More than 6,000 people packed Confederation Park for Canada’s 150 birthday celebrations Saturday.
The vivid green of the park was covered in red and white, horse pulled wagons and people with maple leaf-painted faces – some with tears of joy and pride.
“My heart is bursting with pride,” Catherine Hughes said. “I watched the celebrations in Ottawa this morning on TV and there were tears.”
Many of the people at the event were part of the celebrations when the park first opened as part of Canada’s centennial.
“I think it’s wonderful. I never expected…you know……50 years is a long time. You don’t know from day-to-day. I am glad I lived long enough to see the capsule being opened,” Dennis O’Brien said.
O’Brien and his neighbor Charles McComish had front row seats for the opening of the time capsule.
“I have to see it. And my children are all here. They were egging me on to get down there. They said ‘you thought you wouldn’t be here!’” McComish said.
Florence Anderson brought pictures of neighbourhood kids who paid $5 to plant the first trees in the park that summer. She was part of a grass roots fight to preserve the area as a park.
“I’m very proud but…I’m a very proud Canadian anyway. I think it’s well done, it’s a great asset to the city,” Anderson said of the park. “It was kind of a junkyard before. It was a coulee down there where people got rid of their junk.”
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Catherine Hughes proudly wore the T-shirt she donned 50 years ago when work got in the way of going to the centennial celebrations.
“I was working at South Calgary pool as a lifeguard and I remember wearing this shirt over my bathing suit. I couldn’t go to any celebrations that day because I was working but I’ve kept it ever since,” Hughes said.
Siksika Elder and Canadian Forces veteran Clarence Wolf Leg spoke of pride for his country as he started the ceremony with a traditional prayer.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Canada Day is a time to celebrate a country that has been a place of safety and opportunity for so many.
”We celebrate that opportunity for every single one of us. We have a lot of work to do. We’ve done a lot of things wrong but we’ve done even more things right,” Nenshi said.
The time capsule was lifted out of its half a century old home by the mayor and IODE member Shirley Lamonte. Among the contents that were put on display were centennial coins and old newspapers.
“It’s great to be a Canadian,” Charles McComish said. “And most of us are immigrants, but it’s great to be a Canadian and raise a family here. I’m proud of it.”
Thousands also celebrated at Fort Calgary Saturday morning, starting off with a pancake breakfast and even more people gathered at Prince’s Island Park.
At Olympic Plaza, legendary singer-songwriter Ian Tyson played his iconic Four Strong Winds with a little help from hundreds of guitar players.
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