The Calgary Sun is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a division of Sun Media, a Quebecor company. First published in 1980, the tabloid-format daily replaced the long-running broadsheet newspaper, The Albertan. The newspaper, like most of those in the Canadian Sun chain, are known for short, snappy news stories aimed primarily at working class readers. The Sun format is based somewhat upon that of British tabloids. One regular feature, the Sunshine Girl, is a daily glamour photograph of an amateur model, usually dressed in a bikini. This idea was also borrowed from British papers, although in accordance with Canadian morality standards, no nudity is allowed and models must be 18 years of age or older (unlike the UK version in which topless models as young as 16 were at one point allowed, although this age limit was recently raised to 18). Originally placed on the third page of the publication (as per the UK format), Sun management in the early 1990s decided to relocate the feature to the Sports section as it was felt the photo interfered with the paper's ability to present serious news stories up front. This attitude was later adopted by the other Sun newspapers in Canada. The Calgary Sun has considered dropping the Sunshine Girl feature on numerous occasions, and has run occasional "trial balloon" issues without a Sunshine Girl, but reader support for the feature remains strong and the paper's newsroom fields many reader complaints whenever the Sunshine Girl is omitted. A Sunshine Boy photo feature used to appear regularly, but has since been cancelled. Another feature section is Page Six with Kelly Doody. This opinion section offers news on local goings on. It is written by a former Canadian National team swimmer. The newspaper makes no secret of its conservative political stance and was a vocal opponent of the Liberal government before its defeat in 2006, although it also has several liberal-leaning columnists. This stance was in evidence following the swearing in of Stephen Harper and the controversy that erupted over several of his appointments to cabinet. While many liberal-leaning and even conservative-leaning newspapers in Canada roundly criticised Harper, the Calgary Sun took a "wait and see" approach; an editorial published two days after the appointments was devoted to reminding readers of the corruption of the preceding government. For many years, the Sun also published a popular local weekly, The Calgary Mirror, which covered community news; the Sun organization purchased the newspaper in the early 1990s. This publication, which originated in the 1950s and was also known at one time as North Hill News, was discontinued in 2001. It was succeeded by FYI Calgary In-Print, a free weekly newspaper intended to be a print equivalent of the Sun's much-publicized FYI Calgary news website (there was also an FYI Toronto newspaper published to tie-in with the Toronto Sun's website). The new publication failed to click with readers and advertisers and was discontinued in May 2001 during a downsizing of Sun Media; the website abandoned the FYI concept about a year later and rebranded itself as Calgarysun.com. On Oct. 2, 2006, the Sun underwent a major redesign, introducing a new logo (actually it finally adopted the logo used at several other Sun newspapers for several years previously), and revamping its typeface usage for both bodytext and headlines. In February 2007, Sun Media launched a Calgary edition of its free daily 24 Hours, which shares editors and editorial staff with the Calgary Sun. The Calgary Sun is one of two daily newspapers currently serving the Calgary area. The second is The Calgary Herald.
