Cobourg News Blog

Summer finally arrived for a perfect day to end the Waterfront Festival and celebrate Canada Day in Cobourg.  The Parade was short but sweet – it moved steadily without delays and, this year, seemed to be a showcase for our diversity – the Hispanic group seemed to be especially enjoying themselves and it was contagious.   I don’t have any way to verify it but it seemed to me that more spectators of the Parade were wearing red – yes I know that’s expected but it was more noticeable this year.  With the world’s troubles, are we happier than ever to be Canadian?  The parade finished at Victoria Park where the Waterfront Festival was in full swing.  Entry to the Lions area was free this year and Rotary was only charging $5 per day admission.  With good weather for three days, let’s hope that the event was financially successful for the Lions and Rotary so they can continue to keep putting this wonderful event on. Although the Town contributes, they need the work done by the Lions and Rotary.

The area covered by Rotary tents was smaller this year: the fountain was left operational and there was no tent on that space.  Instead there was a second bistro area – see the last minute of the video below.  Looked good.

The Midway had some attractions which were the same but many were new – I guess that keeps patrons coming back each year. As well as vendors selling a wide range of items, there were alos lots of food vendors – in Victoria Park and also at the bottom of Division street. There were three licensed areas: Rotary had two Bistro’s and the Lions had their large beer tent.

Speeches by the Politicians were short and mostly consisted of them thanking organizers.  But here are some notable quotes:

• Mayor John Henderson: “Thank you for bringing your Family”;  “Cobourg is going be the new Ottawa“ [referring to how good the celebration is]; “A special thanks to Yorky for his contribution in MC’ing” [Yorky is York Bell-Smith].
• MP Kim Rudd:  “The Concert Band must be hot in their Red Tunics”;  “I’m proud to be Canadian”
• MPP David Piccini: [Referencing John Henderson’s comment] “We are going to be the new Ottawa”;  “I’ve never seen such pride (in being Canadian)”
• The new Poet Laureate, Jessica Outram was eloquent and read her new “interactive” poem for the occasion.  She said: “have you ever noticed that a maple leaf looks like your hand? It has five points radiating from the centre, like your five fingers spreading out from your palm.”  The poem “Maple Tree Community” is online on her web site here.

But the big news is that the beach was in good shape apart from a couple of small pools of water.  This despite the fact that water levels are only an inch or two below record breaking high levels. There has not been any announcement but I’d guess that the dredging added enough sand so that after grading, the sand level is now higher than before.  The crowd on the beach was big but not as big as I’ve seen in earlier years – see the video to see for yourself.

Here is my video of the event.

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