Former minister of agriculture and speaker of the House Sir David Carter is determined to rebuild the scaled-back Canterbury A&P Show into a financially strong position.
The Banks Peninsula farmer was elected chairman of the Canterbury A&P Association (Capa) board at its annual meeting in Christchurch.
He said the "iconic" show week running since 1862 was part of Christchurch and Canterbury and would not exist without a strong show.
"So it’s been stopped by world wars and Covid-19 and I’m not going to see it stop because of the precarious financial position."
Sir David said the goal was to run a good show this year and build momentum for next year with a long-term ambition to cement it back into place for "at least another 160 years".
New board members had arrived knowing the finance director announced at the annual meeting the show’s financial position was "precarious", he said.
"So we have gone in with our eyes wide open, but with the determination ... and the support of our urban and rural community this show can survive and in fact it can prosper."
Other shows breaking even or making a small profit in a single day with a smaller attendance showed it was possible to do this with a three-day show attended potentially by 100,000 visitors, he said.
The new board planned to put a tight rein on costs and was asking the public to buy early tickets and going to business people, sponsors and trade exhibitors about providing financial backing.
To return to a strong financial position and be a long-term success, volunteers and other show supporters needed wide support, he said.
"My phone has been red hot today with people saying this is wonderful and we want the show to survive. Well it won’t survive with lip service. It will only survive if everyone gets behind it.
"It’s an important connection between rural and urban and we have got to make sure we don’t destroy that linkage and that’s what I’m determined to do by making sure the show survives."
Sir David said when he heard there was talk of not having a show this year he was "absolutely dismayed".
The last show had lost a lot of money and there was no point dwelling on postmortems as there was a need to move forward positively, he said.
"While it is called the Christchurch show this year, we want to return to the New Zealand Agricultural show in 2025. The show is literally the country coming to town."
