[Coprolite]

Character, identity, fun.

It was a weird identity considering we had extremely little to do with the Klondike, but it was thought a kitsch theme would replicate the success of Stampede. And even if the exhibition grew in attendance, parade participation and all of the gold rush cosplay stuff fell off over the years, especially after we started to grow other things to do in the summers.

 

[archited]

A better approach might have revolved around a Bush Pilot Theme and the North (including the overland route to the Klondike)... parades could have featured myriad aircraft used in Northern Exploration - - floats that honored First Nations themes, the Fur Trade, Hunting and Fishing, Exploration, Settlement and the Pioneer Spirit that Built Alberta. Rides could have been custom and permanent -- rolo-plane, parachute drop, bear-chase, etc. -- thematic and original.

 

[David A]

A better approach might have revolved around a Bush Pilot Theme and the North (including the overland route to the Klondike)... parades could have featured myriad aircraft used in Northern Exploration - - floats that honored First Nations themes, the Fur Trade, Hunting and Fishing, Exploration, Settlement and the Pioneer Spirit that Built Alberta. Rides could have been custom and permanent -- rolo-plane, parachute drop, bear-chase, etc. -- thematic and original.

Yes. There already is a Pacific National Exhibition and a (Central) Canadian National Exhibition, so why can't we have a Northern National Exhibition here? We are more connected to the north more than most other Canadian cities. Our historical connection with the Klondike is part of that, but there is more to it than that.

 

[kcantor]

^. ^^

I don’t quite understand this need to find something to celebrate.

Hell, New York City’s famous parade celebrates a national holiday and is sponsored by a department store who gets equal billing.

A celebration is successful based on how well It’s executed more than on what’s being celebrated.

Our neighbours to south get this. Calgary’s population only 60 years ago was barely 300,000. Their connection of most of their population to the Wild West today is distant and tentative to non-existent. That didn’t stop them from staying a celebration that is world renowned not for the connection but for the party.

Our failures as this area aren’t for a lack of finding things, they’re for a lack of long term commitment and support.

 

[Coprolite]

Yes. There already is a Pacific National Exhibition and a (Central) Canadian National Exhibition, so why can't we have a Northern National Exhibition here? We are more connected to the north more than most other Canadian cities. Our historical connection with the Klondike is part of that, but there is more to it than that.

I think something like this would have to be approached carefully. As much as we like to call ourselves the Gateway to the North, and act like we're the northiest north that ever northed, but I've been north and we're notably not north geographically or culturally. We're as geographically north as Hamburg, and we're surrounded by trees and cows. We rarely see an actual -40C in any given winter, and see more above zeros in January than -20Cs. We're somewhere with flights to the North, but so are a lot of places; if you're in one of the major centres of the actual North like Whitehorse, Yellowknife or Iqaluit, you're going to find more flights to places like Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Some kind of inquiring as to if folks up there actually see themselves as significantly connected to us might be in order before we go telling them that we are.

 

[David A]

The connection there is not as distant. It probably helps that you actually can travel a half hour or so outside Calgary and still find a number of cattle ranches.

However no Klondike gold mines or saloons anywhere close to Edmonton except on the exhibition grounds. And sorry I don't think many made millions panning in the North Saskatchewan.

We are not the Yukon however, we can quite legitimately claim to be an entrepot between the north and south. Its not a problem with effort. We don't even need to find this thing, it is already there waiting for us to get it and convey it in a way less confusing to people not caught up in a part of our local history which while important is tenuous to what mainly happened elsewhere.