Introduction | Bison Economy | Kootisaw | Fort Calgary | Ranching | Agriculture
1895-1946 | 1947-1970 | 1971-1991 | Oil & Gas | Diversification | Ethnicity | Labour | Women
Calgary & Southern Alberta
North Hill Mall in the 1950's:
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection
From the 1940s until the early 1980s Calgary experienced phenomenal urban growth, which was fuelled largely by oil and gas revenues. Following the discovery of oil at Leduc in 1947, the booster mentality returned to Calgary as its mayor, Don Mackay, promoted the city as a "new" frontier that still retained its Western flavour. As with the ranching and agricultural frontiers, Calgary’s dependence on oil and gas resulted in recurring boom and bust cycles, and economic instability.
Although many people associate Alberta’s oil and gas history with the Leduc discovery of 1947, Calgary began benefiting from modest oil and gas strikes at Turner Valley, southwest of the city, starting in the 1910s. Turner Valley provided Calgary’s businessmen with the opportunity to develop local oil and gas commercial expertise. Calgary also became the Canadian headquarters for numerous international resource companies operating in Alberta and in the North. Calgary’s population paralleled the growth of Alberta’s new industry: it grew from nearly 90,000 people in 1941 to over 400,000 people in 1971. By the 1960s, Calgary had become the managerial headquarters for an international industry. Skyscrapers, subdivisions, and regional shopping centres reflected the city’s new urban status. While the city covered only forty square miles in the 1940s, it expanded to 155.8 by 1965. Calgary’s share of Alberta’s population rose from eleven percent in 1941 to twenty-five percent by 1971. It was estimated that for every individual employed in the oil industry, seven jobs were created elsewhere. Agriculture still accounted for twenty percent of the city’s industry and Calgary retained its role as a regional distribution centre.
In the post World War II period, Alberta’s successful oil and gas industries promoted American immigration to Calgary. By 1965, 30,000 Americans had moved to the city and they figured prominently in Calgary’s social and economic life. The city’s workforce became more white-collared and affluent than any other Canadian city. In addition, post-war immigration introduced a sizeable immigrant population onto a relatively small Calgary-born population. Although arts and education flourished in the post-World War II period of prosperity, the political life of the province became stagnant. The Social Credit Party’s unique blending of religion and politics under Ernest Manning, premier from 1943 to 1968, its close ties with the business community, and sympathy for private enterprise ensured the party’s success until 1971.
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