Canada Day 2018

The sky was cloudless and the sun was hot but a lot of people had a good time.  The Canada Day parade down King Street was shorter in both length and time – there were no gaps or delays – but the floats were better.  Maybe because the Cobourg Parade was scheduled an hour later at 1:00 pm and therefore was at the same time as the Port Hope Parade, there were only two bands.  But it didn’t seem to matter.  The crowds watching seemed smaller too – maybe they were all down at the beach cooling off.  I did manage to make a video of the parade and then extended it to the Park and the beach.  Although we all like to celebrate Canada Day, the speeches seemed too long, so in the video, they are abbreviated.

The video below has the parade up to the 8:00 minute mark, then there’s a look at the Lions’ Market in Victoria Park plus the Midway which seemed to be better in the Park than on the pier.  The abbreviated speeches start at the 13:00 minute mark.  At the end of the speeches there was a “magician” – sorry but he should have been left off the program.  He’s not in the video. Be sure to watch in full-screen mode.

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Walter L. Luedtke
5 years ago

A happy day for Canada and Cobourg! Huzzah!

Wally Keeler
5 years ago

It was wonderful to work as a volunteer with so many others. Three sweltering days and the beach was only half full. Where are the hordes? Lots of room for the grump, gripe and groaner set. Many of my fellow Cobourg residents commented how delighted they were that the midway moved from the pier back to where it was hosted for generations — on the former baseball diamond. Lotta nostalgia felt by many. Went by a church chorus of out-of-town Filipinos practicing their singing near the sensory garden. Happy Canucks. Lots of children squealing outrageous delight at their circumstance, lots of young people flirting, courting, playing, fun fun fun. Driving around, I saw lots of cardboard signs by private property owners renting out parking spaces in lots and driveways, Saturday $10, Sunday $20, Today $15. Lots of these parking spaces support various cultural organs in Cobourg. What a wonderful weekend exploiting out-of-towners for their hard-earned $$$$$. A great job was done at the Spirit of the Hills booth — personally I sold $110 of my poetry collection, COBOURG IS MY POEM TOWN. They were sold with the Canada Day discount — tariff-free poetry.

Congratulations Cobourg, for continuing a tradition of generations by putting on a great community party in Victoria Park.

David McTavish
5 years ago

Great video, John. Thank you for the hard work you put into keeping us informed.
Regarding the Midway having been moved, temporarily according to Council, from the Pier to the Park…if you petitioned those neighbours nearest the rides you may find their impression would be that this move did NOT “seem to he better”. To their credit, the Midway operators did stick to the time committments! 😀

Ken
5 years ago

Thanks John for the Video . I could get down this as the heat was to high, for my condition

Elaine
5 years ago

It was a really nice parade. I, like many others, did not realize it was over and waited for more! I got a nice photo of our beloved Mary Ito and her bagpipes. Seeing the new immigrants walking by gave me a “Happy to live in Canada” lump in my throat. Well done Cobourg and thanks for the video, John.

Barry
5 years ago

Nice job on the video John. It certainly was a hot day but the crowd seemed to be really enjoying the festivities and celebrations.

BGB
Reply to  Barry
5 years ago

Fun little parade and I enjoyed watching it but was annoyed at the thoughtless dog owners who joined in walking there dogs on sizzling pavement in extreme heat! Sorry the Humane Society wasn’t involved!

Reply to  BGB
5 years ago

@ BGB I believe the dogs you are referring to were the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dogs. Thank you for your concern as we were very concerned about the heat as well! This is why we took every pre-caution we could for their safety. The SJA Therapy Dogs take part in the parade every year as part of their service to the community. We had the dogs and handlers rest and wait in the shady grass at the Cobourg Library and jump in the parade once the ambulance was going by instead of having to walk the extra distance from the marshalling location. A wonderful ointment from All Creatures Great and Small was applied to their paws to protect their pads from the hot asphalt and we had a tote with cool water for them to dip their paws in if necessary – which it wasn’t – but we were prepared. The dogs had a great time and LOVE to greet all the children that come out to watch the parade.