The Rideau Club

I go to a number of trade shows for work. They tend to all be very similar. This week Tourism Montreal decided to put a new spin on the whole trade show networking concept. They ran an evening event at The Rideau Club downtown. Event coordinators and their guests showed up and giving the name of their favourite charity on the back of their business cards, spent the time eating, drinking, and mingling with hotels and other events related businesses from Montreal. Throughout the evening the different companies representatives handed fake money over to the guests, at a designated time all the money was collected and counted. The corporations then donated that amount to charity. They drew from the business cards and the winner got a weekend trip to Montreal and the money went towards their chosen charity. Besides being a strange style of trade show, the draw of visiting The Rideau Club was very interesting. Tons of tasty fancy appetisers and an open bar made the night even more enjoyable. Anne came with me, as I had no idea when to expect from the event and even less of an idea about The Rideau Club, which is an exclusive club with a strict dress code. It has what must be the best view in the entire city, situated on the 15th floor in one of the office buildings downtown, right above the parliament buildings, looking over them to the Ottawa River. The Rideau Club started in 1865 and was an initiative of Sir John A. Macdonald, who was their first president. They have a fine dining restaurant, private library, piano bar, lounge, even a private elevator, which has only two buttons, Ground and 15. I thought that I might see it and start to dream of the point in my career where I would be a member at such an establishment, but I didn't. I was rather put off, and still don't really understand what the point of it is. It is too elitist, which I sometimes enjoy but in this case seems pointless and overly pretentious.