When Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast reflect on how their country is viewed beyond its borders, terms such as diversity, inclusive, and welcoming come to mind quickly for many.

Well they should. Since the 36 original Fathers of Confederation affixed their signatures to the document that brought Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick together to form Canada on July 1, 1867, this country’s doors have been laid open to those seeking fresh beginnings in a new home, both by choice and as refugees fleeing war, famine and other calamities in their respective homelands.

So it that when Peterborough’s Canada 150th Anniversary Celebrations Committee sat down to map out the city’s June 29 to July 2 Celebrate At Home festivities, it was a no-brainer to fully include the annual Multicultural Canada Day Festival in the mix.

First staged in 2004 with New Canadians Centre (NCC) as the sole organizer, the celebration of all things international has been well ahead of the local Canada Day party curve for some time, last year delighting some 11,000 people in Del Crary Park.

On Friday (June 2) in Millennium Park, organizers rolled out a lively preview of this year’s 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. festival, highlighting its theme Bring People Together as well as two of the event’s enduring main attractions: international cuisine and live entertainment.

Chacho’s Bakery and Tre Ristorante — new food vendors this year — provided food samples while D’oh See Doughboyz — Curtis Driedger and Ken Brown with caller Ben Wolfe — pumped up its effort to lead Peterborough’s largest-ever square dance on the park’s Fred Anderson Stage.

“I think there’s something very magical about being in a space like Del Crary Park on a day like Canada Day with all your friends in the community,” said Yvonne Lai, NCC’s Director of Community Development, noting recent events south of the border surrounding immigration policies makes an inclusive event such as the festival even more poignant.

“In this community the response (to newcomers) has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve seen more than 300 Syrian refugees welcomed, about 200 government-assisted and 100 through private sponsorships. The number of people that have stepped forward to help them is more than 400. We did a calculation of the number of hours of volunteer time people have put in. It’s about 40,000 hours. In light of people wanting to do something that has impact in the face of this global wave of negativity, Peterborough has been a shining example.

“I think people have an impression that Peterborough is one dimensional and it’s really not. Newcomers are everywhere in all walks of life, in the classroom, in the workplace, and they’re sharing the experience of being a Peterborough resident with you.”

In addition to food vendors serving up Thai, Greek, Greek, Caribbean, Bangladeshi and other international delicacies, the noon to 2:30 p.m. stage show will feature performances by Wshkiigomang Women’s Native Hand Drum Singers, Curve Lake drumming group IR-35, singer Serafin Lariviere performing music from his bilingual music project, the aforementioned D’oh See Doughboyz, a martial arts demonstration by Shifu Rupert Harvey, and a number of cultural music and dancing performances representing Syria, India, Sri Lanka, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

And for the fitness-minded, interactive demonstrations of cricket, Tai Chi, para-sports, Jiu Jitsu and Zumba will return, being staged from 10 to noon.

Also back is the popular mock Canadian citizenship test as well as the popular Kids’ Zone, presented in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

With some 130 volunteers involved in staging the festival, there remains a need for more help. Visit www.nccpeterborough.ca to sign up.

Also scheduled for Canada Day proper is the Peterborough Canada Day Parade, Peterborough Musicfest with headliner Kim Mitchell, and the day-ending fireworks display over Little Lake presented by the city’s two Rotary clubs.

Terri Lynn Johnston of the City Recreation Division also spoke Friday, reminding all that while the parade starts at noon from City Hall, activities begin much earlier at 9:30 a.m., including a free pancake breakfast, live music, and the Decorated Bike Contest. She noted there’s still room for parade entries. To register, visit www.peterborough.ca.

And Rotary members promised an extra special fireworks display following Mitchell’s performance, all in keeping with the significance of Canada’s milestone 150th birthday.

Sponsoring this year’s Multicultural Canada Day Festival are Canadian Heritage, Ontario150, the City of Peterborough, Peterborough Community Savings, Darragh Moroney of RE/MAX, Ricart Promotions & Recognition, and Rocky Ridge Drinking Water with media sponsorship from Corus, CHEX TV, Fresh Radio, The Wolf, Energy 99.7, and Country 105.

