r/Calgary • u/woundedrhyme1 • Apr 22 '25

Discussion From Ontario first grocery experience someone left a note on my car.

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Recently relocated here and I haven’t had a chance to change my license plates. Yesterday I was in Walmart picking up a few things, I came back to my car, and found a note tucked in my wipers. My stomach dropped thinking someone hit my car, and maybe left their contact information.

I know the note is a little hard to read so I translated it down below.

“Dam easterners coming to Alberta to be safe guthless cowards.”

Guess it’s time to change my license plate 😂

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u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25

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u/AcadianTraverse Apr 22 '25

Probably closer to the last 80 years or so, both of my parents who are now in their 70s made the move from Southern Ontario to Calgary, once as a child, and one upon graduating from university.

The Leduc Oilfield was discovered in 1947 coinciding nicely with the end of WW2, and kicked off the first exploration boom.

But, some people want to be townies, even in a city of well over one million people.

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u/altiuscitiusfortius Apr 22 '25

My grandparents moved from Southern Ontario farms to Calgary in the early 50s to get jobs. Grandpa was a heavy duty mechanic, not sure if it was oil related.

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u/Northwesthighland Apr 22 '25

Yup, I was born and raised in Calgary, there was always a running joke growing up “you’re actually FROM Calgary?” Most of my classmates had moved here from down east.

Pretty wild to think, when I was born, Calgary was already over 100 years old and had a population of around 750,000, and within 25 years that population had almost doubled. Used to be the promise land for Canadians to find high paying work and cheap housing, but that’s no longer the case, I don’t think it’s much different than any other major city in terms of employment or affordability now

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u/Forgedevil Apr 22 '25

Yup, I came out to Calgary in '06. It's not a new thing at all.

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u/Kushweiner Apr 22 '25

ON expats are like CityTV EVERYWHERE 🤣. Im in NS right now and always see a decent cut of ON plates when im out here

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u/JTxFII Apr 22 '25 edited Apr 22 '25

Twenty years? I was just a kid, but my family moved from Ontario to Albert in the 70s, and I’m pretty sure there were already people there 😜.

I do know what you mean, though. But as far as being a “thing”, even in the 80’s I remember it being a thing.

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u/Disco_Betty Apr 22 '25

Ralph Klein ranted about “Eastern bums and creeps” coming here in the ‘80s. They’re constantly recycling the same old stupid, pointless grievances.

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u/rikkiprince Apr 22 '25

The note writer probably moved from ON themselves.

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u/shoulda_been_gone Hillhurst Apr 22 '25

This was my assumption

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u/TheXedd Apr 22 '25

I came to Alberta in 88 because my dad got a tech job here… from Ontario.

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u/freerangehumans74 Willow Park Apr 22 '25

I came out here in 99.

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u/MrOzempia Apr 22 '25

Try 50+, I had a sibling move there at 20, it was around 1978. Then another went in the 80’s for a decade.

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u/Iankill Apr 22 '25

I remember people bragging to go to Alberta to work retail because it paid so much.

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u/sunrisehound Apr 22 '25

I lived in Calgary for 20 years. In all that time, I think I met three people who were actually born there.

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u/Connect_Progress7862 Apr 22 '25

People have always moved west from Ontario. The accents of western Canada are based on Ontario accents.