Relationship With The City
The Stampede has become inexorably linked to the city's identity. Calgary has long been called the "Stampede City", and carries the informal nickname of "Cowtown". The event's iconic status offers Calgary global publicity and plays a significant role in defining the city's image. Calgary's Canadian Football League team has been called the Stampeders since 1945, and it is a name shared by other teams in various sports throughout the city's history, including the Stampeders hockey team that operated in the years following World War II.
The Stampede has strong polling support within the province. A 2006 Ipsos-Reid poll found that 86 percent of Albertans felt that it raised the civic quality of life and considered it one of the region's most important cultural events. Nearly three in four stated they look forward to the annual event. However, critics argue that the themes promoted by the Stampede and within the city are an invented tradition. They suggest that it is not a reflection of Alberta's frontier history, but represents a mythical impression of western cowboy culture created by 19th-century wild west shows and exploited for profit.
Part of the event's success can be attributed to the close relationship the Stampede has often shared with both the civic government and community leaders. Mayors of Calgary and city aldermen have sat on the Stampede Board of Governors at the same time they occupied public office, and the Stampede's ability to convince wealthy and influential citizens to volunteer their time has allowed the organization to gain a high profile within the city. The Stampede operates on city-owned land, pays no property tax on its lease, and typically faces little to no political interference from City Hall. It operates as a non-profit entity with all income reinvested into the park. All improvements to the park would revert to city control if the lease were allowed to expire.
Likewise, the Stampede has support from the media, which has been accused of providing an inordinate amount of positive coverage to the event while trivializing negative aspects. The local media faced national scrutiny in 2009 when both major newspapers refused to run anti-rodeo ads sponsored by the Vancouver Humane Society. While the Calgary Herald simply refused to run the ad, the Calgary Sun defended its position in an editorial. The Sun refuted charges it was kowtowing to the Stampede and justified its refusal by claiming "we are Calgarians and allowing a group of outsiders to come in and insult a proud Calgary tradition seemed just plain wrong." The Herald reversed its decision a year later, running a full-page ad sponsored by the Vancouver Humane Society.
Read more about this topic: Calgary Stampede
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