TRADITION AND CHANGE
New Northlands president and CEO Peter Male says his experience at Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition — their NHL team also moved into new downtown digs — will serve him well as he formulates a plan to “heal” Northlands and K-days.
As a child growing up in Edmonton in the 1960s, Peter Male took on his first job: delivering newspapers by bicycle.
He saved up his money so that he could go experience the thrills of Klondike Days, as the city’s long-running fair was then called.
“It was the thrill of the rides, as a young boy,” Male, now 64, recalled Wednesday. “But it was also the animals. As an urban kid, you don’t see that, so when you walk into that environment and you actually encounter that, it’s one of the most precious things you can give a kid.”
Now, with a half-century standing between Male and those memories, he returns to the fair he loved faced with a tall task as the new president and CEO of Northlands — guiding K-days through a period of uncertainty and changing the direction of Northlands.
Stepping into the role at the start of June — and coming out of retirement to do so — hasn’t given Male much time to adjust to the new role.
“It affected my sleep cycle for weeks. I was sleeping about three to four hours a night. I’d wake up for a few hours and write notes, then I’d go back to sleep,” he said, laughing. “When you take on something of this size, there’s so much data and so much information that comes at you.”
With K-days running from July 19-28, it’s probably the busiest time that Male could have chosen to take on the new title. But he’s got a pedigree that made Northlands confident in bringing him on, including more than 30 years working with fairs everywhere from Vancouver to Spain.
In fact, it’s easy to draw parallels from Male’s time at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) in Vancouver and the challenges he faces in Edmonton. The PNE fairground went through a massive transformation in the late ’90s, after both the Vancouver Canucks and the BC Lions left their nearby homes to move into new downtown arenas. There, Male was tasked with returning the site to year-round relevancy.
In Edmonton, there’s been extensive conversation about the future of the city’s Exhibition Lands, where Northlands hosts K-days yearly, after the Edmonton Oilers played their final game at the Northlands Coliseum in 2016. Northlands presented its own proposal for the future of the space in 2016. The city rejected the proposal and took control of the buildings on the grounds.
Amid organizational uncertainty, Male was brought to Northlands as something of a fixer, to turn the fortunes of Northlands around.
“We know K-days is our strongest brand and our biggest focus at this point, so we were looking for someone who could bring that fair experience and energy,” said Northlands board of directors chairman Tony Payne. “He’s helping us with our strategic direction and helping us, from the industry, to understand what it takes to run a fair and set us up for success.”
Male was scant with details on what exactly he wants the reinvigoration to look like, saying he’s still getting settled in the new environment.
“Even in the conversations I’ve had in the last three weeks, this tiny period, I know the city looks to preserve the tradition of this fair. This is a 140-year-old fair, and it will continue,” Male said. “I have confidence that we can affect this situation in a positive way.”
One program Male pointed to as a candidate for expansion was the Urban Farm, a small agriculture building open from July to October on Exhibition Lands that lets kids learn about things like growing crops, harvesting eggs from hens and keeping bees.
“It hasn’t had a tremendous amount of exposure,” said Male, who wants the building to operate year-round. “There’s a small rectangle where the farm sits, and I’d like to expand that so we could tie it to high schools as well and grow that messaging and that education.”
He also said that Northlands will develop a strategic five-year plan to move forward and connect with the community. The plan will go to both the city and the public for consultation.
“Everyone will be working as a group to heal this situation and choose the direction that it’s moving,” Male said. “We’re looking at today and what we’ve got and we’re looking at tomorrow and where we’re going. We’re also looking at our relationships, because it’s about people. We’re a people place and that’s what makes this so vibrant — this city loves this fair.”
Jennifer Campbell, the PNE’S director of business development and ticketing, worked with Male when he was at Vancouver’s fair. They dealt with their NHL team moving away from the fairgrounds, a situation all too familiar to Northlands.
“There was a lot of change that the PNE went through when the Vancouver Canucks left the Coliseum. That was a bit of a time of doom and gloom around here,” Campbell said. They ended up bringing in other events to revitalize the area, including film screenings, trade shows and community festivals.
“He really turned this place around.”
Listening to him talk, it’s obvious Male has a deep love for fairs and the potential they have in connecting communities. If K-days and Northlands aren’t yet reaching that potential, he wants to change that.
“You go to (K-days) to find traditional things that you have an attachment to and that give you memories,” said Male. “But you also go to be wowed and find something different that will make you say, ‘Look at this, this is incredible.’ There’s some of those pieces this year and there will be a lot more at next year’s fair.”
Northlands has existed since 1879, years before Edmonton was officially incorporated as a city. The non-profit organization has run a fair every year since and has been a central part of the city’s cultural and economic landscape.