Strong Towns Calgary

We are Strong Towns Calgary, and we believe in a bottom-up approach to urbanism, promoting human dignity in our communities through achievable, citizen-led action.We serve as a pluralistic platform for civic communication, empowering advocacy and innovation toward stronger communities, challenging our city's problems and structures behind them.We imagine Calgary as a compassionate, vibrant, interconnected urban landscape where every community flourishes—grounded in sustainable practices, fiscal responsibility, and a spirit of inclusive stewardship.

Our Campaigns

Strongest Town 2025

Vote for Calgary!

Calgary was nominated in the 2025 Strongest Town Contest!
Click here to learn more nbout the Strongest Town Contest, Join us in supporting Calgary’s journey to a stronger future!

Park(ing) Day 2024

Aug-September 2024 - "The P.o.P.-Up Shack"

We designed and constructed a small house as an installation for ActivateYYC's Park(ing) Day weekend in Kensington.Encouraging conversations about Calgary's parking and housing policy, and repurposing space in our city for more People-oriented Places.

Rezoning for Housing

Jan-April 2024 - Education & Advocacy

We supported the City of Calgary's decision to enable incremental housing growth citywide.Producing educational content for social media, and encouraging our members to advocate at the Public Hearing.

Got an idea?

Let's collaborate to make it happen!

We're always looking for opportunities to bring Calgarians together for positive, actionable change.🡒 Let us know how we can help!

About Us

Strong Towns Calgary began in February 2023 when our co-founders wanted to bring a Strong Towns Local Conversation to their hometown.Since then we've advocated as a group in critical local issues on land-use, transportation, and fiscal resilience. Maintaining a presence on social media, as well as forums for productive conversation online, and in-person at our regular gatherings!

Our Values

People-First Wealth Creation

People create wealth—transportation systems, infrastructure, growth, and job creation are merely augments or symptoms of wealth, not sustainable replacements. Calgary's job is to nurture talent by providing and enabling enriching services and productive places that serve to create a strong, interdependent, and independent citizenry.

Doing the Math

Strength means flexibility, resilience into an unpredictable future. Cities are playing infinite games, we can't just put ourselves up for sale in a downturn—what we build today must sustain prosperity for generations to come. Calgary should only support initiatives that provide a measurable long-term return on investment to the community.

Bottom-Up Governance

Local government is misunderstood as the lowest level of government in a hierarchy, it’s actually where your voice is loudest! Enabling citizen particiaption and engagement in local governance should be the top priority of a healthy democracy. We believe strong citizens make strong communities, and a strong Calgary—in that direction.

Meeting People Where They Are

We believe in an inclusive, dialectical approach to conflict resolution. Disagreement doesn't imply right or wrong, only a lack of understanding. Cities are necessarily filled with folks of all kinds, so success means listening attentively, and taking holistic action to address complex problems.

Acting Incrementally, Today

Good and great are not enemies, a small step today easily becomes a few more tomorrow, but the wait for perfection is unending. Legalizing small projects lowers the barrier of entry to wealth creation, allowing everyday folks to become active participants in their communities. A resilient, feedback-seeking city ensures that no community suffers radical, sudden change, but no community is exempt from change.

Being for Something

It's easy to find reasons to complain (and admittedly we do), but what's more difficult is to synthesize and advocate toward a constructive solution. When we focus on what we don't want, we fail to define what we do—and if what we want is unclear, we can never achieve it. Strong Towns Calgary is for the right to incremental progress, transparent municipal accounting, and the proliferation of productive, integrated places.

Honouring our Land and Heritage

The confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, known to the Blackfoot people as Mohkinstsis (translating to Elbow), has long served as a sacred gathering place for sharing stories, resources, and collaborating towards a stronger community. Land is the base resource upon which all prosperity is built and sustained atop—as Calgary radiates across the foothills and prairies from this point, it must ultimately honour the tradition of sustainability, resilience, and cooperation that has always governed it.

Embracing Incompleteness

Strong Towns Calgary is forever a work in progress where all members are welcomed and encouraged to share their ideas and skills. There is no final state in mind; together, we can always achieve stronger.

Vote Calgary!

Calgary nominated for Strongest Town 2025

Strong Towns selected Calgary to compete among 16 municipalities across North America to determine which has made the most substantial improvements in fiscal resilience and urban vibrancy.

The public vote for the Strongest Town Contest website is now closed. Over the next six weeks, the public will determine a victor in a bracket-style tournament.Calgary had the incredible opportunity to compete against Alburquerque, New Mexico, and Harrisonburg, Virginia.This was an amazing chance to showcase Calgary’s optimistic story, celebrating our successes and empowering more Calgarians to address our shortcomings through action.Calgary has made significant progress in moving away from the unsustainable suburban expansion model that has characterized much of our past. We are now focusing inward, on policy and implementation, to help established communities thrive.Calgary was the only Canadian city competing in 2025. While we were not victorious, Calgary was the only Canadian city to compete in the Strongest Town since the annual contest began in 2016.

Contact Us

Let's Start a Conversation!

Feel free to reach out to us on our official social media accounts for general inquiries.If you have any immediate questions or would like to reach out to us directly, please fill out the contact box!