For 10 days every summer, Calgary completely transforms. The midway goes up, the rodeo kicks off and thousands of people converge on the city from all corners of the province.
The Calgary Stampede has been dubbed the greatest outdoor show on earth, and for politicians, it is one of the greatest opportunities to network.
“I focus on a lot of community events,” said Finance Minister Joe Ceci at the Eau Claire YMCA pancake breakfast on Wednesday morning.
“You’re coming out early and meeting people, and saying: ‘Howdy! How’s your day going? What has your Stampede been like?’ Everyone is in a really great mood.”
Ceci is a veteran of the Stampede circuit; first as a city councillor, and now as a minister in Rachel Notley’s NDP government. For him, Stampede is about meeting with people he doesn’t normally get a chance to see.
“A lot of early morning stuff and sometimes, as you can tell from my voice, a lot of late night stuff too,” Ceci said with a laugh.
At every event, you are bound to run into at least one politician in the crowd. At the Women’s Centre of Calgary barbecue, there were at least a dozen, including several NDP cabinet ministers, the leaders of the Alberta and Liberal parties, and MLAs from both the PC and Wildrose parties.
“It’s really, to me, one of the greatest times of the year to network,” said PC MLA Richard Gotfried, who keeps a Stampede schedule as full as anyone.
“Oh my gosh, no less than five or six (events) a day, and sometimes up to eight or nine a day, so we’re moving pretty quickly.”
Gotfried says the Stampede, and other summer events like it, is a perfect opportunity to hear from people about the job that’s being done and the impacts they have in their local communities.
“We can take those messages back to the legislature,” Gotfried said.
“The opportunity is there for us to collaborate together, to solve some of those problems and to work hard on behalf of all Albertans.”