Calgary responds to Amazon shortlist, says city would still fight a bear for second HQ

Say what you will about Calgary’s unique approach to courting Amazon, but the city is a gracious loser.

In a January 18th, 2017 tweet, Calgary Economic Development — the organization responsible for encouraging economic interest in Alberta’s largest city — formally acknowledged not placing on Amazon’s top 20 list for the e-commerce giant’s second North American Headquarters (HQ2).

We’re disappointed that Calgary was not included on Amazon’s #HQ2 short list, but we’re proud of Calgary’s bold campaign and our community for rallying around it. The global attention received will help attract other companies to come to #yyc. But in the meantime, go, Toronto go! pic.twitter.com/GdFzLvbFWN

— Calgary Economic Dev (@calgaryeconomic) January 18, 2018

The tweet also continued Calgary’s unique approach to courting the the global e-commerce giant, ending by stating that the city would “still fight a bear for [Amazon].”

This isn’t the first time that Calgary has made such an assertion.

While cities across the country submitted bids to compete for Amazon’s second North American headquarters, Calgary’s approach could only be described as eccentric.

In the run up to the formal proposal deadline, Calgary Economic Development released a series of ads espousing the benefits of opening up Amazon’s HQ2 in the city.

Among those ads was a tagline stating “We’d fight a bear for you.”

For what it’s worth, we here at MobileSyrup are still not fully sure we understand the joke — nor are we convinced that everyone in Calgary would want to fight a bear for Amazon.

Still, Calgary’s campaign is nothing if not interesting.

Amazon formally announced the 20 cities most likely to be awarded the company’s second North American headquarters, on January 18th. Toronto was the only Canadian city to make the list.

Source: Twitter