Proud

It was as fabulous as I knew it would be, just even bigger than I imagined.

Downtown Toronto was given a jolt of extra colour on Sunday as more than 1 million people, some toting rainbow flags, marched the city’s streets for the 33rd annual Pride Parade.

Crowds of revellers lined the parade route behind barricades as they cheered on participants — many of them wearing colourful and festive outfits that have become a hallmark of the internationally renowned parade.

Because imagine squeezing the entire population of Calgary into a narrow ten block area, and you can get an idea of what it was like to be there. I’ve never seen so many people in my life eh?

Or such a stunning high-energy display of pride and diversity…

Not just all the glorious colours of humanity, or all cultures and backgrounds, on parade.

But all ages as well…

With the older ones getting the biggest cheers for all the years they suffered.

And for our precious queer youth it must have been like a dream…

For as someone from Calgary said in the Star today: in Calgary you feel like your tolerated, here you feel like you’re ACCEPTED. So their future looks brighter than ever.

It was also great to see the politicians join the party.

Tom Mulcair with his supersoaker…

And Justin Trudeau with Kathleen Wynne…

Although as you can see in this photo, Wynne had to be accompanied by plainclothes police officers, after some maniac threatened her and those attending the Pride Parade.

I heard about the threat before I left for the parade with Sébastien and a group of gay and straight friends. But it only made me more determined to be there…

And it did remind me of those I didn’t see at the parade; the disgusting Con bigots of Canada.

Rob Ford skipped the parade for the third year in a row, so did Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak. And of course there were no signs of any members of Stephen Harper’s bigot gang.

But then they weren’t missed, they are not welcome in the beating heart of Canada’s megalopolis. And as I pointed out last night those creepy Cons are only hurting themselves.

Like the Republicans in the United States their bigotry prevents them from reaching out beyond their rabid base. Even as that base withers and DIES.

Even as more and more Canadians, including some of their own supporters, won’t even CONSIDER voting for them in the next election.

The online survey found that 51.5 per cent of Canadians would not consider voting for the Conservatives, compared to 36.4 per cent seven months earlier.

The survey shows there’s been a significant decline in the number of “people the Conservatives can try to grab, over the last number of months, and it speaks to the tough job that the Conservatives have,” Nanos said.

So the writing is on the wall for the Cons. They’re running out of history, they are yesterday’s men, bigot juices pouring out of every orifice, heading for extinction.

Because believe me, I saw Canada’s future today. It was awesome…

And it doesn’t include the Cons.

And on Canada Day it made me believe that this big beautiful young country that I love so much can be truly great again. An example to the world rather than a pariah nation.

And no sooner had I thought that, something amazing happened eh?

I was sitting on the balcony of my uncle’s place, relaxing after such a wild day, when suddenly without warning, the barge in the bay erupted before my eyes.

To celebrate Canada’s birthday !!!!

And this is a little of what it looked like…