Canada Day planning shouldn’t be hard

Event’s organizers owe July 1 visitors some answers, says Bernard Shinder.

I was chair of a group of Ottawans who organized and ran the Great Canadian Birthday Party in 1976 (at the request of prime minister Pierre Trudeau), then Canada Day from 1977 to 1979 for the National Capital Region. This included events for a full week prior to July as well as the show on the Hill and fireworks. We had fewer than five paid workers and many thousands of volunteers.

Last week, I had family travel from as far away as Florida and Albany, New York who expected to enjoy Canada Day 150. Needless to say, they and many more thousands of visitors were disappointed.

It is inconceivable to me that professionals organized this event. If so, they should be publicly flogged (metaphorically, at least). I want to know who the planners were and how they can explain how they made a botch of this important holiday.

Item: Aboriginal matters. The appearance of Indigenous Peoples who wanted to either demonstrate or instruct should have been foreseen. As it was, their appearance led first to a confrontation, then to a solution. Why weren’t they consulted beforehand? No planning.

Item: Public toilets. The number of public toilets on the Hill was so few that practically no one could use them. There appeared to be no way to get trucks on the Hill to empty the toilets. There were little or no toilets for people waiting in line. Planners were expecting 250,000 people on the Hill. Bad planning.

Item: Food. Facilities on the Hill ran out of food. There was no way to truck in replenishments. Poor planning.

Item: The show on the Hill. This was typical government planning with the result that the evening show was, at best, boring and, at worst, amateurish. I know the weather did not help but one would have thought that for Canada’s 150th birthday we would have had a show that featured world-class Canadian performers (e.g. Céline Dion). My guess: No one wanted to spend the money.

Item: Security. In the 1970s when security was not the issue that it is today, we still had security issues and we had those who carried out a plan. We followed the Israeli example (on the advice of Canadian military) so that most of the security was not identifiable and those who were moved quickly when something got out of hand. We had no major security events. It’s not like no one knew that there were going to be 250,000 plus on the Hill. Someone clearly blew it.

Item: Transportation. I am told that OC Transpo did its best. But it was not good enough. And the STO stranded people. Again, poor planning.