Modelled after the highly-successful operation of the same name in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Oh Canada Eh? will open its doors May 10, 2002 at 125 Kananaskis Way, near the Canmore Chrysler.

Owner Vijay Domingo has partnered with the creators and owners of the Niagara Falls' operation to bring the show to the Bow Valley, and its appearance in the Rocky Mountains is a bit of pure kismit.

Several years ago, while on vacation in Maui, Domingo and his wife attended a luau.

"I paid $90 for some average buffet food and some cheesy entertainment - and I loved it," he said in a recent interview. "I came home and thought, 'Why don't we have anything like that here?' It has great potential in the Bow Valley, so I started looking to do something that would appeal to tourists and also offer good family entertainment."

Unbeknownst to him, Ross Robinson and Jim Cooper had been scouting around Bow Valley for the previous two years, looking for an opportunity to expand their successful Niagara Falls creation.

They had visited Ron Remple at Ad-Venture Capital to research the possibilities in Canmore, and shortly afterward Domingo came looking for some advice at Remple's door as well.

Remple put the three together, and he and Domingo last fall flew to Niagara Falls to see the show and talk to Robinson and Cooper.

At the end of the weekend, Domingo said, they shook hands and struck a deal.

"We thought it was going to work in Canmore for several reasons," Robinson said in a telephone interview Monday (Oct. 28). "It has had tremendous success in Niagara Falls, which essentially is a summer tourist season. In the Rocky Mountains, while there are far fewer tourists at any one time, they tend to be younger and more affluent, they stay longer, and they come all year."

Robinson said they researched the demographics of the two markets, and foud tourists to the Bow Valley are on average eight years younger than those in Niagara Falls, and they usually stay in the area two or three days rather than the one night tourists stay in Niagara Falls.

Their decision to jump into the Rocky Mountains was spurred by travel operators from across North America and international markets urging them to do so, he said.

"A lot of them told us they will use us from Day One, so if even half of them come through it will be great."

"The feedback hotels and tourism businesses get is that the scenery is great, the hotel is great, the skiing is great, but there is nothing to do at night except restaurants and bars. You need to have something else."

Domingo said that several tour operators have already signed up and bookings are being taken for next summer.

In Ontario, Oh Canada Eh? won the annual Attraction of the Year award from the Niagara Falls Tourism Bureau four times in its first seven years of operations, beating out such competition as The Shaw Festival, Domingo said.

"It's really done right. It's a great display of culture, a musical celebration of Canada."

The show features such Canadian icons as Rocket Richard, Anne of Green Gables, a lumberjack, a fisherman and a Mountie. The theme is build around another Canadian icon - Trivial Pursuit - and over the course of the two hours, the performers impart both well-and-little-known facts about Canada to the audience, primarily through song. In total, there's only about 20 minutes of dialogue, Robinson said.

The performers also double as servers during the dinner, with patrons dining on such fare as Atlantic Haddock, Alberta beef, New Brunswick potatoes, split pea soup, a "Lorne Green" salad and maple cake for desserts. Canadian beers and wines are also on the menu.

The meal, gratuity and two-hour performance will cost about $59, but Domingo said he's planning to offer special discounts and locals' rates for Bow Valley residents. The key part of his business will come from bus tours from local motels and hotels.

About 15 to 20 local performers will be needed to start, along with additional restaurant and cooking staff, but some senior staff will be imported from Niagara Falls to ensure a continuity to the operation.

In Niagara Falls, Oh Canada Eh? now has a payroll of $700,000 annually, with 54 full-and-part-time people on staff, Robinson said.

Domingo said his major concern in embarking on the project was how it will fit in the community.

"You do need community support whenever you do something here, and my concern was, how does it fit? It's definitely suitable for the whole family, and this community needs family entertainment."

Early on in his planning process he met with officials from the Mountain Arts Foundation to ascertain whether that group would see the facility as an asset or commercial competition for its own planned performing arts centre.

MAF president Lance Hannesson could not be reached for comment, but Michael Vincent, a member of the MAF subcommittee planning the new centre said Domingo's new facility would enhance the community.

"It's a facility that's very art specific, with a bare bones stage and floor that's entirely suitable to what they're proposing. I don't think it will interfere at all with what we're proposing, which is a far more encompassing performing arts facility."

"We plan to work with them as much as we can. competition creates a more exciting community."

Discussions have been held about allowing groups such as Pine Tree Players to use the space when Oh Canada Eh? is between seasons, Domingo said.