Photos: Canada Day in Calgary

Calgarians by the thousands took to downtown and surrounding communities to partake in some of the many Canada Day activities going on in the city.

From live music, food trucks, entertainers, to a few hours of blue skies in the morning, there was something for everyone to do.

From the far north to the deep south of the city, communities gathered to host big events and small. From the smallest of BBQs get togethers, to the biggest of thunder-storms that postponed major musical concerts in the afternoon at Fort Calgary, it was a day to gather, to reflect, and to celebrate.

Among the central themes for this year’s Canada Day was the relationship that Calgarians have to the nation, and to each other. Chief among those themes was how to celebrate a national holiday given the complex and often difficult historical legacy of Canada, that has become forefront in conversation.

“The significance of Canada Day is that this should be a time when we are telling our stories of how we came to be here, how we were welcomed, how we succeeded, the optimism that we have for the future,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Mayor Gondek spoke at this year’s Indigenous Showcase at Powwow at Fort Calgary. Many visitors to the Fort Calgary Canada Day celebrations eschewed the traditional red and white Canada leaf t-shirts in favour of orange shirts.

“Two things can be true at the same time: We also need to lift up the stories that haven’t been told, the stories that have been suppressed, the stories that will be painful to tell and they’ll be painful to hear—Indigenous peoples stories in their languages, about the things they’ve been through, need to be told,” she said.

“Our history is complicated. We have an incredible country that we call home, and there’s history books that need to be rewritten to include everyone’s tales.”