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| - According to the Wikipedia page, the first Canadian National Exhibition took place in 1879, largely to promote agriculture and technology in Canada. Agriculturists, engineers and scientists exhibited their discoveries and inventions at the CNE to showcase the work and talent of the nation. I can assure you the the CNE today have absolutely nothing that resembles "discoveries and inventions".
I've been going to the CNE since when I used to get the free tickets with my report cards at school. I've gone most years for one reason or another, but usually never intentional. I went again this year for old time sakes and I was not really impressed. It seems that the prices of everything have risen, in fact, I remembered seeing at lest 80% of the people walking around with midway prizes and playing the games about 5-10 years ago. This year, nearly all the game stands had zero customers and almost no one was carrying a stuffed animal. Same old food, same old rides/games, same old shopping at the buildings and same old tacky shows from unknown artists.
The only thing I was surprised to see were The Flying Wallendas. On top of the $16 admission fee, every inch of this place was covered with boring vendors, there were no free samples, science exhibits or anything that was mildly entertaining without costing at least $5 a pop.
The bottom line is that this place might be a good meeting place if you have a large group to please and everyone seems to have lots of disposable income to throw around. Otherwise, you can get better quality entertainment else where.
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