Yolande House, our resident journalist, and Kate Shouldice, the team Ex-pert, met with long-time CCEA Director and former mayor, Don Reid, on a park bench at the back of Lansdowne Stadium on Aug. 7, 1997. This is the interview:
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 | You were mayor from '65-'70?
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 | Yes.
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| Would you still call the Ex an agricultural fair?
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| Not really; however, the philosophy in agriculture has changed over a number of years. It's gone from a showing-in and a judging-in . . . (small interruption) Getting back to agriculture, the whole philosophy and the changes in the past five years, it's gone from judging animals in the ring, showing animals and judging to a situation of marketing and salesmanship and public relations for agriculture, and, as a result, we don't have those large rings with the hundreds of cattle coming here, hundreds of horses, swine or sheep that we used to. So, all you see today is an educational program whereby there will be a few numbers, a few of each breed here to show people what a sheep looks like and what a goat looks like.
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| So, would you say that the Ex's focus on agriculture would be a reflection of the general shift in agriculture?
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| Absolutely. It's been going that way for the past ten years. It started in the London fair and it has gone right through the fair business. As a result of that, we've lost a lot of rural people to the fair, a lot of people. They don't bother coming here now because if you are showing a cow or a sheep the whole family will come, grandma and grandpa and the cousins, hoping that the cow will win the red ribbon. Now they go to the small fairs, the local fairs, instead.
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| Would you consider the Ex still one of the largest fairs in Canada?
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| Well, it's known as the, (counting) it's been about the fifth. It has been running pretty much the fifth largest in Canada.
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| In 1965, the city council decided that no alderman or member of a company or association could vote on issues concerning that company if they were a member of city council. Is that still in effect?
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| That's a conflict of interest thing, yeah, that's still in effect.
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| Right now, how many city councilors are appointed to the CCEA?
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| One.
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| Only one?
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| The Alderman from this ward.
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| What happened? Because I know in the nineteen sixties it was eight.
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| Oh, okay, well last year, 1996 the constitution was changed. The makeup of the board of directors completely changed. Elliminating city council, appointing the Ottawa city councilor from this area, Jim Watson, and appointing a regional councilor and the chairman of the region, and the mayor of Ottawa. They're the only political people on the board. The other changes made were to the past presidents, such as myself. I was president in 1959 and 1960. The past president has always been a member of the board and had a vote. Now they've had no vote since the first of January this year.
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| So, the mayor is a director?
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| Uh huh.
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| So, there's more than one director appointed from city council, then?
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| Two, the mayor and one councilor from this area, Ottawa city councilor.
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| Now, the city councilors are still permitted to run, correct?
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| No. Not that I know of, no they can't run. Last year we had eight of them here as directors and they were all kicked out under the new constitution. So, they can't run. Unless they run as a member of one of the groups of directors. They can run as an agricultural person or they can run as a merchant or whatever.
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| Okay. So, city councilors can be other directors?
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| They can run as a director if they qualify in that section, agricultural or general or such.
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| How many directors on the CCEA are there now?
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| I'm not sure of that, it was just changed, I'm not sure.
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| What's the annual fee for a member now? Is it twenty dollars?
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| I think it's twenty dollars, yeah.
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| If you could just tell me about the lease situation over the years. Like in 1888, did the city lease Lansdowne to...?
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| To the Central Canada Exhibition, we renew that lease. I was general manager up till around, this is '97, up till around '92. And when I left I left them with a brand new five year lease with a 5 year option with the city.
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| Okay, and that was in 1992?
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| Yeah, so now they're into the first or second year of the option.
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| We've been looking through a lot of newspaper articles, because we've done a lot of research, and the date that I came up with for the signing of the first lease was in 1927, one news story said, so I guess that's incorrect?
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| I can't answer that, I wasn't here then, well, I was here but not very old.
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| In 1973, the city took control of the grounds away from the CCEA who had it for about 25 years. Is that still in effect, the city has control of the grounds?
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| The city has control, and it's costing them a fortune.
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| Oh, can you tell me about that? How much does it cost?
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| Well, when the Exhibition ran Lansdowne park, it was a break-even situation. It wasn't costing the city a cent. And then the city came in and they took over Lansdowne park and each year they've had a minimum of a two million dollar deficit each year. That adds up.
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| Do you know why they had that deficit? Was it because the exhibition wasn't successful or just how they managed it?
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| Oh yeah, two words, over managed, just over managed. Too much staff.
