The Canadian National Exhibition — and its forever-1978 melange of creaky fairground attractions, stuffed-animals prizes and cheap, greasy (but oh so tasty) food — inspires passionate responses from Torontonians, be it intense nostalgia or intense embarassment. It's an emotional tug-of-war that's played out over the year's in the pages of EYE WEEKLY. To mark this year's opening weekend — the traditional start of the end of the summer — we present this a special CNE edition of Point/Counterpoint.
From the Sept. 1, 2005 edition of EYE WEEKLY, here are Shawn Micallef's wistful thoughts:
I was surprised to find out that the CNE is a lot of fun. For the last 20 years,
people have been questioning the value of its continued existence as anything
more than an antiquated curiosity. The Ex is irrelevant, little more than a
stop on the Conklin carnival circuit, they say. While it's true the midway --
with the usual toothless carnies and creaky old Zipper and Polar Express rides
-- is the flashy focus for a lot of people, I've yet to attend anything that
slams together so many disparate elements into one sweaty, loud, kitschy package.
With a decidedly less sentimental take on the mistake by our lake, here's Joel McConvey's manifesto from Aug. 14, 2003, entitled "Let's Shut Down the Ex":
What's left at the Ex is an assortment of attractions made redundant
by instant technology and upstaged by offshoot events peddling the same
wonders. Until 1967, the CNE was the primary showcase for new
developments in the automotive industry, displaying the kind of Jetsons-inspired
space cars that fueled thousands of utopian dreams. With the advent of
the Canadian International Auto Show in 1973, the CNE's Automotive
Building became a hulking empty shell, used primarily for
non-CNE-related events and a few stunts and exhibits during the fair.
So who's right? Only one way to find out (i.e., we'll see you at the Tiny Tom's counter).