‘Great energy': Calgary Stampede kicks off with oilpatch optimism, patriotic pride
The Calgary Stampede is a yearly celebration of western culture that kicks off Friday with a parade and includes rodeo events, concerts, carnival games, midway rides, neighbourhood pancake breakfasts, corporate shindigs and a whole lot of cowboy cosplay.
As part of the festivities, Concorde Entertainment Group has transformed two parking lots into rollicking party destinations — the Wildhorse Saloon tent in the downtown core and the NTNL Saloon in the nearby Beltline neighbourhood. The company also hosts corporate Stampede events and out-of-towners at Barbarella, Brigitte Bar, Major Tom and other popular food-and-drink spots it runs.
'Without question, Stampede is the biggest 10 days of the year for us,' said Jon Molyneux, Concorde's vice-president of business development, sales and events.
This year is gearing up to be a big one, he said.
It took a while after the COVID-19 pandemic for parties to regain their momentum and companies that had put their festivities on hold are coming back, Molyneux said.
Corporate bookings have never been so high, Molyneux said, adding the staff orientation session earlier this week at the Wildhorse Saloon was the fullest he's seen.
'There's a great energy in the city right now and I think this one's going to be a banger.'
A report from the Mastercard Economic Institute suggests that last year, Stampede represented a 158 per cent increase in overall dining spending and an 18 per cent increase in accommodation spending compared to estimates of what it would have been without the event. It came up with those figures using a machine-learning methodology known as 'synthetic control' to create a comparison scenario with no Stampede.
Stampede organizers say the fair and rodeo grounds just southeast of downtown hosted nearly 1.5 million visitors last year, an all-time attendance record.
That was despite a catastrophic water main break a month earlier that forced everyone in the city to cut back on lawn watering, showering, toilet flushing and car washing. In the end, repairs were made in the nick of time and none of the festivities had to be scaled back or scrubbed.
The Stampede, a not-for-profit organization, estimates it contributes $540 million to the Alberta economy year-round.
'It's significant enough to move the needle a little bit,' said BMO economist Robert Kavcic.
This year's Stampede comes at a time of optimism in Alberta, he said.
'We're still looking at pretty solid economic growth this year — let's call it two per cent or slightly stronger — even as other parts of Canada struggle a bit more.'
Alberta's oil-and-gas-centred economy has been relatively sheltered from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, unlike the manufacturing heartland of Central Canada, Kavcic said.
The province's economic fortunes are also being bolstered by the recent startup of LNG Canada, the first major project to enable natural gas exports to lucrative Asian markets.
Though Canadians' spending in general may be crimped this year, more of the discretionary dollars they do have are likely to be spent within the country as they avoid U.S. travel, Kavcic said.
ATB chief economist Mark Parsons agreed there will likely be a bump in domestic tourism this year, noting there's a surge in arriving guests at the city's airport every year at Stampede.
'We see an uptick in spending, and, in particular, the real impact comes from the out-of-province guests,' he said.
This year, that might be even more pronounced as Trumps' tariff and annexation threats, along with general concerns about the U.S. political climate, turn Canadians off vacationing south of the border.
'We do expect more staycations this summer, more of that 'elbows-up' tourism, which I think will actually boost the Stampede numbers and maybe encourage longer stays at the Stampede,' Parsons said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2025.
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Hamilton Spectator
3 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Easier than just talking to someone': Hamilton artist on connecting through performance
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Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
The Bulwark's top editor shares how the anti-Trump site tripled its subscriber base in a year — and why it's betting on YouTube
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YouTube is another key part of The Bulwark's growth. It crossed 1 million subscribers on the platform in mid-February, and that count rose 34% between then and early July, thanks to a healthy mix of short-form snippets and long-form videos. The news site uses YouTube Shorts, the platform's buzzy, TikTok-esque clips, as a foot in the door for newcomers. But long-form content of all kinds is crushing on YouTube, especially on TVs. The Bulwark's producers have taken note by making most of their videos at least 10 minutes long, and some run well over an hour. "We no longer think of podcast and video as separate," Last said. "We just think of it all as broadcast." The Bulwark was perfectly positioned for one of the wildest decades for news in the last century, complete with a pandemic, wars, and Trump's rise, fall, and rebound. "It's been a crazy eight years," Last said. "People have been forced to pay attention to the news in ways which are reasonably unique, at least in our lifetimes." Not just 'Never Trump' The Bulwark has gained much of its notoriety for its sharp criticism of Trump. But when asked who he's writing for, Last said he's not necessarily targeting a certain political group. "The target audience is people who take ideas seriously and aren't looking for confirmation bias and who think that the moment is important," Last said. He added: "I think of, honestly, our target audience as being indistinguishable from The Atlantic's." While Last said many Bulwark readers are largely on the center left to the center right, he added that the main common thread among his reader base is a distaste for authoritarianism. To Last, that's synonymous with an unease, or outright disgust, with Trump and many of his policies. "We're on a team, and the team is democracy," Last said. However, Last said The Bulwark doesn't have a vendetta against Trump. If the president