The 189th Toronto Twelfth parade, organized by the Country Orange Lodge of Toronto, will be held Saturday and begin at Moss Park Armouries on Queen St. W. and Jarvis St. The parade will continue along Bay St., College St., Yonge St. and Shuter St. before returning to Moss Park Armouries. The nearly two-century old parade celebrates the 319th anniversary of the Battle of Boyne in Ireland, in where Protestant William III of Orange defeated Catholic King James. The Toronto parade is North America’s oldest consecutive annual parade.

— Toronto Star, 10 Jul. 09

Incredible. Twelve months ago on the 12 July I cycled 30 miles to watch the annual North Down and Ards parade and video the occasion in the knowledge that within a few months I’d be moving to live in Canada and that I might not see another for who knows how long. Well, as it turns out I don’t have to go home to see a parade again … the parade has come to Canada! Though to be fair it appears to have come to Canada a good 189 years before me.

I’m scheduled to be at the Toronto Indy race tomorrow all day for practice, qualifying and various other races but when I read about this I decided immediately that a sacrifice had to be made. I couldn’t have a twelfth parade come this close and not go to take a look, considering it is only twenty minutes by public transport away from the Indy circuit.

What can I expect from this occasion however? Will the local flute band have hangers on getting ‘pissed’ on cheap cider? Will the base drummer be staggering all over the road? Will the police be lining Yonge Street in armored vehicles with the cops dressed in riot gear waiting for an impending outbreak of drunken violence? And will the field they converge in be left a littered mess with empty beer bottles?

I’m not sure metropolitan Toronto is ready for that kind of madness, but I’ll be ready with the camcorder just in case.

Seriously though it’ll be interesting to see how the parade goes … how different it comes across from the 12th parades back home. The only downside is that the 12th parade in it’s 189 years of existence in Toronto has not generated enough interest to earn us a public holiday off of work here! But in trying to get right into the spirit of things and tonight being the 11th July, it is about time I headed down to the nearest field to my home and started burning large wooden pallets.

Have a great holiday everyone back in Northern Ireland.

On the subject: 12th July | ALL SUBJECTS |

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