So much for Alberta's redneck image. Yesterday, a group of protesters made it abundantly clear they wanted a little hurly-burly with the police.
Out in front of the McDonald's restaurant on Stephen Avenue, a masked, self-described "anarchist" said, "I wouldn't be here if I were you ... there's going to be violence."
Another face-covered anarchist simply said, "Get ready."
Some minutes later, the crowd of protesters -- many of them wearing gas masks or cider vinegar-soaked bandanas to protect themselves from hoped-for tear gas -- link arms and move forward en-masse, pushing up against a line of Calgary police wearing benign-looking bicycle helmets and holding -- not batons, but, wait for it -- mountain bikes!
With their backs up against the McDonald's windows, the police raised the front tires of their bikes and firmly said, "Move back, move back!"
I literally got a lump in my throat watching the scene.
In other more artsy-fartsy parts of the world -- in Genoa last year, on the left coast in Vancouver and Seattle, in Quebec City, in kinder and gentler Ottawa and even yesterday in gay Paris -- police came out wearing full body armour, holding bullet-proof shields, banging batons and shooting out shells of tear gas and pepper spray.
And yet in supposedly intolerant, cowboy-infested, oil-drenched, redneck Alberta, our boys and girls in blue arm themselves with raised bicycle tires.
It made me proud.
I wasn't the only one.
Charles Parr, a Calgary bicycle courier and regular protester himself, said it was clear there was a substantial contingent of protesters who were aiming for violence.
"I'm feeling something like civic pride right now because of the professionalism and class our cops have shown," said Parr, who attended the violent Summit of the Americas protests in Quebec City last year.
"If this had been Quebec they'd already have the tear gas and the batons out.
"Instead of Robocop outfits," he noted, "Calgary cops kind of look like me."
I then run into the Sun's Rick Bell, and he tells me a couple of international television news crews were "absolutely impressed" with Calgary police and the other police who have been brought in from across the country.
As we talk about the police, along strolls police union president Sgt. Al Koenig, wearing a "Back the Blue" golf shirt and looking decidedly pleased and relaxed.
Al, however, is not at all surprised by how things have gone so far.
"That's part of the training.
"Our reaction is concurrent with the threat."
Actually, it's less -- and therefore more -- than that.
The police reaction diffused a threat as palpable as the 32C heat.
Insp. Al Redford said he too has been "extremely proud."
"Our officers couldn't have conducted themselves better.
"This is what we expected of them," Redford said outside of the Calgary convention centre. "What you've seen so far is a low-key, non-confrontational approach.
"But rest assured, we remain at a high state of alert and we're ready to respond to anything that faces us."
I head back to Stephen Avenue.
I am standing at a corner with a protester who is wearing a Rise Up! Resist! Rebel! T-shirt. There is no traffic, and yet we are obediently waiting for the walk sign.
I decide to defy the utterly pointless signal. The protester, however, waits for the sign.
Chaos Calgary style.
Feeling like resisting and rebelling against all of the anti-globalization rhetoric I have been exposed to of late, I decide to do my bit for globalization by buying some strappy Italian sandals I saw recently at shoe store extraordinaire Arnold Churgin.
Its glass front is boarded up -- like many other stores along Stephen Avenue. Unfortunately, the doors are locked as well.
In Calgary, in my books, it's the biggest crime of the day.
You've got to love that.
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