Premier will give opening remarks at Pride festival

In what is being called a historic event and landmark victory, Progressive Conservative Alison Redford will be the first sitting Alberta premier to be involved with Edmonton’s Pride Parade June 9.

“It’s quite significant,” said Colleen Sutherland, co-chair of the Edmonton Pride Festival Society. “This is recordbreaking news. I think that it shows that everybody is accepted across the province and it emphasizes the Edmonton (public) school board taking on the new sexual orientation and gender identity policy.”

During April’s provincial election, the Wildrose party found itself in the hot seat after a 2011 blog post surfaced by Allan Hunsperger, a pastor and subsequently defeated Wildrose candidate for Edmonton South. In the post, Hunsperger criticized the Edmonton public school board as “profane” and “wicked” for its antibullying stance in support of gay students, and wrote gays will burn in a “lake of fire.”

Redford’s involvement in this year’s Pride festivities takes a stand against that, Sutherland said.

Redford is expected to make opening remarks at the Pride celebration at Churchill Square Sat., June 9, after the Pride parade reaches City Hall at approximately 1:30 p.m. The parade itself will be led by Edmonton public school trustees who are marshalling the event.

Kim Misik, press secretary for the premier’s office, said Redford was thrilled to be invited, but surprised about the attention her involvement sparked.

“I can tell you we weren’t prepared for all the attention over the weekend,” Misik said. “It’s just part of what she does and it’s something that she believes in so all the attention was kind of surprising.”

Misik said it’s a good thing if Redford’s participation reflects an Alberta that is an “open, welcoming, inclusive place to build a life.”

“She’s always said that politics are finally catching up to who we are as Albertans and this is just life,” Misik said. Redford follows in the footsteps of other politicians who have participated, including Mayor Stephen Mandel — who officially declared Pride Week in 2005 after repeated refusals by former mayor Bill Smith — Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman and the NDP’s Rachel Notley among others.

Warren Becker, the second co-chair of the Pride Festival society, said it’s a huge step from 35 years ago and the first Pride parade down Whyte Avenue where some participants wore paper bags over their heads for fear of repercussion.

“Now look where we are: a celebration with over 24,000 people, a full week of events and now we have the premier attending our celebration. It’s a huge step. We’ve come a long way,” Becker said.

“We’ve invited all political parties to attend and we’ve never really had a good representation of the PC party at any Pride event in our history. … It means full recognition of our status in Alberta.”