Montreal Gazette

HORSEPLAY AT THE RODEO

Nine-year-old Bolero gets a drink after being given a shower by owner Justine Garcilazo at NomadFest on Thursday. The event at the Old Port is drawing protests and criticism.

- ALLISON HANES

It was always going to be a toss up to see whether cowboys would outnumber protesters at the rodeo taking place in Montreal’s Old Port this weekend, a contentiou­s 375th birthday event that has pitted animal rights activists against Mayor Denis Coderre since plans were first announced.

Animal welfare advocates are pledging to peacefully picket every day of the four-day country and western festival.

But a new question worth asking when the last steer has been roped, is whether more paying ticket-holders than city workers were in attendance among the rodeo spectators?

Montreal municipal employees were offered up to eight free tickets each to Thursday night’s bull-riding show in a last-minute giveaway circulated by email on Wednesday. The Société des célébratio­ns du 375e anniversai­re de Montréal told media these were among 1,000 tickets being distribute­d to sponsors of the NomadFest Urban Rodeo, a typical practice.

But opposition councillor­s still fighting to find out how many people actually paid to see last month’s Formula E, another publicly subsidized event mired in controvers­y, seized on the bonanza as evidence that rodeo ticket sales may not be going so well.

TKNL Production­s, the promoter organizing the rodeo, has said it sold 60 per cent of tickets for the four-day cowboy exhibition ahead of time.

But 1,000 free tickets for a venue that holds upwards of 4,500 is almost a quarter of all admissions. And making not two, not four, but eight (eight!) tickets available to interested city workers certainly doesn’t indicate booming sales for seats retailing at between $39 and $75 a pop.

Freebies in that quantity certainly give the impression of face-saving and seat-filling rather than employee appreciati­on. According to reports, 83 Montreal employees put their hands up. If you do the math, assuming each taker opted for the maximum eight tickets, it would put an additional 664 fans in the stands.

No one can pretend a lot isn’t riding on big crowds turning out down at the paddock this weekend, as least as far as the looming municipal election campaign is concerned.

For whatever reason, Coderre has staked his political fortunes on holding this rodeo. When the SPCA, veterinari­ans and other animal lovers raised a ruckus over an event they claim needlessly stresses and harms animals, the mayor stuck to his guns. He accused critics of snobbery and insisted it would go forward, come hell or high water. Perhaps he had already written off the votes of animal lovers after his highly debated pit bull ban.

But why a rodeo to mark Montreal’s 375th birthday? Just because such a cowboy extravagan­za took place during Expo 67 and a handful of other times doesn’t give bull riding deep roots in this city. It may have a long track record in St-Tite or Calgary, but staging one here — even in the spirit of putting on something for everyone during the 375th celebratio­ns — seems unnecessar­ily factious.

More people seem to be rallying against it than clambering for it. Defending it so vigorously seems like a strange hill to die on for an incumbent mayor in an election year.

Coderre took much the same tack when a furor erupted over the big price tag and major disruption inflicted on residents of Montreal’s Gay Village last month by the ePrix electric car race. The city is spending $24 million for the rights to host it for three years in the streets of downtown. At least the purported purpose — promoting the electrific­ation of transport — makes a certain amount of sense for a mayor trying to burnish his green credibilit­y, even if a flashy race smacks of style more than substance.

Here, too, free tickets were showered on disgruntle­d locals, ostensibly to reward them for putting up with a month of inconvenie­nce. But if the giveaway had the added bonus of packing the stands?

Projet Montréal has been hounding the mayor relentless­ly to release data on ticket sales for the ePrix and the final cost of the race in the name of transparen­cy. Coderre promised at the last council meeting he will make the informatio­n public soon.

But with a similar situation now unfolding with the rodeo, the excesses of Montreal’s birthday year may soon catch up with Coderre.

It’s one thing to underwrite the costs of free shows like the march of Royal de Luxe’s Géants in May or the symphony at the foot of Mount Royal last weekend. It’s quite another to be dumping free tickets for spectacles that are supposed to generate revenues to defray the costs of staging them.

If throwing a year-long birthday bash and bestowing Montrealer­s with $1 billion worth of “legacy projects” was supposed to endear the mayor to voters as he seeks a second term in November, he may be in for a rude awakening. Montrealer­s are not so tickled by these “gifts” nor so hungover from all the partying that they don’t realize who is picking up the tab. We all are.

Defending it so vigorously seems like a strange hill to die on for an incumbent mayor in an election year.

 ?? CHRISTINNE MUSCHI ??
CHRISTINNE MUSCHI
 ?? CHRISTINNE MUSCHI ?? Charles David Tardif, driver and bull owner, at the NomadFest Urban Rodeo on Thursday. Municipal employees were offered up to eight free tickets each to a bull-riding show in a last-minute giveaway that was circulated by email.
CHRISTINNE MUSCHI Charles David Tardif, driver and bull owner, at the NomadFest Urban Rodeo on Thursday. Municipal employees were offered up to eight free tickets each to a bull-riding show in a last-minute giveaway that was circulated by email.
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