May 2020: HMCS Calgary - A relation[SHIP] like no other
Hey Neighbours,
In a previous newsletter, I started a conversation around revamping our Great Neighbourhoods mission in a post-COVID, and more global, context. I mentioned how Author Yuval Noah Harari’s thinking on how COVID-19 is poised to change the world, is helping guide our thinking on this topic. He argues that the new word we emerge into on the other side of this virus will be the result of a struggle between global cooperation versus isolationism on the one hand, and between citizen empowerment versus authoritarian control on the other. To me, there’s only one corner of that graph where good lies (increasing global cooperation plus increasing citizen empowerment) and even if we make it into that quadrant, there’ll still be tons of work to do to make sure the outcome is actually good. Your Team Ward 9 has been engaged over the past couple weeks in a deep-dive into these topics and our role in shaping the best possible future.
So with that in mind, I want to use this report to tell you about and invite you to participate in a uniquely Calgarian occurrence taking place in the form of a Special Meeting of Council this May 12 - the 25th Anniversary of the commissioning of HMCS Calgary. I also also want to explore why now, more than ever, it’s important for our city:
In the fall of 2016, I attended the Railvolution conference in San Francisco with a contingent of the City of Calgary’s GreenLine Team. It was an invaluable opportunity to present the GreenLine to the best transit and transit oriented development professionals in the world as well as to benchmark our project against the state of the art. Randomly, it was also Fleet Week in San Francisco, and when we were not sequestered inside conference sessions, our experience of the city was enhanced by an international assortment of naval craft plying the bay, filling the wharves, and thundering through the skies.
Walking along the Embarcadero one afternoon, we noticed that the huge ship at the end of the pier was flying a Canadian flag. We walked two blocks out into the bay to get a closer look and to our delight, as we came around the corner of the warehouse, we saw that the ship was HMCS Calgary. When I explained to the duty watch officer that I was an elected official of the City of Calgary, he got on his radio and the next thing I knew the Captain himself was welcoming us on board and giving us a tour.
While I had been previously (dimly) aware that there was an HMCS Calgary - there are models of the two ships that have borne our City’s name in the lobby of City Hall - I learned many things on that tour:
The backbone of the Canadian Navy are a series of Halifax-Class Frigates each named for a Canadian City;
These ships are significant multi-functional players in terms of meeting Canada’s NATO obligations and projecting a Canadian presence into the world’s oceans and ports of call; and,
Amongst these Canadian frigates, only HMCS Calgary has an extra-special relationship with its namesake city.
Since that chance encounter, I have found myself playing an increasingly involved role in maintaining and building upon the relationship between HMCS Calgary and the City of Calgary. Last July, these duties resulted in Councillor Jeff Davison and I throwing the First Annual HMCS Calgary Hoe Down at the Crossroads Market; a Stampede-time +600 person public celebration that raised $10,000 for the Foothills Burn Unit and the Alex Community Food Centre. This year marks the 25 Anniversary of HMCS Calgary and we were planning on taking things to the next level with a series of events throughout the year, starting on May 12. And then COVID-19 struck and, as with everything, we’ve been forced to re-think and re-evaluate.
In pre-COVID times, the HMCS Calgary was a great symbol of our City’s role in the project of being Canadian - both in terms of our City’s relationship to the country, and with regard to Canada’s role upon the world stage. In the context of this global pandemic, however, I’ve come to see it as much more than a symbol, it is a tangible expression of Calgarian and Canadian values - cooperation, peace-keeping, pluralism, competence and resolve. Much like our city, the crew is a wonderfully diverse expression of our Canadian population and a bold embodiment of these values. Here in our neighbourhoods nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains or at sea, these expressions are more important now than ever.
HMCS Calgary connects the spirit of our prairie city, in a marine context, connecting not only coast to coast to coast, but with the far corners of the earth. The COVID-19 Pandemic has made our interconnectedness, our shared vulnerability, our humanity all the more prevalent. Tragedies, like the mass shooting in Nova Scotia this past month, also remind us of this. It isn’t just tragedies and viruses that have the ability to bring us together and prompt messages of well-wishing, condolences, and empathy. Symbols like HMCS Calgary can ultimately remind us of our shared experiences, as Canadians and as humans.
While the planned gatherings are postponed this year, as we remain in COVID-19 lockdown, the spirit of celebration and coming together is still possible. Please join us this Tuesday, May 12 at 09:30am MST via a special public meeting of Calgary City Council as we connect with HMCS Calgary, locked down itself in a ready-state, standing by COVID-free, off the west coast of Vancouver. Mayor Nenshi will proclaim acknowledgement of the 25 Anniversary and our City Council will debate a Notice of Motion designed to formalize our Ship-City relationship in a new way. I’m hoping you’ll join us for this exciting and novel (naval) opportunity and appreciate the part this celebration can play in pursuit of our best possible post-COVID-19 future.
Over the next month, we’ll be sharing pieces of Calgary’s history that celebrate our connection to the broader community across Canada and ask you to help us determine what else we can do to secure this best possible version of our future.
Follow along and join the (virtual) conversation with your own contributions by using #HMCSCalgary across social media or send us an email with your own memories!
We hope you’ll join us on this special day and look forward to celebrating with you!
Gian-Carlo Carra
