The rough and tumble past of the western sections of North America is well known. Gold rushes and gunslingers. Sarsaparilla and trail rides.

Calgary, home of one of the most famous Stampede‘s in the world, has a new bylaw in the works. It seems that even as the city grows to become a white collar mecca, it’s got a large portion of the rough and tumble left in it.

There’ll be no fighting, spitting or peeing in public, unless you want the city to relieve you of hundreds of dollars in fines.

And don’t even think about defecating, loitering, putting your feet up on public benches or carrying a visible knife around.

These proscriptions aimed at “regulating public behaviour” are expected to become law in this sprawling Prairie city when council gives a new bylaw final reading Monday.

The shame of it is that there would be no need for this bylaw unless these behaviours were occurring on a semi-regular basis. I’d like to say I’m surprised that a city would feel the need to draft this bylaw but then I’d be lying through my teeth.

What is the world coming to?

Technorati Tags: Calgary, bylaw, rudeness

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.