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COPYRIGHT 2006 Becker Associates
Abstract
There is a complex relationship between the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (Stampede) and the City of Calgary. On the one band, the Stampede depends on the municipal government for its very existence. On the other, its arm's-length structure and success in attracting power and influence lend an independence more typical of a private corporation. Since both agree on the value of the Stampede to the City, relations between the two have been far more co-operative than strained. However, in the two instances of public controversy over decisions made by both, the City has allowed the Stampede to take the burden of blame, with the result that the public's image of the Stampede has blurred while its aura of independence has been enhanced.
Resume
La relation entre le Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (Stampede) et la ville de Calgary est pour le moins complexe. D'une part, le Stampede n'existerait pas sans le gou-vernement municipal. D'autre part, sa structure propre et le fait qu'il reussisse a attirer des elements de pouvoir et d'influence lui conferent une independance typique des entreprises privees. Puisque les deux parties s'entendent sur I'importance du Stampede pour la ville, les relations qu'elles entretiennent sont davantage cooperatives que contraintes. Toutefois, dans les deux episodes de controverse publique sur des decisions prises par les deux parties, la ville a laisse le Stampede encourir le blame. Il en est resulte que l'image publique du Stampede s'est estompee alors que son aura d'independance a pris du relief.
Introduction
No one would dispute the powerful influence of the Exhibition and Stampede (Stampede) on Calgary. (1) Every July, a ten-day celebration of heritage, cowboy culture, and western mythology transforms an energetic corporate metropolis into a relaxed, fun-loving "Cowtown." Its global publicity unrivalled in the country, the Stampede also contributes significantly to Calgary's identifiable--if controversial--urban image. Given this important connection, it is surprising that so little is understood about the relationship between Calgary's civic government and the Stampede. Solid studies like James H. Gray's A Brand of Its Own: The 100 Year History of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (1985), or more popular treatments like Fred Kennedy's Calgary Stampede: The Authentic History of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1964) do not analyze this relationship. Others like Colin Campbell in Stampede City: Politics and Power in the West (1984) reiterate a common, largely unsubstantiated view that the City is a pawn of elitist Stampede interests. (2) Popular perception, even among informed observers, is hazy about how the two corporate bodies actually interact. (3) In 1966 a spokesman for a group of concerned citizens said that the Stampede Board was "some sort of quasi public body though no one is entirely sure." (4) In reality, the relationship between the two is complex, and falls historically into three broad categories. The first concerns the powerful ties that have always bound them. Less obvious are their disagreements. Finally, they have managed to cultivate a separateness that is more apparent than real. This popular perception has prejudiced the Stampede more than the City.
Annual fairs and exhibitions are part of the European and North American historical experience. Their continuing importance today can be seen in the serious competition for world fairs and expositions. The German corporation Frankfurt Messe, for example, organizes over one hundred trade fairs a year throughout the world. In Canada, exhibitions historically filled a variety of needs. They enabled social interaction and provided important entertainment opportunities. (5) Through press coverage they advertised regional wealth and potential to the outside world. They also brought global products to specific audiences. Most significantly in terms of the host town or city, they were mediums for civic promotion or boosting, particularly during the early twentieth-century settlement boom. (6) Historian Paul Voisey has noted how fairs "served the boosters' purpose" in Alberta small towns of that period. (7) While they varied in size and scope from blue ribbon events like the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto and Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition to smaller regional and local fairs like those in Brandon, High River, or Kelowna, these exhibitions were uniform in their desire to cultivate a close identification with the cites and towns that hosted them. The Calgary Stampede, as one of Canada's major exhibitions, has been no exception to this rule.
Calgary's economy was based first on livestock and later on its ability to serve as the major distributing centre for rural south and south-central Alberta. In the modern era, the city has added oil and natural gas extraction, tourism, and high technology activity to its economic portfolio. The Stampede has been the city's primary vehicle by which these economic priorities were promoted and consolidated, a fact duly recognized and abetted by civic government.
