Halifax proud PM hails ‘a diversity of everything’
Leader says he longs for the day his appearance at parades for Pride won’t be so novel
HALIFAX— Throngs of people lined the streets of downtown Halifax Saturday to see a sitting prime minister walk in the city’s Pride parade for the first time.
The rainbow-clad crowd erupted in cheers as Justin Trudeau marched in the procession with his family at his side. Trudeau was dressed casually in a pink shirt and white pants, while wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau wore a wide-brimmed hat to shade herself from the sun.
The prime minister waved and yelled “Happy Pride!” to thousands of people along the parade route, stopping periodically to take selfies as members of the crowd called out his name.
A couple of drag queens decked out in makeup and voluminous wigs wrapped their arms around Trudeau as they posed for a group photo, after which the buxom blonds thanked the prime minister with a hug.
“What a pleasure it is to be here,” he told them. “We all are together.”
Trudeau walked near the front of the procession, intermittently flanked by marchers carrying a rainbow flag, a group of princesses and a float spouting confetti.
As the festivities paused for a moment of silence, Trudeau raised his fist alongside several other members of the crowd.
Trudeau became the first sitting prime minister to march in a Pride parade when he did so in Toronto in 2016, then attended the same event last month.
He told reporters Friday that he longs for a day when his participation in Pride events won’t be so novel. “I’ll be the first prime minister to walk in the Pride parade in Halifax, but I’m very much looking forward to getting that over with so there won’t be any more ‘firsts’ and that it just be expected that prime ministers, when their schedules allow, march in Pride parades across the country,” he said.
“(It’s) not just diversity of backgrounds, but it’s a diversity of everything that makes us different as Canadians and that includes standing up strongly for the rights of the LGBT2Q community.”