Talk:Calgary Stampede

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1 Safety section
2 TimeLine confusion
3 Use of Exhibition disambiguation link
4 change to intro paragraph
5 Just exatcly where is the rodeo venue?

[edit] Safety section

I put in a section, that addresses the safety for animals and humans, of the rodeo. I wanted to do it for the overall Stampede, but only have information on the rodeo portion. There has been the odd fatality in the parade, but I have no sources. Ideally the "Rodeo Safety" sub-section could be expanded, and re-named. Perhaps it should deal with more than just listing off deaths over the years, since that doesn't give a great picture of overall safety. --rob 7 July 2005 04:17 (UTC)

I noticed my section of "safety" has been renamed and reworded, which is fine. Given the preference for "point form", for the incidients, it's worth noting the the CBC article I cited [1], actually gives a really good point-by-point list of what happened. I had removed the details, to make it sound better in paragraph form. If we're going to use point form, than we might as well take advantage of that, and just reproduce what's in the CBC article, to the greatest extent possible, allowed under copyright law. Rather than editing the list that's there, just start fresh from the CBC article. --rob 7 July 2005 08:26 (UTC)

Other note: The exact cause of the latest accident on the bridge, has not been determined. This article gives the train as the sole and known reason for spooking the horses. The organizers actually knew the train schedule in advance, so it was no surprise. Nobody is yet stating they know exactly why the horses were spooked. The train is just the obvious possibility, that was first reported. We might never know. --rob 7 July 2005 08:26 (UTC)

[Many horses are terrified of bridges. Some will flatly refuse to go onto one. A herd moving at speed, familiar with the sound of its hoof-beats on solid ground, suddenly finds itself on a bridge. There is a very different sound to the hoof-beats; the most easily spooked horses will panic; the panic will spread; the disastrous result will occur. The event organizers should have been aware of this potential, imo. Perhaps they were. Perhaps they opted for stampeding the herd over the bridge, hoping it would all be over before panic erupted. Alternatively, the outriders could have slowed the pace and spaced the herd out on the approach to the bridge. Dave Livingston, Ottawa.]

I have made changes to increase details about human deaths. I also, said the train "may have been" the cause of the horse spooking. We have to be careful about making libeleous claims of fact here. The train, it's schedule, and it's sounds, were all known in advance. To say that a known event/sound caused this, borders on accusing the organizers of negligence. Now, we can attribute that as an opinion of some, but that should not be stated as a known fact, until it is either admitted to, or proven with evidence. The mere fact of the train noise is not such evidence. --rob 8 July 2005 02:46 (UTC)

I think your edits are good. About the train business however: I was under the impression that a train WAS shunting cars at the time. However, you are right in saying that this was not a known CAUSE and that the reasons were likely manyfold. However, I don't think this points to negligence because no train actually passed. The locomotive was merely shunting cars which happens constantly in rail yards. I suppose that nobody thought that this would be a concern. --Tyson2k 8 July 2005 06:17 (UTC)

Fair point. That's why I said it only "borders" on negligence. Mainly, I just want to wait a bit, and leave open the possibility that the Stampede or SPCA will announce they found some other, more signficant cause, that nobody even thought off. So, far, I think the media reports are just based on the fact that everybody heard the train sound, and then saw/heard the horses go crazy, and assumed the two go together. Probably the case, but it's so easy to jump to the wrong conclusion. --rob 8 July 2005 16:58 (UTC)

To provide balance to the point-by-point listing of deaths, I thought I should put in a point-by-point list of postive historical developments of the Stampede. There's some repitition in the information. But, I think it gives clearer explanation of how things came to pass. Ideally, the "General Overview" should be edited to skip the numbers/dates and just give a broader explanation of development. --rob 07:46, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] TimeLine confusion

Here's a little bit of a possible contradiction I recently discovered:

http://www.stampede.coolattractions.com/history.html - "1932 The Calgary Exhibition joined with the Stampede to become the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede "
http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012302 - "In 1923, the rodeo merged with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition", same article also says 1932 is the year when Weadick was fired (from the organization he founded).

This is a little confusing. Was the "The Calgary Exhibition" the same as "Calgary Industrial Exhibition". If different, did they both merge into the present organization. If so, both years are needed. Is the 1923 reference just a transposition error for 1932.? Was Weadick fired the same year the Stampede and Exhibition merged?

For now I'll stick with the CalgaryStampede.com source. The only reason I would like to use the other source, is it mentions Weadicks departure, which seems like a major event. However, if I doubt one year in the article, I have to doubt all of them. Weadicks departure does not seem to be discussed in many places. --rob 17:33, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Use of Exhibition disambiguation link

I'm cleaning up some disambiguation bits and bobs, and this page links to the exhibition page. I am not entirely convinced on the best true redirect, as I have (sadly) never been to Calgary during the stampede. For the moment I'll go with "fair" which does not seem to do it justice - please correct if wrong, and accept my apologies. State fair is another possibility, but the onward link seems very USA orientated, hence somehow wrong for an all Canadian event. LeeG 14:32, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation to fair is appropriate. -- JamesTeterenko 14:40, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Great, thanks. I'll remove the link from the title to the disambiguation page too. Makes my life a bit easier! LeeG 14:57, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] change to intro paragraph

beforehand the ending of this paragraph suggested that only tourists dress in western attire. Also, I know for a fact, since i heard it from Max Foran during his class on the Stampede at U of C, that tourists only makeup a small percentage of visitors to the stampede, something like 20%. I can't find a source, however. Kilter 03:38, 11 July 2006 (UTC)