The Calgary Stampede is also a festival in that it exports a cultural product with roots in the past and it celebrates a specific localized perception of this heritage. This conscious deployment of cultural capital and the success of some cities in utilizing it has led to emulation and the rise of a festival industry. In short, cities worldwide, large and small, now seek to "sell" themselves by the deliberate manipulation of culture though festivals to enhance their appeal to tourists, potential investment capital, business interests, and affluent residents. (8) Successful cities have managed to brand themselves through identification with their annual festivals. To many, the names of cities like Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Munich are associated with Carnivale, Mardi Gras, and Oktoberfest respectively. The same could be said for Calgary and the Stampede.
According to Harvey Molotch and John Logan in their study of the political economy of place, exhibitions and festivals are "growth engines." Their promotion and advancement are facilitated by a combination of specific interest groups who see mutual advantage in the attendant economic spinoffs. (9) In this context, civic governments continue to be particularly supportive of exhibitions and festivals since they generate local spending, increase civic revenues, and offer employment opportunities. Mardi Gras, for example, is worth $1 billion a year to the city of New Orleans. Japanese governments expect that their focus on cultural extravaganzas like the 1100-year-old Gion Festival in Kyoto will help boost tourist numbers to eight million by 2007. Each of the several events in Edinburgh's International Festival brings Scottish culture to an audience twice the size of the population of the city. In Canada, the Festival of Murals in Chemainus, British Columbia, has shown how a small town has managed to organize and sell itself to tourists by giving the flagging lumber industry a high heritage profile. In 2003, the Calgary Stampede informed the public that for every dollar of revenue generated from Stampede activities, another $2.60 is spent elsewhere in the city. (10)
The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede owes its survival to the City of Calgary. In 1889, the federal government sold ninety-four acres in Victoria Park for $235 to the Calgary Agricultural Society for exhibition purposes, with the stipulation that the land could not be subdivided into town lots. (11) The agricultural society subsequently mortgaged the land to build a racetrack, and in 1896 amid general depressed conditions had to relinquish the mortgage to Canada Permanent Savings Company. Following a four-year hiatus in which no fall fair was held, several local businessmen formed the Inter-Western Pacific Exposition Company Limited to revive the exhibition. Its first order of business was to petition the City to redeem the mortgage. In 1901, following negotiations with Richard Bedford Bennett acting for Canada Permanent Savings Company, the City took ownership of the exhibition grounds for the sum of $6,500. (12) For the next nine years the City of Calgary maintained the grounds and collected entrance and rental fees. Through lease arrangements in 1911 the exhibition, now the Calgary Exhibition Company Limited, took over the management of the grounds. (13) In 1933 the name was changed to the present Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Limited. Under this new title, the company assumed expanded powers under the Companies Act of Alberta (1929), except those limited by lease. This situation has continued to the present day.
In many ways, the Stampede functions like a private company. It comprises shareholders who elect a governing board of directors (currently twenty-five), which in turn decides on a president. In addition to the annual Stampede, the board of directors and permanent staff manage and operate the year-round activities and events in Victoria Park. (14) What is not so readily understood is the fact that the Stampede has always been a non-profit company. The board of directors receives no remuneration. No dividends are paid to shareholders whose holdings are limited to twenty-five shares at a dollar (now five dollars) a share. All surplus moneys are redirected to operations and capital investment. More significantly, the Stampede operates under a free lease. The City oversees its interests by including aldermen on the board of directors, two of whom sit on the powerful executive committee. The company owns no property within the city and pays no taxes. What has emerged is a strange relationship. On the one hand the Stampede enjoys little political interference by operating at arm's length from the City. On the other hand, the two are indistinguishable. One Stampede president went so far as to equate the Stampede with a city utility. (15) In 1965, when the Stampede was applying for city-owned land in Lincoln Park, prominent real estate man Kent Lyle wondered how the City could treat the Stampede like a private party. To Lyle, the application was misleading and even moot since the Stampede and the City were one and the same. (16)
One has only to note the active presence of senior city officials within the Stampede organization. Not only the mayor and aldermen, but the city commissioners and other high-level officials were often associate directors and sometimes...
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