Live Shows

One of the exceedingly few good things the Doug Ford government has done in my province is cap the resale of tickets at their original price. The amendments to the Ticket Sales Act of 2017 were included in most recent budget bill (story), which received royal assent yesterday (April 24th).

Sure, Doug is still selling off the province to developers, ensuring his staff can drive like absolute maniacs (story), and shielding his government from as much oversight as possible (story), but at least I will pay a little less to see a show ... sometimes.

I don't actually go to many events that use Ticketmaster, although the world has a strange sense of irony as the last 3 shows I have bought tickets for have used them:

Weird Al Yankovic
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Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage wasn't a surprise, as they are relatively 'big' — and any American band capable of playing in venues larger than a pool hall almost always use Ticketmaster.

Anyway, the fees for these shows were less outrageous than I expected, but I still felt a little violated when I got the final bill for the Weird Al tickets. I also didn't have to resort to third-party resellers, and was more than a little annoyed by how much search engines prioritized them over official sites. Everything continues to get worse...

PUBLISHED: 2026-04-25