Eight years after community members came together in 1979 to sponsor refugees fleeing Vietnam’s Communist regime, the New Canadians Centre formed as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting immigrants, refugees and other newcomers in the Peterborough and Northumberland regions.

With a mission to “empower immigrants and refugees to become full and equal members of Canadian society, and provide community leadership to ensure cultural integration in a welcoming community”, the centre has identified respect, diversity, partnerships and dedication as its values.

To that end, over the years since, centre staff and volunteers have strived to offer programs and nurture partnerships to better meet the language, educational, employment and settlement needs of new Canadians. Located at 221 Romaine Street in Peterborough (at Aylmer Street), the centre’s services and resources is a lifeline for some 800 new Canadians annually.

To find out more about the New Canadians Centre and for updates on the Multicultural Canada Day Festival, visit www.nccpeterborough.ca.

All the Canada 150 celebrations over four days in Peterborough are free. Some events are subject to last-minute changes, and other events are weather dependent. For more information and for last-minute updates on Peterborough’s Canada 150th celebration schedule, visit www.peterborough.ca/ptbo150, www.facebook.com/PTBO150, or @Ptbo150, and search for the hashtag #Ptbo150 on social media.

Iconic Canadian rock artist Kim Mitchell will be performing at Peterborough Musicfest on Canada Day, Saturday, July 1st, 2017.

The 64-year-old Sarnia native will take to the Fred Anderson Stage in Del Crary Park as part of the ambitious four-day celebration, June 29th to July 2nd, themed “Celebrate At Home”. The concert will herald the opening of the 17-concert Musicfest season.

Anchoring the Celebrate At Home initiative is a $100,000 grant from the City of Peterborough, a portion of which made it possible to secure Mitchell for the Canada Day concert — his fourth Musicfest appearance. In 2012, his August 4th appearance was cut short by bad weather, but he returned on August 21st to play a full show before thousands of classic rock fans.

Mitchell is a musical artist widely revered for wearing his Canadian pride on his sleeve, and thus a perfect fit with the Celebrate At Home theme. In addition, with Mitchell’s extensive hit song catalogue, he’s guaranteed to draw a huge crowd.

Mitchell began his professional musical career in the mid 1970s fronting Max Webster, which released six studio albums from 1976 to 1981, recording hit singles such as “A Million Vacations” and “Paradise Skies”, and toured extensively.

VIDEO: “Go For Soda” – Kim Mitchell

However, his subsequent career as a solo artist brought him his greatest success in the form of three Juno Awards, including Male Vocalist of the Year in 1990, and a string of hit singles such as “Go For Soda”, “All We Are”, “Patio Lanterns”, “Easy To Tame”, “Rock And Roll Duty”, “Rockland Wonderland”, and “America”.

He also claimed Juno Awards for Most Promising Male Vocalist in 1983 and, four years later, for Album of the Year for Shakin’ Like A Human Being, his second solo album.

In total, Mitchell has sold more than 1.5 million albums. Most all of his recordings, with Max Webster and as a solo act, have attained gold or multi-platinum status. All along the way, Mitchell has toured extensively — a regimen that was put on hold this past January when he suffered a heart attack and had a stent put in.

VIDEO: “Patio Lanterns” – Kim Mitchell

“It made me realize that I have nothing to prove any more,” related Mitchell in a May 2016 interview with Jim Barber of MusicLifeMagazine.net.

“I play guitar and I am going to go up there on stage and enjoy myself and appreciate the fact that I get to go up on stage and play in front of people who like what I do. I don’t stress out about all the stuff around being a touring musician any more. I am where I am in my life and my career, so I am just going up there and relax and do my thing.”

“I am all about customer service. People are coming out to hear certain songs and hear me playing them. But they have been morphing and going through some changes. So Go For A Soda sounds a little different the way we play it on a given night. And we will start to jam out on some of the songs and be a little freer with the arrangements. I like to give people what they want.”

