Powered Up | The energizing potential of Edmonton’s Expo bid
Will Edmonton’s 2017 Expo bid help the city – and the province – mature?
by Max Fawcett
For now, the organizers of Edmonton’s Expo bid can only bide their time until the fall of 2012, when the delegates to the Bureau of International Expositions will decide which city will be awarded hosting duties in 2017. While it’s impossible to predict the outcome of that vote with any accuracy, Edmonton’s chances certainly look good. North America hasn’t held an Expo since Vancouver’s Expo 86, and Edmonton’s bid – after a puzzling last-minute submission and subsequent withdrawal by the City of Calgary – appears to be the only serious one in play on this side of the Atlantic thus far. Edmonton’s competition on the other side doesn’t look much stiffer, either. Liège, Belgium, may be the strongest declared European competitor, with cities in Kazakhstan and Greece also putting their names forward. Given the fact that there have been six Expos held in Europe since Expo 86, it’s difficult to imagine a situation in which Edmonton isn’t the winning bidder.
For his part, Premier Ed Stelmach thinks that the timing of Edmonton’s Expo bid couldn’t be better. “What better place to celebrate the next milestone of Canada’s confederation than here in Edmonton?” Stelmach says, referring to the fact that the 2017 Expo would coincide with the 150th anniversary of confederation in Canada. Stelmach believes that an Expo in Edmonton in 2017, like Expo 67, could serve as a national moment that would both unite the country and signal where it’s headed. “It would tell the story about what Western Canada is all about, and show how we’ve matured, how we’ve grown and what we offer as a province. It would really put Alberta and Western Canada on the map, and I just think it’s the ideal place for that celebration.”
Lloyd Snelgrove, Alberta’s president of the Treasury Board, shares Stelmach’s belief in the symbolic value that an Expo in Edmonton in 2017 could have. “Fifty years ago, Montreal was hugely successful and well attended and thought of. Now, the new Canada, the new West and the new economic growth out here are all ready to shine.”
The organizers behind Edmonton’s Expo 2017 bid are understandably measured in their optimism, noting that the valuable international exposure that the city and the province will get from the pre-Expo symposia and forums will make their efforts over the last few years a worthwhile investment. Still, it’s clear that they aren’t dreaming about consolation prizes, but instead about the bigger spoils associated with a winning bid. They see the Expo as an opportunity to renovate their city, reinvent their province and re-imagine both their country and their place in it. As the “Rethink Alberta” campaign demonstrated, that can’t happen soon enough.
Full disclosure: Ruth Kelly, publisher of Alberta Venture, is a member of the organizing committee for the Edmonton Expo 2017 bid
Pages: 1 2 3
Follow Alberta Venture On: