Canada Day 2002 - Winnipeg

FTLComm - Winnipeg - Tuesday, July 2, 2002 Images by Timothy and Andrew Shire

Canada Day 2002 began with a bit of a rumble, there were light showers in the morning but they had disappeared by afternoon. I was busy doing up this web site until late afternoon and we went out to supper then off for birthday cake. Our plan was to make it to the Forks around ten and we were there at ten after. As the focus of Winnipeg's Canada Day celebrations the place was loaded with people who were both streaming in and out of the area as we came in. Thousands of people of all ages, from babies to seniors and all walks of life out on a warm summer night to celebrate their country's birthday together. The young woman at the top of the page was taking a picture of her two friends and to save space we see the photographer and subjects in the same blended image. There were pleasant and in the best of spirits and the faces in the crown (below) were typical of the evening. Happy people.

The large performance stage was rocking with the Bachmann Turner Overdrive ramming out hard rock that seemed as fresh last night as it was decades ago. It was shoulder to shoulder in the crowd and we noticed that all these people were funneled through a narrow slot into and out of the concert area. I thought this was dangerous and ask a policeman about the process. He was a friendly young man who had been on the job since two in the afternoon and said that it was a good crowd with few problems. He explained that the funnel process was so that security had the opportunity to check out bags. I immediately thought of the wicked pipe bomb blast at the Atlanta Olympics and that the perpetrator had never been caught nor was there ever a motive known for the incident. I said to the policeman, everything has changed hasn't it. He nodded and noted that the way we do things will never be the same, September 11 may have been an American tragedy but it and the need to be safe is with us all.

Inside the concert area the crowd was there to enjoy the music and the band was there to give them all they had and perhaps then some. Even my bad hearing suggested this was to loud for my old ears but at a distance the pounding hard rock music was just awesome. Once again the happy spirit of the audience was infectious.

We were still sorting ourselves out, one of our party had to get back and pay for parking and we had time to scout for a place to view the fireworks and enjoy the night. This interesting hansen cab or landau (four door) was photographed by both of us (I was using a still Camera and Andrew a video camera) captured the cab but Andrew spotted the sign on the back.

The highlight of the evening was to be the fireworks but there was this obese dog that came pretty close. The fireworks were almost twenty minutes long and we have a load of stills on the fireworks page as well as a twenty-eight second 2.5MB QuickTime video clip. To see more fireworks click on the picture. When the fireworks ended there were about one hundred thousand folks who had to make their way from the area and find their cars and head for home. But before we left the area right near the bowl near the river the group of young people below broke into song. Not

just any song but "the" song and everyone stopped and stood, most did not join in, but listened to the group chime through a great rendition of "Oh Canada" as one of them waved a flag. Their song was great, but the respect that the crowd paid them and the anthem was truly moving. As we began our exit Andrew had the camera rolling and from the faces you can see there were people out enjoying themselves

and safely and peacefully on their way home. The Winnipeg skyline looms over the Forks and this black and white image give a good sense of what the evening scene was like at 11:20. Police were on hand to move the traffic, there were no honking horns as the people just flowed across Main Street (below).

In less than two blocks were were moving along as the traffic moved from a crawl to a steady stream. It was less than ten minutes from the time we left the spot we had parked in and we were heading West on Portage Avenue (below). A great way to end Canada Day as these Canadians clearly appreciate their country and were doing their part to wish it yet another happy birthday.