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We asked how often you visit your local library, and while the answers were fairly split, regular visitors came out on top. Plenty of readers said they lean on the online system and apps like Libby just as much as in-person visits, and a few whose kids have grown said they've drifted away but still hold libraries close to their hearts. As one reader put it, it might just be the best value for their tax dollar of all city services.

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🌤️ Today: High 25C, Low 8C. See the 7-day forecast.

🚗 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation, and find the city’s traffic report and road closures.

⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / check Calgary wildfire and fire restrictions and the Alberta Wildfire Dashboard.

💻 Keep up-to-date on stories and more at CalgaryCitizen.com

The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) opens Thursday, Sept. 24 and runs to Oct. 4, with more than 200 screenings of films from around the world. Some of the most interesting were made, shot or financed right here.

Below are the CIFF 2026 screenings with a Calgary or Alberta connection, in the order they play. The full festival schedule is at the bottom of this post, with a filter that pulls these out for you. You can also browse it on CIFF's website.

Regular tickets are $19. Spotlight+ gala screenings are $25. Sold-out notes are as of Sept. 21, so check CIFF's site for the latest.

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💔 A woman struck by a school bus in southwest Calgary's Somerset community last week has died from her injuries. Police continue investigating whether speed, distraction, or impairment played a role.

🥋 A 16-year-old Calgary athlete is turning heads after winning silver and bronze at an international jiu-jitsu competition, all while balancing school, multiple sports, and his own streetwear brand.

⚖️ An 88-year-old Alberta man is fighting a federal order to extradite him to the U.K., where he's wanted on historical child sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1960s and '70s.

🥪 Several sandwich brands made by a Calgary company have been recalled over possible listeria contamination, though no illnesses have been reported. Production at the facility has been suspended.

🗳️ Elections Alberta has released the locations of more than 1,400 polling stations ahead of the October 19 referendum, with advance voting running October 13 to 17.

🔫 A Calgary man faces nine gun-related charges after police found a loaded, altered AR-15-style rifle in his hotel room during a traffic stop involving a stolen truck.

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By her mid-thirties, Mandy Balak had built the kind of life that looks, from the outside, like the whole point. A national brand with a quarter-million-person community. Awards. Businesses running in parallel. On paper, she had made it.

"Nobody checks on the one who looks like they have it all together," she says. "No one questions a pattern that's producing."

For years, that pattern stayed invisible. It took the pandemic shutting down her live events business — a forced stop she didn't choose — to see how long she'd been running on empty. That reckoning became Chasing Enough, a book about sustainable success for high achievers, published September 22 through Page Two Books.

Balak grew up in North Vancouver and moved to Calgary at 21. She arrived with no network, no reputation, and no inherited expectations. "Nobody knew me. I had to build from scratch and actually decide who I wanted to be, which I had never had to do before."

Calgary opened the door. She built Date Night Canada into a national brand with a 250,000-member community and multiple seven figures in revenue. She sparked a cross-country movement out of a brunch series called Babes Who Brunch. She was named Startup Canada's Young Entrepreneur of the Year. She launched a magazine, a media company, and a community for women entrepreneurs. "Anything but traditional," she says.

"Calgary showed me who I am. It took me another decade to stop trying to prove it."

Chasing Enough is the story of that decade — the one between checking every box and understanding what the boxes were actually for. Balak is direct about what the book asks of its reader. "It asks you to look at where you're the problem. My turning point was when I realized that my life got to begin when I took 100% responsibility for it. That was freedom."

It's not a productivity book. There's no morning routine. "If someone wants to be told they're fine and the world is the issue, there are better books," she says.

Balak will be in Calgary on September 24 for a book event.

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🍴Ginger Beef Restaurants: A Calgary staple since the mid-1980s, offering Chinese food across three formats — a full-service bistro with delivery and takeout, plus two express locations built for quick takeout and delivery orders.

🍴Cabin Brewing Company: This brewery leans into cabin nostalgia, aiming to feel like an escape from the everyday over a good beer. It's less about the specifics of the menu and more about the vibe — a relaxed spot to slow down and unwind.

Have a food or drink suggestion? Message us and we might share it!

🎟️ Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival: High River's eighth annual hot air balloon festival runs September 23 to 27, with Friday's Night Glow lighting up the night sky and letting guests walk inside an inflated balloon. Free to attend; ticketed passenger rides available.

🎟️ Night Light – Light Art Festival: Victoria Park transforms into an outdoor gallery of light installations, projection art, and live performances over three nights, September 24 to 26. Free and open to all ages, running 6 to 11 p.m. each night.

Have an event suggestion? Message us and we might share it!

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We’ll see you back here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, same time, same place!