A Duck and Some Lumberjacks: Canada 150 in Toronto




One of my favourite things about summer is Canada Day and the Redpath Waterfront Festival.

And really, is there anything better than long weekends in the summer? Well, Christmas arguably, but it requires wearing more clothes. And no, I’m not tromping about naked, but there are no socks and no sweaters.

Back to the Canada Day long weekend. This year, Canada officially turned 150 years old, so there was a lot going on in this beautiful country as we all celebrated.


Toronto celebrated with a duck. Well, there was also multiple fireworks, parties, cake, and much more, but the thing everyone talked about was the duck.

The six-story 300,000 pound rubber ducky in the harbour.


But I get ahead of myself. The Canada Day weekend is also the weekend of the Redpath Waterfront Festival. It’s relatively new, but has already made its mark — at least with me. They started being with flyboarding, moved on to tall ships (including Vikings), and this year there were lumberjacks and the duck.

Some people have complained that a ginormous rubber duck has nothing to do with Canada sesquicentennial, and isn’t it terrible that the Ontario government funded said duck?

In my opinion, those people have no sense of humour.

Almost 1 million other people agreed with me, flocking to HTO Park to take selfies and other photos of the yellow giant. When I went, everyone had a smile on their face. How can you not giggle madly at this sight?


But it wasn’t all about the duck. Despite somewhat wobbly weather, I ended up at the waterfront all three days. The Canadian Navy was at Sugar Beach and the lineup to take a tour of the ship was significant.


I’m hoping they’ll bring the accessible gangplank next year.

And then there were the lumberjacks. Manly men with power tools cracking jokes and doing lumberjack things.



Highly enjoyable.


(Is it me or does it looks slightly menacing? I mean, it looks hungry... )

Comments

Rick Phillips said…
Ahh, I think the duck is staring at me. Well damn now I can tell you what I will be dreaming of tonight and the next 5 months. :)
10:18 PM
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