OPINION
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EDITORIAL
How Ottawa got its game back
W
hoever says Ottawa is a town that fun forgot had better take a second look Following an announcement last week that a professional men’s basketball club is set to take up residence in the city later next year, the capital is starting to look like Canada’s sporting hotbed. Once the National Basketball League of Canada franchise starts up, it will add to the expanding roster
of athletic attractions in this city, potentially placing it second only to Toronto when it comes to professional sporting clubs. By the summer of 2015, we could boast National Hockey League, Canadian Football League, North American Soccer League and major league-affiliated baseball clubs. Also playing in the city are the Ottawa 67’s and varsity teams from two universities. Ottawa would be one of
the few NHL cities to also host a Canadian Hockey League franchise, and would be home to the only the third MLB-affiliate baseball club outside of the Toronto Blue Jays and Vancouver Canadians. It doesn’t stop there either. Ottawa will play host to a pair of high-profile international women’s sporting events over the next few years in the form of the Women’s World Ice Hockey Championship and
the Women’s World Cup, the top soccer tournament for female competitors. What does this say about the fortunes of a town that has in the recent past been considered a sporting basket case, one that lost its CFL club twice, its former TripleA ball team in 2006 and nearly lost the Senators 10 years ago? Clearly Ottawa has its game back. That shouldn’t be too surprising though. Ottawans love being active. We love to
cycle, we love to canoe, we love to ski, we love to run. The Ottawa Race Weekend, for example, routinely draws tens of thousands of runners. The roads in the city are sprinkled with cars sporting racks to carry either boats or bikes. This passion for activity makes it rather natural for us to appreciate other athletic endeavours. The Senators regularly fill the 18,000plus seat Scotiabank Place. Despite the city’s passion for
the NHL, the 67’s are among the CHL attendance leaders. Interest in the Ottawa Fat Cats Intercounty Baseball League franchise helped prove Ottawa was still a viable market for a minor league baseball affiliate. If there’s action on the field, ice or court, Ottawans will be there. The city should be taking every opportunity to show the rest of the country, and the rest of the world for that matter, how passionate Ottawa is about sports and how it plays a significant role in making the capital an exciting, diverse place to live.
COLUMN
Progress doesn’t have to be awful You couldn’t even stand up with a beer in your hand. There were no games to play, no decent food, no live music. These were the rules, imposed by the province. The result of those rules was the only thing you could do in a tavern was drink. Which is what people did, with considerable enthusiasm, and then they went outside, got into their cars and drove home, not always without incident. Those who lament changing times sometimes forget that times can also change for the better. Most pubs today are brighter and cheerier. There is good food. There are as many women as men. There is live music or, failing that, screens to watch sports on. There is less emphasis on drinking, per se. The pub has become a place you can hang out without drinking a lot, or even anything, and you can probably get a ride home with someone who is sober. The Elmdale and other local institutions have moved a long way in this direction and that’s not a bad thing. The drinking culture has changed and, unlike some other cultural changes, this one is welcome. This is not to say that we should welcome a trend where every pub becomes like every other pub, every neighbourhood becomes like every other neighbourhood and every family looks like every other family. But we, owners and customers, hold the key to avoiding that. The owner is tempted to follow the safe route of imitating other successful businesses. But the enlightened owner knows the key to success lies in creating something original. Then we, the customers can go to this different business and feel original ourselves, until eventually there are too many of us being original in the same way and we have to move on to something different. It’s not easy, this stuff. As customers we probably don’t insist often enough on originality. We go where other people go, which is one of the reasons that chains thrive and threaten the uniqueness of old neighbourhoods. We could block that by supporting originals and helping them survive.
CHARLES GORDON Funny Town
T
eeth have been publicly gnashed for several weeks over possible changes at the Elmdale Tavern in Hintonburgh. There is new ownership and Elmdale devotees, not all of whom have ever been there, fear the worst. The ’Dale will become a fern bar, or the modern equivalent thereof. Arugula salads will be served and Michael BublÊ will be heard over the sound system. Never mind that no one has actually made any announcement to that effect, the concerns are understandable in a way because what they are really about it is a changing neighbourhood. People have watched this happen elsewhere and what they fear is a kind of homogeneity: the street fills with moderately upscale eateries and stores, patronized by moderately upscale people wearing moderately upscale casual clothes and driving moderately upscale cars. While nicer, it becomes indistinguishable from other moderately upscale neighbourhoods. In a larger sense, the Elmdale has come to stand in for a generalized lamenting of progress. Things change and we like them to stay the way they were, although we do like colour TV, don’t we, and email, the odd cappuccino and maybe even back-up cameras in new cars. Not that we wish the Elmdale any harm, having been there, but it is worth remembering that not all change is bad. In the heyday of the Ontario tavern, say 50 years ago, taverns were very different and not always in a good way. There were no windows onto the street. Women were not allowed or were segregated into one section of the place. You couldn’t pick up your beer and walk to another table.
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Web Poll THIS WEEK’S POLL QUESTION
After the latest Presto card delay, should the city continue with the program?
A) Yes. We’ve already put a lot of time into this – it’d be a waste to quit now.
A) Yes. If OLG won’t offer the same terms as the new slots deal, we shouldn’t allow a new casino.
13%
C) No. Metrolinx has continually
B) No. The broader economic impact of a new casino is enough to go ahead.
0%
D) Who cares? I drive my car or cycle
C) No. We shouldn’t be building a new casino under any circumstances.
74%
B) For now, but if there are any further glitches, we’ll need to reconsider. dropped the ball and it’s time to move on. everywhere I need to go – I don’t take transit.
D) I don’t care. It all seems like a political shell game anyway. To vote in our web polls, visit us at www.yourottawaregion.com/community/cityofottawa
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8 Stittsville News EMC - Thursday, November 29, 2012
PREVIOUS POLL SUMMARY
Should revenue sharing terms for a new casino be a factor in the city’s decision to allow one to be built?
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