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| What did you think of the time when Charlotte Whitton took the city to the Supreme court of Ontario?
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| About what?
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| She thought that the 1967 lease between the city and the CCEA should be invalid. Do you remember that?
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| '67, 1967?
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| Yeah. There was a lot of controversy over the situation
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| Yeah, well, she wasn't successful anyway.
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| Someone actually ended up taking her to court for a conflict of interest with the city council.
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| 1967, let me see. She was on council the first two years I was mayor 65 and 66. She was on council in 67, yeah she was on council in that year, 1967. No one knows why she would take that course, the Exhibition or the city to court because she was going to lose, which she did. I just don't remember the details.
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| Okay, she got expelled from city council after that, do you remember why that was?
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| I don't think she got expelled, I think she resigned from council.
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| Oh, she resigned?
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| Yeah, she wasn't expelled.
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| And she was back on, I noticed, a few years later, so I guess she would have ran again and have gotten elected?
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| She was off council, I ran against her and put her off council in 1964, so she was off for two years. And then she ran as an alderman for this area and she got back on.
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| There was also a news article about Whitton wanting a referendum about whether or not the city and the CCEA should have a lease, I guess that never happened?
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| No, we always had a lease, we always had a lease with the city.
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| Are the directors still sent to the different fairs around North America today?
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| Do they visit? If we think that the fair is worth while looking at, they have some new ideas we can bring here then we'll still send a representative there.
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| The CCEA and the city have been talking about moving the Ex away from Lansdowne Park for a number of years.
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| Not the city, the city is not involved, that was strictly the CCEA. Thinking they'd get out of here to a bigger area.
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| Okay, what's the status of that now?
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| That's on the back burner right now, they just can't afford it, and this year, 1997, is a telling year for the Ottawa Exhibition. If we get some rain, and we get a loss, this is it, this is the last one in my opinion.
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| Oh, really? There won't be another Ex?
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| Not unless it's successful, we don't have the money.
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| And successful means that the city makes money? Or the CCEA makes money?
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| Not the city, the exhibition, the exhibition. It has nothing to do with the city.
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| How many years now has the CCEA lost money on the Ex?
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| I'd say about four years, the last four years.
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| Okay.
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| We made as much as a million two years. It was two years when I was president in '59 and '60 and the manager died in 1982, I think, so they appointed me as General Manager for ten years, '82-'92. One of those, two of those years when Gary Guzzo was president we made just under a million dollars in two years. Times were good back then, though. We always had crowds. Everything went well, not a drop of rain. Rain's the killer of exhibitions. If it rains, no one comes.
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| Are there any other reasons the Ex is losing money other than rain?
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| Rain is the number one. It's nothing worse because nobody comes and you've got all your staff waiting so you haven't got a cent of revenue. Each year you have to change the programming to make it interesting and affordable for people to come, so you have to -- I guess the key is, you have to change with the times. Make sure that they're promoting their entertainment package or whatever and it's what people want. Sometimes it's hard to guess what they want. It's not an easy business.
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| Do you know if anyone else shares your feelings that if this year isn't successful this will be the last exhibition?
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| If it's not successful?
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| If this years Ex isn't successful will it stop?
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| It's just common sense. We all know, everyone on the board knows how much we've got in the bank. Once that's gone we're out of the business. There's no more money, we can't borrow money, we have no assets to borrow money on.
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| Hopefully with Conklin on board and all the new changes this year. . .
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| That's the reason they're here. That's the reason they're here this year. That's exactly the reason they're here. That's the reason we got a new General Manager, the last one we had didn't work out, too costly.
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| So Amusements of America was more expensive?
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| They were here for 35 years. And the Board of Directors felt it was time for a change. We knew we wanted something different, something bigger and better and different. And I think we did it. There's two major rides this year, and they should be a big attraction.
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| I'm looking forward to them.
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| They should bring a lot of folks out. You know, about seven years ago, the new Sky Wheel, the big ferris wheel with six seats around it, when that came the first year, we pumped the PR [public relations] all to that and that was the focus of our advertising. Line-ups, the whole fair, it just, it made it very successful. People came just to see that one ride. And I think this roller coaster will do the same thing. But we've got two of them, we have a water ride too.
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| That water ride should be a big draw, because I know the entire time I was growing up I wanted a flume ride here.
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| As long as people bring their rain coats or we sell dry clothing.
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| The funny thing is, I find a lot of people don't mind going on a water ride and getting wet but they just won't come out in the rain.
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| That's the problem.
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| Okay, Thank you very much.
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