Canada Day In Trafalgar Square

When Canada turned 143 yesterday, Queen E was in the capital, telling everyone on Parliament Hill that “Canada is an example for the world.” I have spent only three Canada Day’s away from Ottawa and I have to admit, besides the frenzied patriotism that fills the capital on 1 July, London is my favourite non-Ottawa Canada Day so far.

My previous ones, which include the Forks in Winnipeg, a lack-lustre Toronto and a long weekend with black bears in Algonquin Park, just didn’t show up the way Canada Day in Trafalgar Square did. I swear, every single expat Canadian living in the country was down there yesterday.

In order to create more of an authentic atmosphere, London imported the following:

• a makeshift Tim Horton’s complete with M22’s and timbits
• a ball hockey tournament in the square
• a food stand selling, among other things, non-curded poutine
• Sleemans on tap and by the can (though they ran out and started peddling Carlsberg)
• performances by Cirque du Soleil, Sarah Harmer, Hawkesley Workman and Jully Black
• tourism booths set up for each and every glorious province

It was a pretty special day. I was already in a fairly nostalgic place, having returned from a visit to both Ottawa and Toronto earlier in the week, so it didn’t take much to get me in the spirit. Despite a 5.0 earthquake and the G20 protests, I had a truly amazing eight days in Canada and was still running on the homeland fumes.

Since we don’t get a national holiday here, I had to squeeze my Trafalgar Square visits into my lunch hour and later evening. I made my colleague Nicola come down with me at lunch. She had a somewhat vested interest since her Dad is Canadian and she lived there for three years when she was growing up. But I don’t think she was quite prepared for the spectacle on hand (or for the enormous Canadian flag I pulled out of my bag and draped over my shoulders). I sipped a Sleemans and wandered around the square before we had to head back to the office.

After work I had to head to Shoreditch for a work event but I escaped early and headed back to Trafalgar Square around 8pm. En route I picked up a six-pack of Molson Canadian cans then met up with a variety of Canadian friends all around the Square and Covent Garden area.

It wasn’t a late night – the full day even came to an end sans fireworks around 10pm, which was fine by me as I was in dire need of one early bedtime this week. So, despite the fact that I didn’t spend it in Ottawa, I still had a great Canada Day in the heart of London.