Tha last day of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) ended with a big parade that started in the heart of Toronto ( University Ave corner Dundas st. ) and marched through Queen street and winded down at the CNE grounds. Miguelita and I arrived at the asembly point where thousands of Union Workers, some bringing their families, were gathered. By chance I saw Barbara Soberano Pascua in there! Small world indeed..After finding the Toronto Public Library section, we checked in for a free coffee mug and a gray TShirt..But the others have different costumes, special hats, etc. The floats of some companies have even live bands in them. So you have Unions like the CUPE, UAW, ( Ours is CUPE 416 )..The assembly point was one big melting pot of various people of all sizes, races, ages, costumes..Many Filipinos were in there! I guess we do love parades...
When the march started, Miguelita and I climbed into the back of an open pick up truck. We shared it with a an 85 year old lady, 4 kids ( one kid was constantly complaining "this is boring!" ), and when the parade went through Queen street, I took some shots of the interesting sights along the way. Yes, like New York or other big cities, we do have our Queen street too. Queen street East and Queen street West and these two twins meet at Yonge street, the Avenida Rizal of Toronto.
As the parade entered the CNE grounds, who but the likes of Jack Layton, Olivia Chow, Paula Fletcher and David Miller ( check the article on June Callwood for the identity of these guys) were there to meet the Labour Force of Toronto. Jack Layton is the "kingmaker" of Canada: he was the one who brought down the power demise of the Liberal party Prime Minister Paul Martin. So the PCs under Stephen Harper took over Ottawa, the seat of power of the Federal government. Jack Layton's party is the NDP, but he started his career in the ward where the Queen/Saulter library is located. Jack is now one of the big names in Canadian politics, but he is down-to-earth and he is friendly to many people from all social strata.He knows us too! He gave us a big wave and smile when we passed by a small grandstand as we arrived.
It was all FUN in the end. And we were able to get in FREE into the CNE!
Check out the photos!
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