Bruce Deachman: It’s time Ottawa’s Canada Day party got its mojo back

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The first Canada Day I covered for the Citizen was in 2001, when tens of thousands of revellers, undeterred by the single-digit cold and double-digit wind — the latter forcing the cancellation of the fireworks — crowded onto Parliament Hill to hear Ottawa’s own Alanis Morissette sing us a thing or two about living and learning.

The resolve of so many hardy Canadians to celebrate Canada’s 134th birthday that year and catch a couple of songs by the homecoming queen of alt-rock angst was impressive. But it hardly prepared me for the scene on the Hill nine years later, in 2010, when the actual queen, Elizabeth 2.0, showed up. Despite at the time having won seven fewer Grammy Awards and 13 fewer Junos than Morissette, AND NOT EVEN BEING FROM OTTAWA, Her Majesty quite literally filled the Hill that day, with the NCC guesstimating that 350,000 people took part in the Canada Day festivities downtown and at Jacques-Cartier Park. Everyone and their corgi, it seemed, wanted to catch a glimpse of the monarch who boasted that she’d been witness to more of Canada’s history since Confederation than she’d missed. A year later, our royal rapture returned at fever pitch when newlyweds Prince William and Kate Middleton took part in the Canada Day festivities.

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In recent years, however, and with apologies to children’s author Lemony Snicket, a series of unfortunate events, as well as a couple of far more serious ones — one of them heartbreakingly horrendous — have conspired to keep Canada Day — the biggest party Ottawa hosts — from reaching the heights that it has in the past and that, fingers crossed, it will again.

The worst was in 2021, when the discovery in British Columbia of more than 200 suspected unmarked graves of residential school students just weeks before Canada Day. It provided a grim reminder of the nation’s colonial past, for many a reason not to celebrate the holiday at all. As we inch towards reconciliation, residential schools remain a stain on our flag.

A year later, the shadow of the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” which had managed to co-opt Canada’s flag as its symbol, cast a pall over Canada Day for many. As a result, residents were reluctant to appear too patriotic, lest they be mistaken for convoy supporters.

And then there were the other obstacles, most weather-related. By my recollection (and some research), 2019 was the only year in the past 10 where something didn’t somehow hamper the festivities. A few of the hurdles were avoidable, but most weren’t. Here’s a look at some of the trials and tribulations that have beset Canada Day since 2014. I offer these not to dispirit readers, but to catalogue what seems an astonishingly improbable and almost unbroken string of bad luck.

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Canada Day 2014:

A tropical Tuesday, with the temperature eclipsing 30 C and the humidex topping out north of 40. Oh, and a tornado warning for the area, with a microburst knocking out power and causing damage in the Pontiac region.

Canada Day 2015:

A wet Wednesday, as rain, fog and thunderstorms, with 16 mm of precipitation, forced the cancellation of the Snowbirds’ show.

Canada Day 2016:

A foul Friday. Wet again, with nearly 13 mm of rain, thunderstorms and, for variety, some hail. Oh, and there was a massive sinkhole still being patched up.

Canada Day 2017:

A soggy but secure Saturday. Canada’s 150th birthday celebration in Ottawa was hot and wet, with almost 15 mm of rain. But the real disaster was the extreme security measures put in place, with wet people waiting in lineups for hours, sans Porta Potty, to access the Hill, where Bono, The Edge and Gordon Lightfoot performed.

Canada Day 2018:

A sweltering Sunday. Rain would have been welcome this year, as the temperature reached 34.5 C and the humidex hit 47.2.

Canada Day 2019:

A marvellous Monday, and the last Canada Day to take place on Parliament Hill. Brett Kissel, William Prince, Coeur de pirate, the Strumbellas and K’naan  were among the performers, while actor Ryan Reynolds looked on from the VIP section.

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Canada Day 2020:

A withdrawn Wednesday. The temperature hovered around 30ºC all afternoon, but who cared? We were all trapped in our homes and watching virtually (if we were paying attention at all) as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. That left us with televised performances and fireworks, kind of like the old end-of-the-broadcast-day telecasts. May I go to bed now?

Canada Day 2021:

A thoughtful Thursday. Canada Day events were again virtual because of the pandemic, but the prevailing mood was dark as Canadians had learned of the suspected unmarked graves of residential school students. Rather than wear the customary and celebratory red-and-white Canada Day outfits, many Canadians marched in somber solidarity, wearing orange instead.

Canada Day 2022:

A fretful Friday. With the pandemic receding, in-person Canada Day festivities resumed. Due to construction on Parliament Hill, however, the main events had been moved to LeBreton Flats, which — no offence to the Canadian War Museum — is hardly as stately and fitting a venue for such a national celebration as is the lawn in front of the Centre Block. The streets of the parliamentary precinct, meanwhile, were closed to vehicle traffic as authorities hoped to prevent a reappearance of the convoy that months earlier had occupied much of downtown.

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Canada Day 2023:

A smoke-filled Saturday. Ceremonies were again held at LeBreton Flats, where authorities made a maddening decision to close Pimisi station, the closest LRT stop, to most visitors. Meanwhile, a severe weather advisory added to the unsettled feeling. More than 25 mm of rain fell — but smoke from wildfires was the main interloper, with Canadian Heritage eventually suspending activities at the site for more than three hours.

Canada Day 2024?

Which brings us to 2024. With luck, we’ll see another marvellous Monday as we celebrate Canada’s 157th. Sure, access to Pimisi will once again be frustratingly restricted, while LeBreton Flats is again the site of the main Canada Day activities, with a return to Parliament Hill not expected until at least 2030.

And reconciliation remains an unfinished goal. A year ago, the NCC renamed the Sir John A. Macdonald parkway, which runs through the Flats, Kichi Zībī Mīkan. It’s a small gesture, but hopefully a step towards a more unified Canada, and a more inclusive Canada Day.

This year, meanwhile, Environment Canada is calling for a clear, sunny day with a high of 24 C; no hail, smoke, tornadoes, locusts or apocalyptic horsemen are currently in the forecast. It’s ideal for an outdoor party. There will be live (admittedly Tim Hortons-branded) fireworks again, not televised ones, so please leave your corgis at home.

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And while I can’t speak for everyone’s convoy-related PTSD, I feel enough time has passed that we can take our flags back out from wherever we hid them two years ago and run them up our flagpoles without feeling queasy about it. This is, after all, a pretty marvellous country: 13th out of 165 on the Human Freedom Index. That’s got to be worth (very briefly and modestly, and certainly not after 11 p.m.) blowing our horns.

And if Mother Nature does happen to throw a wrench into our Canada Day works this year, we would do well to remember Alanis Morissette’s words: We live, we learn.

Happy birthday!

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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