Mayor Jim Watson says it's going to take time and money to make the event happen, but he believes the turnout could be even greater when it returns to the capital.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says that when he's explaining tourism to local school kids, he asks how many of them saw La Machine in 2017 and hands instantly shoot into the air.

Nearly two years later, he's still in awe of how many residents saw the Canada 150 event, featuring mechanical dragon Long Ma and spider Kumo, and the positive impact it had on them.

"It was so engaging and so different," said the mayor on 1310 NEWS' The Rick Gibbons Show, Friday.

Watson had lunch with a group from France's La Machine on Friday, to discuss putting on another show in the capital, possibly in 2022.

"[They] very much want to come back, so we'll look into getting sponsors, just because it's expensive -- you've got to ship these things over in 20 massive sea containers or something," explained the mayor.

Listen to the full conversation with Mayor Jim Watson:

Watson tweeted about his meeting with the folks from La Machine, and said the response just from that tweet has been overwhelmingly positive.

It was an honour to host Ottawa Tourism and La Machine today, as they start planning their return in a few years. It was one of my highlights as Mayor of our great city, and I look forward to recreating this magic for our residents and visitors. @lamachinefr pic.twitter.com/7M1rvLms6A — Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) April 4, 2019

He said the only problem the city had with the event in 2017 was that it was hard to explain to people what it was, before it arrived.

"If it comes back in 2022, I think we'll get double the numbers [of attendees] because people will say, 'Wow, I don't want to miss this this year, I'm going to stick around,'" added Watson. "And it's going to bring in a lot of people from across the country that saw it or hear of it on the national news from 2017."

The mayor also suggested that Red Bull Crashed Ice is another big event that could coming down the local tourism pipeline.