Four-day Canada Day bash among Toronto events to mark Canada's 150th birthday

New Year's Eve, Canada Day and events across Toronto will be used to mark Canada's 150th birthday.

Thestar.com
May 10, 2016
By David Rider

Toronto will throw Canada an $8.4-million sesquicentennial celebration including special New Year’s Eve party, four-day Canada Day festival and people “reaffirming” their citizenship alongside new Canadians taking the oath.

The city is on the hook for half the cost of the 150th birthday events, a city report says, while the provincial and federal governments and “external sources” will be asked to pay the rest. Events will happen across the city but most will be downtown.

“While the planning horizon for Canada's 150th is extremely short, Toronto will have a visible and vibrant program in 2017,” states the city staff report released Tuesday.

It includes:

• New Year’s Eve, designated by Ottawa as a “key marker” for the festival year, with live music in front of city hall. There will also be more “intimate, interactive” showcases of Canadian talent, all capped by a “spectacular” fireworks display.
  
  
• A May to October “Cultural Hotspot” initiative including an East York-based, citywide “participatory public art project.”
  
  
• A four-day “flagship” Canada Day celebration at Nathan Phillips Square, plus events at North York and Scarborough civic centres and Etobicoke’s Colonel Samuel Smith Park. The four sites will see performances by musical talent from all provinces and territories, including First Nations, Inuit and Metis artists, as well as international performers. “Hip hop, indie rock, electronic, country and global sounds will be presented.”
  
  
• Cavalcade of Lights, which kicks of the winter season, will see live shows highlighting the diversity of Toronto artists, and fireworks at Nathan Phillips Square.
  
  
• A “Becoming Canadian in Toronto” program inviting groups and institutions to “commemorate or celebrate persons, places and events that marked the history of Toronto and Canada” between 1867 and 2017. Lectures, exhibits or musical shows are possible. At a Fort York ceremony, Canadians will be invited to reaffirm their citizenship alongside new citizens.
  
  
• Events will explore and commemorate the maple leaf and song The Maple Leaf Forever; the battle of Vimy Ridge; and rebellion and the struggle for responsible government en route to Confederation.

This will be Toronto’s second sesquicentennial celebration - the city marked its own 150th birthday in 1984 with celebrations and a black squirrel mascot named Sesqui.