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SISTER
CITIES
The
City of Calgary currently has six official Sister City Relationships:
Quebec
City, Canada
"Calgary's First Sister City"
Date established: April
2, 1956
During his term as President of the Canadian Federation
of Mayors and Municipalities, former Mayor Don Mackay was
approached with the fact that Quebec City and Calgary shared
many similarities. It was pointed out to Mayor Mackay, that
two cities in the Dominion of Canada had personalities of
their own that stood out from the others; Calgary in the
west, and Quebec City in the east. Upon consideration, Mayor
Mackay approached Mayor Wilfrid Hamel of Quebec City suggesting
that the two cities actively associate 'in a spirit if friendly
interest'. Quebec City became a twin city if Calgary be
resolution of City Council on April 2, 1956.
Little was done to foster this relationship for the first
ten years until, in 1966, Pete Kennedy, then the President
of the Calgary Junior Chamber of Commerce, entered into
an agreement with Mel Racine, then President of the Quebec
City Junior Chamber of Commerce. They both decided they
wanted to further extend the sister city relationship as
a Centennial project for 1967. In an effort to promote a
greater understanding between the people and their cultures,
an exchange program was established. The first exchanges
took place in February 1967 with a planning team attending
the Quebec Winter Carnival. In July of that same year, Quebec
City sent a planning team here for the Calgary Exhibition
and Stampede. By 1969, groups as large as 70 people were
making annual exchanges.
As
a result of this renewed interest and commitment, a Steering
Committee was formed in 1986 under the chairmanship of Mr.
Doug Ray, a member of the Calgary Junior Chamber of Commerce.
In April of 1991, the official Calgary-Quebec City Steering
Committee was formed under the Chairmanship of then Alderman
Ron Leigh in Calgary, and Alderman Claude Cantin in Quebec
City. Their purpose was to nurture this relationship and
ensure continued involvement from both cities.
Since
the signing of this resolution, Calgary has enjoyed a wonderful
relationship with Quebec City including:
-
Exchange 2000 Exchange, which will run youth exchange
programs in the summers of 1998, 1999, and 2000 for youth,
aged 14 to 17.
- Reciprocal
delegations to the Quebec Winter Carnaval and The Calgary
exhibition and Stampede
- The
fostering of amateur sports tournaments
- The
exchange of museum pieces and works of art
-
Co-operation and support for the Olympic bids, 1986 in
Calgary and 2002 in Quebec City.
- Exchange
of civic information between civic departments and civic
aldermen
- By
1995, the Calgary school system had entered into more
than 50 academic exchanges covering a number of subjects
and topics
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