{"id":79306,"date":"2016-08-01T00:31:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T04:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=79306"},"modified":"2016-08-01T00:31:33","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T04:31:33","slug":"trudeau-becomes-first-sitting-prime-minister-march-vancouver-pride-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/08\/01\/trudeau-becomes-first-sitting-prime-minister-march-vancouver-pride-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau becomes first sitting prime minister to march in Vancouver Pride parade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Justin<\/a>
Justin Trudeau marches in Vancouver Pride Parade. (Photo: Justin Trudeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no stranger to Vancouver’s Pride parade, having taken part in the annual celebration for the past several years.<\/p>\n

But this year he set a milestone for the 38-year-old event by becoming the first sitting prime minister to participate in the march.<\/p>\n

Trudeau and his family waved to cheering crowds as they led the procession along the sunny, rainbow-laden streets of the city’s downtown on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The prime minister paused along the route to shake hands and snap selfies with enthusiastic spectators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredible pleasure it is to be back here in Vancouver,\u201d he said moments before the parade set off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe celebrate the great diversity that is such a strength of our country. We celebrate community. We celebrate family. And all these things together means we’re going to have a great Pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began the parade alongside his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, and his three children, the youngest of whom appeared oblivious to the noisy revelry as he slept in a stroller pushed by the prime minister.<\/p>\n

On July 3, Trudeau also became the first incumbent prime minister to take part in Toronto’s Pride parade.<\/p>\n

The revellers in Toronto, some decked out in rainbow gear and outlandish costumes, gave the prime minister a boisterous reception, posing for selfies with him and chanting his name as he passed by.<\/p>\n

Trudeau, however, downplayed his appearance at Toronto’s parade as no big deal, noting he’d been attending Pride parades for years.<\/p>\n

Official numbers have yet to be released for the Vancouver parade, but organizers estimated the celebration would attract more than half a million spectators.<\/p>\n

The event drew some controversy when the activist group Black Lives Matter called for the Vancouver police to withdraw from the parade, saying allowing officers to participate on a float was \u201cinsulting\u201d to protesters who made Pride celebrations possible.<\/p>\n

The call came just weeks after the Toronto chapter of the group temporarily stopped the country’s largest Pride parade and issued a series of demands\u2014including more funding and better representation for minority communities during Pride events, and a ban on police floats in future parades.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver group said on Monday that the city’s police department, which ultimately took part in the parade, did reach out to them to listen to their concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no stranger to Vancouver’s Pride parade, having taken part in the annual celebration for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145,16],"tags":[398,5790,11796,9745,11795],"class_list":["post-79306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","category-news","tag-canada","tag-lgbtq","tag-pride","tag-trudeau","tag-vancouver-pride-parade","mauthors-geordon-omand","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}