Sutcliffe promises ‘big events’ with Holland as Tulip Festival fades

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My favorite piece of public art in Ottawa is probably The Man with Two Hats, the sculpture in Commissioner’s Park on Dow’s Lake. Depicting a man holding two hats aloft, I was initially drawn to the fantasy of him; It reminded me of something out of a children’s fairy tale.

The meaning of the piece, however, is not so fanciful. It is a replica of “de Man met twee hoeden” by the Dutch artist Henk Visch, located in the city of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. To commemorate the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of Holland during World War II, the Dow’s Lake version was unveiled in 2002 by Princess Margaret of the Netherlands, whose wartime birth in Ottawa, where the royal family Dutch was exiled, it was fundamental. her in forging the firm bond between the two nations that exists to this day.

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Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe acknowledged that unique relationship Tuesday when he announced on X that Ottawa Tourism had signed an agreement with tourism officials in The Hague “to continue working together to bring major events to our two cities.

“This collaboration is already producing results,” added the mayor. “And there will be more collaboration through @Invest_Ottawa and its Dutch counterpart.”

Sounds like good news. I love events. They provide residents with many opportunities to get out, stretch their legs, meet people and have fun. They also attract countless visitors to Ottawa each year, bringing a cascade of economic benefits to the city. And cross-pollination of cultures is never a bad thing. Who doesn’t love a Heineken with their BeaverTail, right?

But it seems more than a little strange that while Sutcliffe, on the one hand, praises this agreement, the city, on the other, is eliminating its funding for the Canadian Tulip Festival, which, with an apologetic nod to Bluesfest, has historically been Ottawa’s most important festival. , and the larger recurring celebration of the close ties of Canada and the Netherlands.

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As a recent story by my colleague Peter Hum noted, the city is turning off the spigot when it comes to funding the 71-year-old Tulip Festival. The $100,000 Ottawa usually donates annually to the festival has been cut in half to $50,000 for this year’s May 10-20 event. Next year, according to festival executive director Jo Riding, that number will drop to nothing.

This is disastrous for organizations like the Tulip Festival.

All types of organizations are increasingly competing for smaller and smaller slices of the municipal, provincial and federal pies, and government officials are having to make tough decisions about where funds are spent.

But given its place in Ottawa’s history, it would be a shame to eliminate the Tulip Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and, crucially, does not charge admission.

The lack of financial support from the city, Riding said, will only make it more difficult to find other sponsors. Municipal financing, he explained to me, is “the backbone” of other funds.

“You need a letter from the city before you can get provincial or federal funding.”

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So it’s not hard to see which way that waterfall will eventually fall.

If Sutcliffe really wants to encourage events between Ottawa and The Hague, I would suggest supporting the featured event he already has. And hopefully the man of two hats won’t be torn apart by a mayor who speaks through his.

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