How Ottawa Is Shedding Its Boring Reputation
Self-proclaimed “old punk” Mathieu Grondin never pictured himself as a bureaucrat. But that’s where his longtime passion for nightlife and live music landed him. Last June, the Montrealer moved to Ottawa to become the city’s first-ever night mayor, a municipally funded position focused on growing the after-hours economy in Canada’s capital. With nighttime spending down across the country and Ottawa facing a long-standing reputation as the city that fun forgot, it’s no simple task. But Grondin sees a possibility that certain other cities (cough cough, Toronto, Montreal) could take a page from: “There’s a lot of enthusiasm here. Nobody is too cool to take action,” Grondin explains. Now if only he can figure out how to get the next gen of nighttime revellers into clubs (and off of their phones).
You are Ottawa’s first ever night mayor. Can you share a job description?
I’m actually the first night mayor in Canada. Toronto has what they call a “night champion," but it’s just a city councillor overseeing the nightlife and culture files, whereas a night mayor is its own position within the city administration that’s solely dedicated to the management of nightlife. The title was first used in the 1980s in Rotterdam, where the youth and the police would clash every night after the clubs and bars closed. The counter-cultural artist Jules Deelder proclaimed himself “night mayor” to act as a mediator between the cops and the public. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek. Twenty years later, in Amsterdam, they created the Night Mayor Foundation System, which became a model for civic based organizations all over Europe and, more recently, in the U.S.—in obvious places like New York City but also smaller locations like Pittsburgh, Orlando and Iowa City. These are mid-sized cities like Ottawa—places people don’t think of as nightlife destinations, which is the whole point.
What do you mean?
One of the big motivations for creating my role goes back to 2017, when the Economic Development Services surveyed the tech sector in Ottawa. It found that the issue with retention in the workforce was partly that the city did not seem attractive to these highly mobile, well-paid tech workers. These are people with options. They wanted to know, is Taylor Swift gonna come to Ottawa? Does the city have good restaurants? Good bars? What time do they close? So my position came around to prioritize growth. There are some misconceptions: I am not the guy who is going to open new venues or plan festivals. I’m liaising between the government and nightlife stakeholders, doing what I can to remove obstacles—regulations, bylaws, red tape, safety concerns. I’m making sure the soil is fertile so other people can plant seeds.
Night economies are down across the country. Is this a COVID hangover or more than that?
First, it’s not just Canada or even North America—this is a global crisis, including in nightlife hubs like Berlin and Amsterdam. The pandemic played a huge role in that and, more recently, so did post-pandemic inflation and economic concerns. There has also been a significant shift in consumer habits: young people don’t go out as much, they’re drinking far less alcohol. It used to be that if you wanted to see your friends or go on a date, you had to go out. Now a lot of that happens virtually. Gen Z is also much more aware of their privacy. These are the babies who were naked on Facebook, and there is a backlash. They don’t want to be drunk in a bar and have that on the internet. And young people want premiums. On social media they see villas in Morocco, the big festivals like Coachella. They want experiences that they can share. So, selling $10 tickets for a small band playing in a basement becomes a real challenge even though they’re paying hundreds or thousands to see Taylor Swift. We’ve lost the middle class of culture.
How do we get it back?
We need to listen to young people. Last year I spent a lot of time visiting students at university campuses, and they talked about things like arcades, karaoke, bubble-tea cafés. They consume Japanese and Korean culture on their phones, and they want the same in their cities. What’s selling well these days are the VIP tickets with a meet-and-greet or a backstage element. They want experiences. They’re not content to just hang out in some dingy bar with a bad sound system. So how do we create that sense of occasion? One of the things we are working on right now is removing the barriers so bars can get special permission to stay open later if they are bringing in a special DJ or hosting a special event. It’s the kind of thing that is permitted on New Year’s or during Bluesfest, but why not open that up?
How did a former raver and DJ get involved in politics?
