ScrapyCanuck 
Dakota,
"in like a dirty shirt" in this case means that the carbide business is huge in Alberta because of all the oil and gas drilling, so if you're a carbide manufacturer you would be uber-anxious to get in there and sell your product!!
Not sure where it came from... I've heard it since I was a kid, couple of millennia ago....
You got me scratching my head now...I googled it and here's a definition that makes sense to me:
I've always used it to refer to people who jump into a setting as if
they'd always been there and/or invariably tend to take over.
Contextual use would be "tell Jim you're throwing a party, and he'll be
in there like a dirty shirt" (that is, he'll be there, and probably act
as if it was his party).
Kinda wonder if it is a "Canadianism"
Jon.
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