From Bankers Hall to the Canadian Western Bank Building, the message is ringing clear: Local boosterism is still important, but attracting business to the Calgary-Edmonton corridor is paramount if the two cities hope to compete on national and international levels.

"Rivalries are fun ... but the fact is, rivalries are just on the football field," Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel told a Calgary Chamber of Commerce/B'nai Brith-hosted luncheon during a recent swing through Calgary. "We need, as two cities, to start to get together to do the kinds of things that will make our two cities stronger.

"I love Edmonton," he continued, "... but it's not a zero-sum game; we've all matured a little and we all understand that off the football field the Edmonton-Calgary relationship is more complementary than divisive these days."

Officials in both cities say serious efforts are under way to not only bridge the north-south gap, but also foster business opportunities in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor.

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel says Calgary deserves infrastructure cash.

"The advantage of the corridor is it provides you with a bit more critical mass for foreign companies," said Bruce Graham, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development (CED). "A city of a million is not a significant-sized city in a global perspective, but you're starting to see a bit more critical mass when you're talking two to 21/2 million people."

Graham said co-operation is happening on several fronts. In 2004 he and Allan Scott, his counterpart with the Edmonton Economic Development Corp. (EEDC), travelled to London, England, to make joint pitches to business leaders in that city. Earlier this year a delegation from both organizations, along with members from Alberta Economic Development, made a swing through California to try to sell the corridor.

More joint marketing efforts, which will also include promoting Red Deer, are also being planned for 2005. But to properly sell the corridor, all involved parties are working together to draft promotional and information materials.

CED's Graham said he hopes the group can launch a website in the near future, "so that when we do go with EEDC or when we do travel with the province outside of Alberta, we have something that we can speak to."

The focus on the Edmonton-to-Calgary strip was driven in part by a TD Economics report that endorsed more co-operation between the urban centres.

The 2003 report cited a global trend toward regional cities building strong relationships with one another, in effect transforming themselves into city region-states. It noted that communities within the Calgary-Edmonton region were becoming more economically intertwined as trade and labour flowed freely within the region and to other parts of Alberta and U.S. cities.

"The corridor is now the third busiest for traffic flows in Canada, with the number of vehicles per day averaging 48,000 near the boundaries of Calgary and Edmonton and about 24,000 near Red Deer," the TD report stated.

While co-operation is high on the agenda to put Alberta on the world's radar screen, Graham acknowledged that officials from each city are still charged with the duty of extolling their own virtues.

EEDC spokesman Jim Rudolf agreed, but added that all the two centres can do is make their cases and leave it to the business to choose where it wants to set roots.

"Ultimately it's the company that has to decide where is the best place to be for them, and certainly when it comes down to that situation Edmonton will make its best pitch and Calgary will make its best pitch, and Calgary will win some and Edmonton will win some," Rudolf said.

Mandel said he believes the two cities can strike a balance.

Edmonton is well positioned for manufacturing operations and is the gateway to the megaprojects of the north, while Calgary is a head-office and logistics centre.

"(Calgary has) head offices here, ergo companies are going to want to set up head-office operations here. And we shouldn't be trying to get those head offices in Edmonton, which we're not."

Last fall, Premier Ralph Klein announced that both Calgary and Edmonton would receive $1 billion in infrastructure funding, but that Edmonton would have to share its loot with other municipalities around the provincial capital.

But Mandel told the Calgary business audience - with a straight face - that Calgary's population is growing faster and that the city deserved the cash.

"We welcome the provincial government giving Calgary a billion dollars - you need it, you should have it," he said.

(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)