06/27/2026
Apparently, Ottawa’s answer to overcrowding in Banff is to cancel traditional events that everyone knows and loves.
One of Alberta’s most unique winter festivals is leaving Banff.
Not because it wasn’t popular or interest slowed. It’s actually the opposite.
It just attracted the wrong people. Locals, who have enjoyed the sport for decades.
Banff’s skijoring festival, an event where thousands gather to watch skiers and snowboarders pulled by horses as they perform jumps and tricks, is officially cancelled.
Becoming a victim of its own success, officials claimed this year’s event gained so much traction that traffic backed up outside town, parking spilled far beyond normal capacity, and hospital staff struggled with getting to work.
After a couple of months of review, the decision was made. Skijoring is out.
Long before Banff became an international tourist destination, skijoring was already part of the town’s winter traditions, dating back to 1917.
Perhaps the most revealing comment came from Banff’s mayor, who warned that communities now have to prepare for “a growing Calgary showing up on the same day at the same time.”
It’s a shame that such a special event, one genuinely loved by Canadians, is being taken away because of overcrowding, while officials remain silent about foreign tourists overwhelming our parks with free passes courtesy of Mark Carney.
Canadians are increasingly being asked to accept packed trails and impossible parking as the new normal, even as those same concerns are used to justify cancelling a beloved tradition.
Anyone who has visited Banff National Park in recent years has seen it firsthand.
Parking lots fill before lunch, traffic backs up for kilometres, and some of the park’s most popular spots can feel more like crowded city streets than a mountain escape.
Yet when it comes to preserving Canadians’ access to these places, there seems to be far less urgency than when it comes to cancelling a longstanding tradition.
Banff is hardly the only Canadian destination dealing with explosive growth and record visitation.
The question is what happens when those pressures begin to collide with the local traditions and community events that helped make places like Banff special in the first place.
Our culture keeps disappearing because the people making these decisions simply don’t care about our history.
I find it fascinating that events such as the Annual Nagar Kirtan (Sikh Parade) in Edmonton and Calgary face relatively little pushback, despite drawing crowds comparable to, and in some cases larger than, the events now being scaled back due to overcrowding.
Attendance often reaches into the tens of thousands, with the Calgary parade reportedly attracting between 60,000 and 80,000 people.
Residents in Mill Woods have also raised concerns about traffic disruptions, noise lasting for hours, and litter left behind after the event.
If a tradition that dates back to 1917 can disappear because it became too popular, what other Canadian traditions could face the same fate?
The question I keep asking myself lately: why are new traditions more important than old traditions?
