It may not have had Beyonce endorse a candidate, but the election of Calgary’s first-ever dog mayor of the Culture and Entertainment District still drew thousands.
Over the past month, more than 5,000 Calgarians cast their ballot for the mock election, all in celebration of some pretty spectacular canine-dates, but also to celebrate the first anniversary of Pixel Park on Oct. 26.
The park, which was opened as a temporary addition to the City of Calgary-operated Enoch Park along Macleod Trail in the Beltline, has become a regular fixture for residents and area visitors over the past year.
“Since we opened a year ago at Pixel Park, we’ve had hundreds of programming days. We’re open Friday through Sunday, staffed by our East team of ambassadors, and we’ve worked with 20 programming partners to bring different kinds of programming to this space,” said Emma Stevens, Director for Communications and External Relations for the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation.
“We’ve had the Surge basketball group here to celebrate some big some big team announcements. We’ve had all kinds of diverse programming—skateboarding, Lion dancing, markets—all kinds of different programming in this space, and it’s exactly the kind of vibrancy that people can come to expect from the Culture and Entertainment District as it evolves.”
She said that since opening, the park has seen more than 50,000 weekend visitors (not counting the innumerable dogs that visit the dog park as well), more than 25,000 unique charges at the Telsa Superchargers, for an average of 140 visitors per day at more than 67 different community events.
The reason behind CMLC building the temporary park remains the same after one year – to provide an amenity to users while construction takes place throughout the Culture and Entertainment District.
“The culture and entertainment district is going through a major and intense period of development and construction, the completion of the BMO Center expansion, the new 17th Ave extension in Victoria Park, Stampede Station rebuild, and of course, construction on Scotia Place with lots more to come,” she said.
“It was important for us to take a look at the space that we had available and see how we could turn it into a really great amenity for the community, to support them through this period of intense development and construction, but also to show what the C+E is all about. And this kind of activity is exactly what we can expect to see here for many years to come.”
Close race for Dog Mayor of the C+E
Three candidates put their best paw forwards and won over the hearts of voters throughout October.
Stevens said that there were more than 40 dogs entered into the contest.
“It was a really tough race. We were neck and neck until the very end, so we’re excited to see who comes out on top today,” Stevens said.
Scully, Buster, and Loki all came in close with the final vote, but it was Loki’s campaign slogan of “a pawsitive leader who fetches results,” that won over voters.
Loki’s owner, Courtney MacLean, said that she entered her dog into the contest because she works in the neighbourhood around Pixel Park, and frequently use the dog park.
“We saw this happening and just thought it’d be a really fun opportunity. He loves people and meeting new people and saying hi,” she said.
She said that she was surprised that Loki was given the electoral victory, and joked that his first policy would be to push for mandatory pup cups and dog treats at all of the drive-thrus in city.
But more seriously, MacLean said that she was happy to see the transformation in the district and how Pixel Park has helped the area.
“It’s super great to see how this area has come together. This is such a nice amenity, having this in the neighbourhood, and it’s obviously getting a lot of great traffic.”
CMLC said that they would be holding another Dog Mayor contest in 2025.
