Calgary has a culture problem.The problem isn’t among the citizenry, though. It’s in the city hall, where woke, self-loathing souls have taken up habitation and have been actively trying to undercut civic pride and change the nature of the city. They despise the agricultural and oilfield roots of the city and are incrementally trying to erase traces of them.The Calgary Stampede is their latest target, as they are now trying to regulate the nightlife out of the world-acclaimed party.Every city on Earth has some sort of annual festival or fair. Only a rare handful have unique events that take over the city for a period of time, and Calgary is fortunate to be one of them. The Calgary Stampede began as a rodeo, but it has become much more than that. The Calgary Stampede also has a large exhibition and midway, but again, the event is much more than that.The Stampede is a state of mind that grasps the city for 11 days every year. People across the city dress in Western wear, from the tasteful to the outright cheesy. It doesn’t matter if a person is a cowboy or not. It’s a period of good-natured, fun cosplaying, and people come from around the world to take part in it. Even downtown in the corporate world, it has been a longstanding tradition that dress codes are to be relaxed during Stampede week, and employees can wear denim.The events stretch well beyond the Stampede grounds themselves. Pancake breakfasts, barbeques, and parties are held in every corner of the city and at people’s homes. Businesses are decorated with hay bales and rail fences, and windows are painted with cowboy scenes. You can’t walk a block in Calgary in any part of town during Stampede week without seeing tangible evidence that the event is going on.Every bar turns into a party hub during Stampede week. Western bars such as the Ranchman’s have become legendary for the Stampede parties held there.Downtown tents are erected with stages where live acts perform, and people party for every night of the event. Yes, it’s just a giant pissup for many people, but that is part of the whole affair. .Shall we pretend that Mardi Gras or Oktoberfest are any different?The Stampede brings over $720 million in economic activity to Alberta every year and is the envy of countless cities that can only dream of having such a distinct and ongoing event.Unfortunately, to woke snobs, however, they see the Stampede as something shameful. They envision cowboys as hicks and rodeos as primitive. They envision a city of coffee shops and art galleries unsullied by these hundreds of thousands of partygoers. And these pompous, fun-hating fools are entrenched in Calgary’s city hall. It really began during the Nenshi era and continued with Gondek. They began filling vacancies with woke hipsters and continued for over a decade. We are seeing the fruits of that now.Fort Calgary was renamed the Confluence lest its proper name offend an indigenous person somewhere. They tried to cancel the fireworks at Fort Calgary as well because they felt the city should be hanging its figurative head in shame over the Kamloops residential school child burial hoax.Calgary’s slogan was changed from “Heart of the New West” to “Be part of the energy.” Then it was changed again to the embarrassing and meaningless slogan of “Blue sky city.” It took them two steps, but they managed to eliminate references to the West and the oilfield in the city slogan, and it was no mistake.Now, in suddenly cracking down on the downtown partying, Calgary’s city hall is attacking a vital part of the whole affair. And they know it..The young people coming to the Stampede are coming to party and to build memories. If the lights are cut early and the sound is kept down, it isn’t a party. Out of 1.4 million people, just over 200 of them complained about the noise downtown last year, and City Hall felt that was enough to justify moving in.The Stampede has been happening for over 100 years, and partying downtown has always been a part of that. If it’s really that onerous for the few people living near these event tents, they shouldn’t have chosen to live downtown. It’s like moving next to an airport and complaining about planes. Take a week out of downtown or move to the suburbs if it’s so bad.The battle brewing over the party tents is much more than a small point of principle. It is over the city, taking a big step toward killing the festival that made the city famous. People must push back and not let these self-loathing Calgarians work toward turning the Calgary Stampede into just another milquetoast city fair. Rest assured, the latte-lappers in city hall won’t stop with just the tents. It’s part of a larger, uglier plan, and they can’t be allowed to win here.
