Exhibition Grounds

Regina 's early town council members were hustlers when it came to promoting Regina 's benefits. Civic leaders in the early days of settlement on the Canadian West had to be shameless promoters (or ‘boosters') when it came to attracting business and attention towards their community. No achievement was too small to trumpet in posters or broadsides to attract potential settlers.

Regina 's town founders were no different and active in the practice of ‘boosterism'. They were desperate to promote the community any way they could. One brilliant idea they came up with was for an agricultural exhibition. The original idea came from Senator William D. Perley of Wolseley. In 1891 he suggested that the local agricultural societies fund an exhibition while the Assiniboia Agricultural Society of Regina provide the buildings for such an event. His idea fizzled at the time. However, Lieutenant-Governor Charles H. Macintosh revived the idea in 1893 when he came to the North West Territories to begin his term. Macintosh convinced the Regina town council to put $10,000 behind the scheme in order to purchase a site and buildings for the exhibition. Funding for the event was a joint effort of the town, the North West Territories and the federal government.

The Territorial Exhibition of 1895 was an instant success as far as promotion went. It was not a financial success, however, and it took two years to pay off the creditors. However, the seed was planted. Town council bought the site and the buildings in 1896 from the Townsite Trustees. This is the same site where the Exhibition Grounds currently sit. It took several years before another fair was held, but the event has been an annual tradition since 1899.

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