Canada Day fail

This morning, shortly after I awoke, I was checking my email and listening to the CBC radio news. The newsreader suggested that the Canada Day parade was fully assembled on Sackville Street and just about ready to start.

While I am not normally much of a parade or Canada Day person I got the impression that this parade was somehow connected to the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, which suggested to me that there were likely to be a few pipe bands. Given the likely presence of pipe bands I decided to see if I could find the parade route.

Before heading out I thought that I should probably try to find the parade's route so that I wouldn't waste too much time poking around downtown. A quick search brought me to Halifax's official Canada Day celebrations page, which then refered me to the Tattoo website for the parade route. Of course, the Tattoo website is just about useless and doesn't make this information particularly accessible. Even after a quick search of the site I was not able to find the route map. Fortunately, I did manage to find a schedule of the free events, most of which are taking place on or near Spring Garden. I will be sure to check out the Paris Police Gymnastics Team show tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 on Doyle Street (this document has a copy of the parade route, though I didn't see it the first time I looked at the document). For those of you in the Halifax area that are interested, the schedule can be found here.

Getting back to my original goal, the parade, I eventually made my way out without much knowledge of the parade route. Not too long into my journey I started to see a steady stream of parade types making their way out of the downtown core. I decided to head to their source, hoping to catch the last few minutes of the action.

By the time I reached the Metro Centre is was clear that the parade was over and that the parades participants were starting to disperse. The other thing that was clear is that they definitely had a number of pipers and associated performers.

I guess now that I have the schedule of free events, many of which are pipes related, I shouldn't be to upset about missing the parade.

Actually, all of the pipes and kilts reminded me that I really don't like all this state sponsored faux-Scottish stuff that goes on in Nova Scotia. It strikes me as incredibly insincere, a giant put-on, so to speak. I find it strange that for most of the year I see no kilts, but as soon as tourist season rolls around the streets are filled with kilts and pipes. I think what I find most frustrating about this is that I am not sure I have seen an actual Scot participate in any of these events (unlike the Scottish events that take place in St. John's). I guess I just find it strange and frustrating that such much time and effort is spent trying to imitate another country's culture instead of acknowledging Nova Scotia's own culture and achievements.

To get back to the narrative, soon after I realized that I wasn't going to see any of the parade I decided to walk back along the waterfront. As today is remarkably overcast, not too many of the parade observers decided to make the same decision. As I was approaching the harbour front walk I noticed that people seemed to be making their way behind the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which indicated that a major section of the wharf had been re-opened to the public. Unfortunately, as I made my way along the route towards the Pier 21 end of things I learned that the other section that has been closed for months is still closed. I would have thought that they would have had this section open by now as we are definitely in the midst of tourist season, and this is a key part of the downtown tourism infrastructure. Maybe they will get it open by August or September, in time for dying breaths of this year's tourist season.

Hopefully I have better luck with the free shows I mentioned earlier than I did with the parade.

I guess I should start getting mentally prepared for this afternoon's Math grad student's Canada Day barbacue.