When rain washed out the July 1 Côte Saint-Luc Canada Day celebrations and our backup date two days later, our marvelous Recreation Department staff thought outside the box. How about celebrating this towards the end of the summer, just before Labour Day Weekend?
On August 31 the show did indeed go on and wow, Mother Nature actually cooperated. This was a 4 pm to 9 pm format on the large back baseball diamond at Trudeau Park.
It was wonderful to see so many young families arrive in the early going to enjoy the likes of inflatables, a petting zoo, firetruck exhibition, carnival games, a magic game. face painting/arts and crafts, reptiles, pizza and cotton candy stands and live music from The Fundamentals, saxophonist Michael Abramovich, Shawny and DJ Pulse.
The evening culminated with speeches from Mayor Mitchell Brownstein, Mount Royal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather and D'Arcy McGee Liberal MNA Elisabeth Prass, the singing of O Canada by the aforementioned individuals and city council and a remarkable drone show. Fireworks are a thing of the past for us now, but this feature really surprised me with its entertainment value. The drones formed the shapes of the Canadian flag, the Côte Saint-Luc logo, a hockey stick and puck and more. Watch one here.
Dan Laxer and Laurie Betito were back as our emcees.
The venue was indeed a real hit and I hope this will become Canada Day’s permanent home.
Here is the official video done by our own Darryl Levine
