Canadian Glory: The achievements of Canada's lost civilization cannot be overstated

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Somewhere across this great land, someone or something great is just getting started. This country is built on game-changing people, ideas and initiatives: Wayne Gretzky redefined a game; oilsands innovations helped us prosper; Frederick Banting transformed millions of lives; Loblaws changed how we live. Today, we continue our series that celebrates Canadian greatness, in whatever form we find it.

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The skies over Fort Calgary were unusually bright on the evening of July 17, 1912, a warm iridescence swelling the long, early summer dusk. Twelve-thousand people — almost a quarter of the city’s population — had gathered on Scotsman’s Hill to watch. As related by historian Earle Gray, the spectacle wasn’t some spreading fire or a rare glow of northern lights in summer, but the flare from a newly completed natural gas line.

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Readers might attribute these Calgarians’ yen for burning methane to typical Albertan eccentricity or the lack of other entertainment — no smart phones, internet or even television — and the fact that the birth of a two-headed calf might, back then, have been big news. But this was big news.

Up until that point, manufactured coal gas served only about........

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