Hundreds of people lined 112th Street on Monday afternoon before making their way to North Delta's Chalmers Park to celebrate Canada Day.
The City of Delta partnered with the North Delta Lions Club for this year's event, which amalgamated the Lions-hosted North Delta Family Day parade and festival, traditionally held in late June, with the city’s Canada Day celebration “to deliver enhanced programming to the community,” according to a city press release.
For the first time, the North Delta Canada Day event featured a parade from North Delta Secondary down 82nd Avenue then along 112th Street to Burnsview Secondary, which sits in front of Chalmers Park.
After leading the procession atop a Delta firetruck, Mayor George Harvie joined Tsawwassen First Nation Elder Ruth Adams, MP Carla Qualtrough, MLA Ravi Kahlon, councillors Rod Binder, Jennifer Johal and Jessie Dosanjh, and reigning Miss Canada (and North Delta resident) Tanpreet Parmar on stage to welcome residents before ceremonially cutting cake to serve attendees.
The event featured the usual Canada Day activities — a cultural corner; carnival games provided by Delta Church; Indian and other food options from Punjabi Maihi Church and Delta Church; live entertainment including bhangra, Irish and Chinese dance performances, Curtis the Science Guy and magician Mike Norden for the kids, and headliner Soulstream; and fireworks to cap off the celebrations.
The festivities also retained many elements of Family Day, such as the iconic Lions Club barbecue, inflatables for kids to play in, and of course the parade through the streets of North Delta to kick things off.
New this year, the event also featured an adult beverage garden benefiting the Delta Firefighters Charitable Society.
Other activities included facepainting, mehndi hand painting, roaming performances by a stiltwalker and "Oh, Canada!" game show-style trivia.
