Calgary SSP gay life

[Doug]

An American city of 500k has better shopping than any Canadian city. Claiming that Toronto and Montreal are shopping Meccas is laughable.

Anyways, enjoyed reading this thread.

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by Doug

An American city of 500k has better shopping than any Canadian city. Claiming that Toronto and Montreal are shopping Meccas is laughable.

Anyways, enjoyed reading this thread.

Hahaha not true buddy sorry. I was in Pittsburg and Cleveland twice last year, shopping sucked compared to Toronto. You need to spend more time in TO and you'll see you are wrong.

[travis3000]

Originally Posted by shreddog

Did you honestly say "Mandarin" as an example of Chinese food!!!!

Mandarin?

Mandarin!

The f'ng McMandarin (as most Torontonians call it)!!!!

For those in Calgary not familiar with this hallmark of Chinese cooking, think of Yangtzee at Deerfoot with less quality. IT'S AN F'NG BUFFET!!!!!

My grandparents love the mandarin. There's simply nothing comparable in Calgary. That's the reality. I never said it was authentic Chinese food. I'm not an idiot.

Sorry, but you lost all cred right there.

BTW, comparing Calgary on a regular night to Montreal during Juste Pour Rire is crazy. You said it was a regular weekend, but somehow Just Pour Rire was on as was the fireworks fetival?? Why don't you come during Stampede and actually compare apples to pommes??

Montreal has events going on all the time. if its not one thing it's another. I've been there on many weekends all the time and its always like this. And I've been to Stampede. it's busy yes but I'm not really into the cowboy scene. No sane person would compare the nightlife and urban vibe of Montreal or Toronto to Calgary. It's simply not even close.

And with the theatre, of course TO has more options and gets play that Calgary doesn't - IT'S A BIGGER MARKET!! But the plays Calgary does get are just as GOOD as anything in TO. BTW, London gets way more production than TO does as does NY. Though smaller - TO still offers good selections... just like Calgary. Again, I saw about 2 dozen top production plays in Calgary last year - perhaps your cousins need to get out a bit more???

As for shopping, of course Calgary will have less selection - IT'S F'NG 1/6 THE SIZE OF TORONTO!!!! That said, this Torontian born and bred goes to London at least once a year to shop since it is way ahead of anything available in TO. And I mean that - I can buy things in Calgay that I can find in Toronto, but there is SO MUCH I can get in London that I cannot find in Toronto.

I can buy things in my local 2000 population town that I can't get in Toronto. Every city has its own products. But with big international fashion brands, they come to Toronto first due to population.

Finally, if a city's culinary creds are based on what it is "known" for, I think Cowtown holds it own.

First off here is a whole line of food products from Loblaws - mainly sold in Ontario - that play up the Calgary motif ... (all photos from Loblaws website)




Then there is this ... which I will hazard a guess that more people had one of these today than an F'ng smoked meat sandwich!

Courtesy of wiki

Sorry for blowing a gasket, but this is just F'ng crazy!!

Someone is a tad offended I see! Don't take it so personally.

[Radley77]

I'd be keen on a SSP meetup on a weekday on Stephen Avenue after work!

[Deepstar]

I couldn't care less about Chinese buffets in Toronto, I prefer Authentic Chinese. For someone like myself, who's an avid snowboarder, and mountain biker, Calgary puts Toronto to shame, end of story

We need to move on from this Toronto vs Calgary comparisons. I was enjoying the conversations about actual gay life in Calgary.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by travis3000

Hahaha not true buddy sorry. I was in Pittsburg and Cleveland twice last year, shopping sucked compared to Toronto. You need to spend more time in TO and you'll see you are wrong.

I spend lots of time in Toronto. I lived there in the late 80's and early 90's and back then it wasn't even up to par with Calgary (~600K people at time) as at least Calgary had stores open on Sundays and weekday evening.

Even Spokane, Washington has better selection, pricing and service than anywhere in Canada. The US is a consumerist culture with cut throat competition and the customer benefits. Prices in Canada are outrageous.

[DizzyEdge]

So I'm guessing reading and commenting in this thread is why my Meetup.com google ads now specify "local men"...

[kw5150]

haha.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Deepstar

I couldn't care less about Chinese buffets in Toronto, I prefer Authentic Chinese. For someone like myself, who's an avid snowboarder, and mountain biker, Calgary puts Toronto to shame, end of story

We need to move on from this Toronto vs Calgary comparisons. I was enjoying the conversations about actual gay life in Calgary.

