News

Happy Canada Day

By Adrian Duyzer
Published July 01, 2012

It's an inspiring evening down at Pier 4 park on July 1 - Canada Day. There's a massive crowd out on an absolutely gorgeous evening. Throngs of hyper kids are eager for the show to start.

This is the kind of event you can't put a price on. It brings the community together in a celebration of shared pride, love of country and city and the age-old fascination with things that blow up.

Happy Birthday, Canada. And good job, City of Hamilton. You've created a great park for us to enjoy and a great event to enjoy at it, and let there be no mistake: we are enjoying it.

Adrian Duyzer is an entrepreneur, business owner, and Associate Editor of Raise the Hammer. He lives in downtown Hamilton with his family. On Twitter: adriandz

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By DrAwesomesauce (registered) | Posted July 02, 2012 at 03:23:01

Best thing the City has ever done ~ creating those parks.

Looks like it was a great show.

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By Fred Street (anonymous) | Posted July 02, 2012 at 08:34:10 in reply to Comment 79083

The City can share credit with scrap metal firm Lax Brothers, which spent decades filling in the west harbour to create the promontory that defines Bayfront Park, before the city forced them to stop and acquired their acreage.

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By theOther (registered) | Posted July 02, 2012 at 20:47:41 in reply to Comment 79084

We spent a couple of hours that afternoon at Bayfront and Pier 4 parks, then enjoyed a drink up the road at Koi in Hess Village. Very relaxing time until we glanced across the street to 'Elixir', a property boarded off, presumably for renovation. Looking upward from street level, we were inspired to see a flag situated in the canopy of the tree in front of the property. Was it Canada's? No. OK then, maybe Italy's? Nope. Spain, then? Nu-uh. Well then it had to be Croatia of course! What other country's flag would one be inspired to hoist in appreciation to a country on its birthday allowing an immigrant's son to co-own an entertainment district and direct the councillor and city staffers to close off indefinitely a lane of traffic on the town's main drag? Just sorry I didn't have phone or camera along. But I expect it's still there.

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By Hrvatska (anonymous) | Posted July 02, 2012 at 23:00:32 in reply to Comment 79120


The flag has been there for weeks (at least). Oh, and you forgot to mention that he's a convicted sex offender.

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By DowntownInHamilton (registered) | Posted July 03, 2012 at 06:16:10

The fireworks were great this year. I don't remember them being as complex as they were in years past. And seeing hundreds of people singing Oh Canada before the show got underway was excellent.

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By DowntownInHamilton (registered) | Posted July 03, 2012 at 20:50:50 in reply to Comment 79125

That should read that I don't recall the fireworks being as complex as they were this year. There was some great timing and lighting, not to mention some that went off, then had others go off, it was great.

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By Squib (anonymous) | Posted July 03, 2012 at 10:11:57

Splitting hairs: Bayfront Park is where the big crowds gather. It's about six times bigger than neighbouring Pier 4.

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By Today (anonymous) | Posted July 03, 2012 at 18:55:33

Great park for sure Adrian, as Hamilton has many wonderful parks including Gage Park of course. It's not the "coveted" West Harbour near James North that some say is the only jewel in Hamilton (fallacy big time), but my wife and myself enjoy walks around Gage often. Listening to David Wilcox the other evening at the festival there was fantastic with the escarpment background etc. I realize though that on the RTH site anything other than James St. N. and West Harbour will get short mention. We get it.

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By DowntownInHamilton (registered) | Posted July 03, 2012 at 20:16:36 in reply to Comment 79137

I was at the Wilcox show too - he's great live. When we saw him in 2010 playing there the crowd felt smaller, and definitely less pot in the air.

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