GMC Celebrates 40 Years at the Calgary Stampede

Before the spectacle of the Calgary Stampede begins and people start crowding the midway, lining up for corn dogs, and filling the stands to watch the rodeo, most of the action happens behind the on-site barns and on the ranches that infuse the Alberta countryside with life. Trucks are lined up, hauling horses, heavy equipment, campers, bales of hay, and huge fifth-wheel trailers. They’re covered in the honest patina of hard work. A lot of these trucks wear a GMC badge.

A rancher told me that every horse in Alberta has a job, and, in Western Canada, it’s obvious that the same is true of the trucks.

General Motors Canada lovingly refers to the west — and especially Alberta — as GMC Country. As the brand’s number one sales market, it’s clear that its trucks and SUVs have resonated with people here who need trucks that meet the challenging demands of Western life.

“Hard work, durability, capability, getting the job done right, dependability, you name it. The people that work in farming, ranching, agriculture, the competitors at Stampede, they have those values, and we have those same values,” said Jamie Dewhurst, GMC Canada Brand Director.

Dewhurst added that these customers give the brand unique insights it just can’t get anywhere else. GMC taps into these people not only during the Stampede, when the entire Canadian truck market converges on Calgary for 10 days, but also year-round, as a massive testing ground populated by the most locked-in focus group on earth.

“Canadians do it tougher. We got to be tougher. They have to ranch in minus 40-degree weather or when there's two feet of snow outside. They're doing what could be one of the toughest jobs out there in some of the toughest conditions possible,” said Dewhurst. “They need the best tools out there, and our trucks are the tools they depend on to get the job done.”

Alberta is known for its ever-important oil and gas industry, but it also leads all Canadian provinces in beef cattle production and is a massive agricultural hub, so it makes sense that it’s home to one of the top three largest rodeos in the world, which a volunteer described as “cowboy Mardi Gras.”

More than 1.5 million people from around the world attend the Stampede every year and they all see GMC’s name on the stadium, watch the chuckwagon racers compete to win one of the brand's new trucks, and witness Sierras hauling parade floats and being used during the Grandstand Show among the wild performances and fireworks. These revellers range from Stampede first-timers and people who only go for the midway to multi-generational farmers and ranchers, to oil executives, and more.

But it’s not GMC’s first rodeo. In fact, it’s the brand’s 40th.

This year, GMC celebrates 40 years of sponsoring the Calgary Stampede, a spectacle of Western Canadian culture and a tribute to all the hard-working people preserving hundreds of years of tradition and way of life. And any time tradition is involved, it’s fuelled by an immense sense of pride.

“Pride is a common thread that just resonates through everybody here,” Dewhurst said. “When it comes to Stampede, the community just rallies around that event like nothing I've ever seen before.”

The Stampede is heavily rooted in tradition but it’s also thoroughly modern at the same time. And GMC leans into that, too, as a provider of tools that help bridge tradition and technology, informed by real people with cowboy boots on the ground.

That real-world feedback has helped shape technologies like Super Cruise with trailering, developed at GM's Canadian Technical Centre in Markham, Ont. The system allows hands-free driving even while towing by accounting for trailer weight, dimensions, and increased braking distances, reducing fatigue on the long highway drives common across Western Canada.

GMC’s technology isn't there to replace tradition, however, it's there to support it. Hands-free highway driving reduces fatigue after long days on the ranch. Advanced trailering systems make hauling livestock and equipment safer. Connected software helps owners spend more time working and less time worrying about their trucks. People who live this and breathe this culture depend on these tools to help keep traditions alive.

With the sound of hooves stomping through the dirt, the excitement of chuckwagons flying around a track, big cowboy hats dotting enormous crowds, and big belt buckles glinting in the sun, centuries-old traditions are proudly on display.

The Calgary Stampede is the closest thing GMC has to a living market research hub. The brand has supported truck culture in GMC Country as it evolved, and bridging the gap between tradition and tech is why its relationship with the Stampede has endured for 40 years and why it will last long into the future.