Daily life
SIN
sin, said as a word
Social Insurance Number. You cannot legally be paid without one. Free, from Service Canada, usually issued same day in person.
AHCIP
AY-chip
Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan. Public health cover with no premiums and — unusually for Canada — no waiting period.
The +15
plus fifteen
The elevated walkway network across downtown, fifteen feet up. Eighteen kilometres of it, and in January it is how the core actually functions.
Chinook
shi-NOOK
A warm wind off the Rockies that can lift the temperature 20 °C in a few hours mid-winter. Also brings headaches, which locals will insist on telling you about.
Bow and Elbow
—
The two rivers that meet downtown. They also define the flood risk map, which matters when choosing where to live.
Quadrant
KWOD-rant
Every Calgary address ends in NW, NE, SW or SE, and the same street number exists in all four. Omitting it sends you across the city.
Culture
Stampede
stam-PEED
Ten days each July when the entire city dresses in western wear and business stops pretending to be normal. Attendance is effectively mandatory.
Food
Ginger beef
—
A crispy sweet beef dish invented in Calgary in the 1970s, not in China. A genuine local creation and on almost every Chinese menu here.
Social
Double-double
DUB-ble DUB-ble
A coffee with two creams and two sugars. Ordering it correctly at Tim Hortons is a small Canadian rite of passage.
Toque
tooke
A knitted winter hat. You will need one from October, and the wind here makes it non-negotiable.
Emergency
911
nine-one-one
Police, fire and ambulance. Ambulance transport is billed in Alberta even with AHCIP.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.