enacts policies that Last and his colleagues like — such as Operation Warp Speed, which accelerated COVID-19 vaccine development during the pandemic — he said they'll gladly tout them. "We are not reflexively negative," Last said. "It's not like if Trump comes out and says that 'ice cream is good,' we have to say, 'ice cream is bad.'" Still, Last's readers know that he sees Trump as a serious threat to American democracy. "If I had described the events of 2020 to somebody in 2016, they would've said, 'You're crazy — that's "Trump Derangement Syndrome,"'" Last said. Critics may shrug off The Bulwark's warnings as alarmist, but Last insists he's not crying wolf. "The fact that people aren't freaked out by just the actual real things that have happened in front of our eyes is mostly a function of the pot being turned up while the frogs are in it," Last said. Straightforward and direct Authenticity sells in 2025, both in politics and media. Just look at the most popular podcasters, including Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper of "Call Her Daddy" fame. Audiences also crave honesty, Last said. That honesty and authenticity, combined with strongly held convictions, have become cornerstones of The Bulwark's popularity. "A lot of times, we'll sit around arguing with each other, and the argument will end with one of us going, 'Yeah, you guys are right. I got that wrong,'" Last said. Unlike traditional media organizations, The Bulwark is built on Substack. The newsletter hub has been a huge part of the news site's rapid growth, Last said, since readers of other writers can discover The Bulwark and subscribe in a single click. "Anything you can do to lower the friction just pays enormous dividends," Last said. By building its business around newsletters, The Bulwark reaches readers directly, without intermediaries like search engines or social media. Newsletters and podcasts can also build emotional connections. 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Newsweek
4 hours ago
- Newsweek
Texas Housing Market Going Backward as Homes Up for Sale Hit 14-Year High
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Texas home sales reported their weakest performance of the year to date in April, when the spring's homebuying season was supposed to be in full swing, according to a new report. This is happening even as for-sale inventory has surged above pre-pandemic levels and is now at a 14-year high—proving that more options are not enough to encourage buyers to return to the market in droves. What Is Going on in the Texas Market? Data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center (TRERC) of the Texas A&M University released earlier this week showed that in April, for-sale inventory in the Lone Star State climbed to its highest level since 2011, when the country was navigating the housing recession. As of April, the state counted 141,950 active home listings—31.4 percent more than a year earlier and 8 percent more than the previous month. There were also 41 percent more listings than they were in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. This surge in inventory all across Texas is happening in part because many homeowners locked in by lower monthly payments have decided to stop waiting for mortgage rates to fall and are now ready to sell their properties. In part, it is happening because Texas built more new homes than almost any other state in the country over the past five years, with the exception of Florida. A home for sale in Austin, Texas, on May 22, 2024. A home for sale in Austin, Texas, on May 22, April alone, more than 60,000 new listings entered the Texas market, up 15 percent from a year earlier. But as buyers continue facing elevated mortgage rates, historically high prices and rising costs—including homeowners association fees and insurance premiums—new and existing homes for sale in the state are struggling to go under contract. April home sales in Texas were down 3.4 percent compared to a year earlier. In parts of the state, they faced even steeper declines. In the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan area, sales were at 2,554—down 13 percent year over year—while inventory was up by 26.9 percent to 13,061. In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, sales were at 8,068—down 5.4 percent compared to a year earlier—while listings totaled 32,812, up 39.4 percent from April 2024. And in Houston-Pasadena-the Woodlands, sales were at 7,818—down 2.8 percent from April 2024—while inventory was up by 37.6 percent, with total listings of 35,214. More Price Drops in Sight This imbalance between sellers and buyers in the Texas market is bringing down prices across the state. In April, Austin reported a home price decline of 2.1 percent year over year. The decline was 0.4 percent in Dallas and 1 percent in San Antonio. At the state level, price growth essentially stalled: Home prices were up by a modest 0.3 percent year over year, the weakest gain since August 2023. While prices were still holding steady in Houston in April, a month later they began falling steeply. In May, the Space City reported a home price drop of 1.5 percent compared to a year earlier, the biggest since September 2023. "Prices are beginning to tick downward as the market shifts from a seller's market to a buyer's market," Shae Cottar, the chair of the Houston Association of Realtors, told Newsweek. "The higher interest rates have led to houses sitting on the market longer than they have in recent years. This, combined with the overall economic climate, means buyers are being a little more choosy about the homes they're considering," she said. "This leads to inventory stacking up as well as those homes sitting on the market longer. More inventory and longer days on the market mean sellers are having to renegotiate the starting prices up front now to attract the right buyers." The state's inventory surge is expected to continue in the coming months, further bringing down prices—especially as more new homes are expected to land on the market. In April, according to TRERC, single-family permits were up 7.6 percent year to date. In May, Redfin data showed, inventory in Texas was up by 19 percent year over year, for a total of 186,452 listings. There were 49,706 newly listed homes, up 5.9 percent year over year.
