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The Central Canada Exhibition Association and the City of Ottawa have lived in relative peace for 109 years. The first record of a lease of Lansdowne Park between the City and the CCEA is found in the 1893 City Council minutes. The lease agreement, lasting five years, was probably a renewal of an initial 1888 lease. When the City considered giving the CCEA another lease for the exhibition grounds, they also had the option of reviewing the terms-of-agreement; therefore these terms could have changed each time the lease was renewed, which appears to be every three, five or ten years. The financial arrangements made for the grounds in the early years is unknown. |
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In the early years of the exhibition, it seems that, through the lease agreement, the CCEA was only permitted to use Lansdowne Park for the Central Canada Exhibition and the Ottawa Winter Fair, and thus had no control of the grounds the rest of the year. This is illustrated in a 1914 letter from Mayor McVeity of Ottawa, written to the CCEA: "While the Exhibition is managed by the Association, the city is really responsible. . . ." This letter is also the only sign of hostility between these two bodies in the early years. McVeity expresses dissatisfaction with the running of the exhibition, saying:". . . the electors are insisting upon a closer supervision of its [the CCEA's] management. Neither do I intend that the affairs of the Association shall be discussed in private, but on the contrary, I propose that the widest publicity be given to the same."It is not clear whether McVeity's comments reflect an uneasiness in the citizens of Ottawa about the CCEA directors' running of the exhibition or if they are solely a reflection of his personal feelings, but they do foreshadow future problems for the CCEA. In the first of a series of 10-year leases, the city gave the CCEA new power over the grounds of Lansdowne Park in 1946. Instead of being simply a tenant of the city, the CCEA had now reached the status of landlord of the grounds. The lease cost the CCEA $1 per year, and the profit of the exhibition was to be put into specific reserves, with additional revenue going into the city's coffers. Prior to this arrangement, the buildings on Lansdowne Park were idle for most of the year. When the CCEA took the reins, Lansdowne Park started to become a true community centre, with five of the eight buildings being used year-round in 1972. From 1947 to 1953, Triple A Baseball was played at Lansdowne Park. (It stopped in 1953 because of the Lord's Day Act, which meant that they could not play ball on Sundays.) In 1950, the Association and the Ottawa Curling Club agreed to turn the horticultural building into an ice rink each winter; and in 1961, Ottawa's first public skating rink was established in the General Purpose building. Between 1946 and 1953, the CCEA spent $150,312 on the park, which, under the old lease agreement, the City would have paid; by 1967, the CCEA had put $3,000,000 into the park. In 1957, the lease agreement changed so that the CCEA was required to pay the city $25,000 per year, and with any extra money over and above this figure going into a reserve fund for expansion of the fair grounds. The next significant change in the lease's terms-of-agreement would come in 1967, and it would not be well received. |
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[The Politics of the CCEA]
[The Early Years of the Lease] [The Lease Fiasco] [Lawn Parking] [Moving the Grounds] |
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