VIDEO: “Lager & Ale” – Kim Mitchell

And giving people what they want is what Mitchell will do on Canada Day next year. That, he says, remains his proudest accomplishment in a music career that has featured many benchmarks.

“Being able to take people to a special place through our performance and music. When that happens, I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.”

All the Canada 150 celebrations over four days in Peterborough are free. Some events are subject to last-minute changes, and other events are weather dependent. For more information and for last-minute updates on Peterborough’s Canada 150th celebration schedule, visit www.peterborough.ca/ptbo150, www.facebook.com/PTBO150, or @Ptbo150, and search for the hashtag #Ptbo150 on social media.

After three very full days of partying culminating on Canada Day, will Peterborough be willing embrace a hangover of historical proportions?

That’s certainly the hope of Peterborough Museum and Archives administrator Jon Oldham who, with his colleagues at a number of local heritage-related facilities and organizations, has helped organize Heritage Day, an ambitious celebration of all things heritage for Sunday, July 2nd atop Armour Hill and near the Liftlock Visitors’ Centre.

Sponsored by Shaw Direct Satellite TV, the full-day event is the final piece of the Celebrate At Home puzzle — now a four-day celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday featuring a number of music performances, visual art displays, and children’s activities in downtown Peterborough, as well as the annual Peterborough Canada Day Parade and the Multicultural Canada Day event in Del Crary Park.

Heritage Day begins at 10 a.m. with a free pancake breakfast provided by the East Peterborough Lions Club.

Until 4 p.m., crafts, games, activities and displays will abound with military re-enactments by members of the drill teams of Norwood District and East Northumberland high schools. As well, representatives of Lang Pioneer Village and Hutchison House, dressed in period costumes, will interact with the public.

And, in keeping with the decidedly musical theme of the entire Celebrate At Home celebration, there will be live performances by Mayhemingways, Dan Fewings, Steafan and Saskia, and The Paddling Puppeteers — Glen Caradus and Phil Stephenson.

In addition, there will be horse-drawn wagon rides provided by High View Farm Commercial Horses, as well as guided tours in a Voyageur canoe and free cruises to the top of the Peterborough Liftlock for a unique view of Peterborough — courtesy of The Canadian Canoe Museum and Liftlock Cruise Lines.

The museum will also be opening its entire collection storage area to the public.

“It’s an opportunity to share all of our historical artifacts,” Oldham says, “instead of just the one per cent that is on display at any given time.”

And on July 1st, the museum will open a new exhibition titled “Made In Canada — Really!”

Continuing until October 1st, the museum-produced exhibition will feature dozens of artifacts that were made in Canada. Oldham explains:

“There are going to be artifacts that nobody is going to be surprised that are there, from GE and Quaker Oats, but there’s a lot of industries that operated in Peterborough that produced items that we might recognize but didn’t realize were made in Canada let alone in Peterborough. People will learn a few things. You always learn something new at the museum.”

Oldham is excited over the prospect of the day’s activities bringing a number of first-time visitors to the museum, which, along with Lang Pioneer Village, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.

“We’re not tourists in our own town as often as we’d like to be until family and friends come visit,” he says.

Free parking will be available at King George Public School and the Armour Hill Parking Lot (at the top of Armour Hill). To make travel between the two sites less stressful, a free shuttle bus service will operate between the museum, the Liftlock Visitors’ Centre and King George Public School at Armour Road and Hunter Street East.

All the Canada 150 celebrations over four days in Peterborough are free. Some events are subject to last-minute changes, and other events are weather dependent. For more information and for last-minute updates on Peterborough’s Canada 150th celebration schedule, visit www.peterborough.ca/ptbo150, www.facebook.com/PTBO150, or @Ptbo150, and search for the hashtag #Ptbo150 on social media.

Editorial and photos supplied by Peterborough County.

2017 is a full year of celebrating Canada’s sesquicentennial! We are celebrating the 150th birthday of Confederation, alongside our First Nation communities who will be celebrating 150 years plus all year long.

Here in the Greater Peterborough Area, Peterborough County, our eight townships, our First Nation Communities, the City of Peterborough, and the Trent-Severn Waterway have come together to create a unique Peterborough County Canada 150 Passport.