Yeah, Travis seems to have some kind of — vendetta against Calgary. Any time someone even comes close to alluding that Calgary might have something better than Toronto, he comes in with a condescending, rude comparison that is completely unwarranted. It's just like any time someone brings up the Herald Square project, he feels the need to advertise that Toronto will be the first city with a supertall... as if out of nowhere.

I've lived in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Calgary... and the only city I actually miss living in versus here is Vancouver... I enjoy Calgary much more than Toronto and Ottawa. It's all in the eye of beholder.


Back to the gay topic... I went to the back lot last night, and it seems like the twinks are invading!

[YYCguys]

Awe, I stayed home last night because I was on call early this morning. I should really make a point of going there. It's been about a decade since I was there last!

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Doug

I spend lots of time in Toronto. I lived there in the late 80's and early 90's and back then it wasn't even up to par with Calgary (~600K people at time) as at least Calgary had stores open on Sundays and weekday evening.

Even Spokane, Washington has better selection, pricing and service than anywhere in Canada. The US is a consumerist culture with cut throat competition and the customer benefits. Prices in Canada are outrageous.

indeed!
There's a reason the Walden Galleria in Buffalo,NY is one of the busiest malls around (~20 million shoppers/yr). and it ain't from a measly 1.1 million Buffalonians! Thousands upon thousands of Niagara residents, GTA'ers and Ontarians from beyond flock there on weekends. All the sales tax generated there and outlet malls by Canadians helps keep Erie County firmly in the black.

As for Calgary, the retail scene here is booming because a)disposable income per capita is much higher than Toronto b)the economy is doing pretty well right now and c)we have no Bellingham or Buffalo right across the border to steal market share from us.
edit: apologies for taking the thread off topic

[kw5150]

Wow we certainly have some shopping experts! (said with lots of s's). I guess that goes in hand with being gay, right?

[eemy]

In fairness to Toronto, isn't it the third largest centre globally for English theatre after NY and London?

[RWin]

Originally Posted by kw5150

I guess that goes in hand with being gay, right?

I don't know... I like shopping too

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Govertical

I would've never thought there'd be any gay people into skyscrapers here too!

The straights on the forum are much more interested in open pit mining.

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by freeweed

The straights on the forum are much more interested in open pit mining.

I'm more interested in drilling than open pits.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by DizzyEdge

I'm more interested in drilling than open pits.

*fans face* Well, I do declare, that just gave me the vapors! LMAO!

[niwell]

Originally Posted by WIGS

indeed!
There's a reason the Walden Galleria in Buffalo,NY is one of the busiest malls around (~20 million shoppers/yr). and it ain't from a measly 1.1 million Buffalonians! Thousands upon thousands of Niagara residents, GTA'ers and Ontarians from beyond flock there on weekends. All the sales tax generated there and outlet malls by Canadians helps keep Erie County firmly in the black.

As for Calgary, the retail scene here is booming because a)disposable income per capita is much higher than Toronto b)the economy is doing pretty well right now and c)we have no Bellingham or Buffalo right across the border to steal market share from us.
edit: apologies for taking the thread off topic

Walden Galleria is great when you want average stuff cheaper then you can get in TO. No doubt about that. It doesn't make Buffalo a better shopping city than Toronto though. You won't find the same level of boutique stores and high-end stuff. I imagine a lot of people don't really care about such things though.


/off-topic....

[softee]

^ Exactly. Anyone who thinks that Buffalo or any other mid-sized American cities have "better" shopping than Toronto are waaaayyyyy off base.

[Allan83]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Yeah, he was the concrete proof that my gaydar is pretty damned useless.
I actually think the dude is an amazing "role model", or whatever. He's the first well-known gay person that I can think of who exhibits exactly zero of the usual stereotypes that homophobes like to make fun of. I love to be able to point to him and say "you would never know he's gay if I didn't tell you".

It's a little like the first actresses who didn't act like scared little girls in their movies. There's nothing WRONG with acting "gay", or acting "girly" - but it's good to see examples where people are more than just stereotypes.

Glad to know I’m not the only one! It doesn’t really matter one way or another, but it’s just another way I’m out of the loop on gay issues. I can’t even tell who’s gay!

Btw, homophobia is another gay issue I fundamentally don’t understand. Why would anyone care if someone else is gay? If I was interested in woman and found out she was gay I might be disappointed, but as a straight man why would I care if another man is gay? I get that there are people who will pick on others who are different, or who are vulnerable, but it seems to me that there’s something else going on with homophobia, and I don’t really understand what it is.