By accident. In 2010, I was living in Plateau Montreal, which was a vibrant cultural neighbourhood. Then the new borough mayor brought in “the noise project,” hiking maximum fines twelve-fold from $1,000 to $12,000. The impact on the independent venues was detrimental, but when I reached out to my local representative he told me that every Monday morning he got calls from his constituents complaining about late-night noise, so he was acting on their behalf. I told him I was also one of his constituents, but he didn’t seem to care. In 2017 two friends and I created Montreal 24/24, a non-profit organization to defend nightlife, emerging artists and independent venues. That meant building relationships with policymakers in the city’s economic development department. That’s not something I ever thought I’d be doing as an old punk, but that’s how you get results. When I heard that Ottawa was creating a night mayor position, the timing was great because the funding had run out for 24/24. I saw it as an opportunity to take my cause to a national level, working in Canada’s capital and maybe making some night-mayor babies for other cities while I’m here.
I’m sure you are aware that Ottawa’s reputation is not exactly good-time central. People call it “The City That Fun Forgot.” Where does that reputation come from? And was the makeover potential part of the appeal for you?
The nickname probably relates to Ottawa being a government town. People come in to work in the core and then go home to the suburbs, so you get this doughnut effect after hours—or at least that’s the reputation. The truth is that Ottawa is a mid-sized city, so we’re not going to be Toronto or Montreal, but there is a lot of vibrancy. We have the Byward Market in the core, and then some happening pockets throughout the city, on Lansdowne, Elgin. And there is so much enthusiasm at all levels, from the smallest DIY collectives to the Board of Trade and city council, which voted unanimously to adopt a nightlife action plan. Everyone is pushing in the same direction. It’s funny because in Canada, Ottawa is the nerdy cousin, but to the rest of the world that reputation applies to the entire country. I’m not saying it’s justified, but when I travel to big nightlife cities all over the world the reaction is always the same: Canada is boring. It’s a perception, but it’s one that stands in the way of a lot of economic potential, so we have some work to do.
We also have a lot of work to do on housing, transit, climate change. What do you say to someone who doesn’t see why late-night partying should be a priority given everything else Canadians are struggling with?
It’s funny because the biggest obstacle to nightlife is not struggle, it’s comfort. People go out more during times of societal turmoil. Nightlife is escapism—when you have a financial crisis, people go out more. If there’s a sense of the world imploding, we may as well have fun. In terms of the economic argument, Ottawa’s current night economy is worth over a billion dollars, 45,000 jobs. In this year’s World Happiness Report, Canada ranked number eight for the happiness of people 60 years old and over and 84th for the happiness of its youth. For the younger demo, the number-one city was Vilnius in Lithuania, and the Lithuanians listed three reasons: a good economy, free education and a thriving nightlife. We need to move away from this idea that “night culture” is something suspicious. When you go to Berlin, the same culture card that gives you access to nightclubs gets you into museums. Nightclubs have the same tax exemptions as museums and opera houses, which speaks to an attitude where night culture is valued.
You launched a Nightlife Council at the end of last year. What have you been focused on?
Our first meeting in January was looking at bylaws. It’s not the sexy stuff: how can we remove red tape in a way that helps businesses? Later this month we will meet to discuss safety issues. The committee is made up of members of the public and the idea is to be sure that we are getting a sense of the real challenges and not just what we assume to be the problem. With safety, for example, I can recommend putting the Narcan kit behind every bar, but maybe that’s not as useful as developing workshops for bystander intervention.
So often the conflicts I hear about nightlife are about noise. You mentioned that was what got you into this line of work in the first place. How can you appease both the culture sector and the people who don’t want to hear bass at 1 a.m.?
Urban planners hold a lot of the keys to this problem. If you put the nightclub in the basement, you want to make sure you have a commercial space and offices beneath any condos for soundproofing. But we also need a shift in our attitude, collectively. Living downtown comes with certain realities and it’s not always going to be quiet. We need politicians to play the adult in the room rather than pandering to NIMBYism.
Live Nation recently announced plans to open a 2,000-capacity History nightclub in the Byward Market in collaboration with Drake. Was that your handiwork?
Was I on the phone with Drake? No. But certainly this is a huge step forward in terms of the vibrancy of downtown and something I’m really excited about. In the past, big artists would skip Ottawa and just play Toronto and Montreal, whereas now LiveNation will be able to offer three stops. This will mean more artists coming here but what’s also cool is the model: the National Capital Commission owns the building and has leased it to the team behind Drake’s Toronto History, not unlike the way that the government in Belgium bought buildings and leased the spaces to community groups who wanted to open nightlife venues. If we can do it for the big fish, maybe we can start doing it for the smaller ones too.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