Our passport highlights the many community events taking place throughout the area and will guide residents and visitors to explore our many diverse communities.

The passports are available at all Township offices, The Peterborough County Courthouse, Lang Pioneer Village Museum, First Nation Administrative offices, and at events held throughout the region during 2017.

Bring this passport to a participating event and have it stamped. Once you obtain five event stamps, drop off the included contact form to be eligible to win a prize at the end of the year.

Thanks to the many businesses that have already donated prices. Thank you also to the Peterborough CFDC and to the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough for their investment in this project.

To learn more about our Canada 150 Plus events, visit www.ptbocounty.ca.

County of Peterborough Canada 150+ Geocaching Coin

Geocaching is a modern-day treasure hunt that is an outdoor recreational activity for the whole family, armed with a Global Positioning System (GPS) or mobile device to hide and seek containers — called “geocaches” or “caches” — at specific locations marked by coordinates.

In celebration of Canada 150 Plus, 18 new caches have been created with two in each of our townships (Asphodel-Norwood, Cavan Monaghan, Douro-Dummer, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen, North Kawartha, Otonabee-South Monaghan, Selwyn, and Trent Lakes) and two First Nations (Curve Lake and Hiawatha), and the three townships in the City of Peterborough.

Each geocache tells a story about our local history in the place where that history happened. Visitors are invited to learn more about the people, resources, creativity, and communities that have developed throughout our diverse region. The geocache containers range from small lunch containers to larger ammunition boxes and are hidden in urban and forested areas alike. Each of the containers in this series contain small tradeable items. All you need to do to claim one is to leave something of equal or greater value for the next person to claim.

The first 250 people who get to at least one geocache in each community can complete the Travel Diary posted on the PKT Geocaching page to claim a limited edition trackable geocoin.

Geocaching is a great way to get outside and active with family, friends, or pets as the weather warms up, but it can be done year-round. All you need to play is a free account on geocaching.com and a GPS signal on a handheld receiver or smartphone. To learn more about how to start geocaching, please visit www.geocaching.com/guide/.

For more information about the Peterborough & the Kawarthas Canada 150plus Geocaching Adventure or to download your Travel Diary to start playing, please visit thekawarthas.ca/experience/geocaching/.

Traditional County Fair at Lang Pioneer Village Museum on Sunday, September 24, 2017

We invite you to join Peterborough County, our eight townships, and our two First Nation communities and the City of Peterborough to celebrate Canada 150 Plus and the 50th anniversary of Lang Pioneer Village Museum on Sunday, September 24th for a Traditional County Fair, with a modern twist, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Come for a ride on the Ferris Wheel, enjoy some yummy cotton candy, popcorn and a sno-cone, and experience 150 years of the greater Peterborough area with friends and family in one location.

We’ll have lots of entertainment on the main stage from each of our communities and a number of traditional games you can try your hand at. How good are you at the three-legged race? Who can throw a hay bale the farthest? When is the last time you were in a sack race? Now is your chance to do it again.

This day is extra special as we will be officially opening the new Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building. This building will become the latest addition to Lang Pioneer Village Museum with its mission to preserve, promote and authentically recreate the rural history of Peterborough County. Peterborough County exists today, largely due to our agricultural roots. Towns, villages and hamlets were formed over 150 years ago to serve the needs of the agricultural residents in the area.

The Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building at Lang Pioneer Village Museum will pay homage to the families, farms and advancements that have assisted in creating a culture of ambitious and dedicated agricultural leaders, well respected by their peers throughout the community, the province and the world.

We are excited to be part of the City of Peterborough’s Heritage Day “Celebrate at Home” event being held at the Peterborough Museum and Archives and the Peterborough Lift Lock on Sunday, July 2nd. Lang Pioneer Village Museum will be re-enacting the Fenian Raid along with much more and we look forward to showing and sharing our rural heritage.

We live in a great Country, Province, and County and we hope you all will take this year to start to do more exploring and celebrating at home!