South Edmonton Common, nor has he ever driven the Yellowhead. Nor has he ever tried to get from the south side of Edmonton to the North. At my company, people who are travelling north are actually specifically told to avoid Edmonton because their streets are a disaster. It is actually much faster to take the Hwy 19/60 bypass, then go up Hwy 44 and cut back over to Hwy 2 than it is to crawl along Edmonton's streets.

[Mike Oxlong]

2) Every summer in Calgary I spent endless hours cleaning dirt out of my eyes. There were always airborne particles flying around from the annoying, incessant wind.

Now this writer is really reaching for straws here.

Ummm.........trailer park....tornado......anything ringing a bell here?
How about the windstorm this week up there? How about the rainstrom that flodded West Ed last summer?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally posted by Thunderball@Dec 21 2004, 08:15 PM
If they are calling West Ed and Whyte Ave "entertainment districts" what about Macleod Tr S, Stephen Ave, Chinook Centre, Sunridge Mall?? come on, malls are not entertainment districts even if they are morbidly obese.

West Ed does have a couple nightclubs. Which does differ from the Calgary malls you mentioned.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally posted by Flames Draft Watcher+Dec 21 2004, 09:09 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Flames Draft Watcher @ Dec 21 2004, 09:09 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Thunderball@Dec 21 2004, 08:15 PM
If they are calling West Ed and Whyte Ave "entertainment districts" what about Macleod Tr S, Stephen Ave, Chinook Centre, Sunridge Mall?? come on, malls are not entertainment districts even if they are morbidly obese.

West Ed does have a couple nightclubs. Which does differ from the Calgary malls you mentioned. [/b][/quote]
what nightclubs? are you talking about Reds? real cool nightclub to have a bowling alley also.

[Deelow]

The only decent night spots that Edmonton has are Calgary off-shoots

Cowboys, Schanks, The Drink????
What did they offer us? Bad Ass Jacks...gee thanks.