Happy 148th
Canadians celebrate country’s birthday in style,
Michelle Gifford doesn’t come out often. Having a brain injury makes that hard.
But Wednesday was special. It was Canada Day.
That’s why Gifford rode her electric wheelchair for more than 2.6 kilometres from her group home at Bayview and Sheppard Aves. to get to Mel Lastman Square in North York.
“I’m Michelle,” Gifford said, introducing herself with a smile, before shaking hands.
“I came here alone. I like to be adventurous,” she told the Star with a laugh, saying that it was a “good journey.”
“I just wanted to get out, to have fun.”
Gifford, 31, fell from a slide when she was 2. Her health issues keep her at home most of the time; Canada Day brought a rare opportunity for her to mingle at the square.
“I try to come out at least twice in the summer,” she said, adding that she talks to a few strangers, though only if they are friendly.
“If they’re not friendly, I just leave them be.”
Gifford arrived before the scheduled events started, when the square was still nearly empty. Later it was teeming with people decked out in maple-leaf shirts to celebrate the nation’s 148th birthday.
On Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where the political machinery is ramping up to this fall’s federal election, the festivities had a political edge.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the traditional Canada Day remarks from Parliament Hill’s main stage, but borrowed a line from his 2011 stump speech.
“In times of never-ending economic and political turmoil in the world, our Canada is an island of stability,” Harper told the crowd.
Police estimated attendance at the event to be about 34,000 — thinner than usual because of rainy weather in Ottawa.
Harper was joined by Gov. Gen. David Johnston and other dignitaries for the noon program.
The wet weather meant there was no air show this year.
If Harper didn’t have to be in Ottawa on Canada Day, he might have done exactly what Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair did — hopscotch around the Greater Toronto Area and southwestern Ontario.
Mulcair issued a Canada Day statement explicitly pointing to the election on the horizon. His schedule included five different stops with NDP candidates in the Toronto area.
“We have many reasons to be proud to be Canadian, but much work re- mains to be done,” Mulcair said.
“The NDP has a clear vision to build a more sustainable society.”
Trudeau issued a holiday statement that lauded Canada as “a place of fairness and of opportunity; a place where people from every imaginable country and culture, who speak every language, live and work, and build and thrive together.”
Trudeau also had five scheduled events, including two in Mississauga.
Trudeau added: “We are stronger not in spite of our differences, but precisely because of them. For much of the world, Canada represents the most hopeful vision of what the future can look like.”