Knowing the most trivia about Canada earned Judy Morton a free trip to Ottawa through the Gazette’s Links to the Past: Canada’s 150th contest, which was co-sponsored by Boston Pizza, St. Albert Chimney Sweep Service (home of the Chimney Guys), Original Joe’s, External Affairs, and Gayles Decorating. The grand prize allowed her and her husband Mark airfare, hotel accommodations and $500 in spending money in the nation’s capital during the country’s 150th birthday celebrations.
For Judy Morton, it was the trip of a lifetime, but it was almost the trip of two lifetimes.
“Our niece … she’s due today. I wanted to see her either before she had the baby or have the baby while we were there,” she said, days after returning home. “She’s still pregnant.”
The St. Albert wife and husband, both originally from Ontario, have been to Ottawa before. The chance to go back for the big party was one that they couldn’t pass up. She put in all of her monthly entries except for just a few of them, hopes as high as they could be. Still, when the exciting call came, she was in disbelief.
“When they phoned to say I won, I thought it was a joke. That was the day of the huge wind and rainstorm. I was sitting in the living room watching our screen tent be demolished. It was a bit of a bright spot in an otherwise nasty day.”
The action-packed three-day trip itself was much grander than she or her husband could have anticipated. They visited Parliament Hill on June 30 where a police person said that they could anticipate a six-hour lineup at the security gate on Canada Day.
“We decided to do the 45-minute long security line and go on to Parliament Hill on Friday in the rain. We had a blast. They were setting up and it was pouring.”
They visited the nearby Byward Market, where they checked out the many funky shops and vendors, getting that out of the way before the big day.
Saturday was a hot and humid day to be immersed in the ‘red sea’. That’s not the actual geographic name for it, however. There were so many people wearing Canadian flag colours on the streets that it might as well have been.
“It was just wall-to-wall people when we came out onto the main street from the hotel and everybody was streaming towards Parliament Hill. I’ve never seen that many people … as far as your eye could see up the road and down the road in both directions, the road was full of people. It was insane. Fun to be in!”
They went to Major’s Hill Park to watch the televised proceedings on the Parliament Hill stage. That was as close as they could get.
“It was so amazing to be in amongst that many people – thousands upon thousands of people in the park – singing the national anthem. And God Save the Queen. I haven’t sung that since I was in elementary school. You could really tell the hockey fans in the crowd because they knew all the words. It was fun!”
She ended by saying that everywhere they went, the mood of the gathering was quintessentially Canadian. “It was nice to see all the people being polite,” she said. “Not being afraid. Waving the flag. Wearing red and white. Being patriotic, which is something we don’t see that often.”
In an interesting coincidence, she even bumped into an old friend who she hadn’t seen in more than 20 years. That capped off a magical adventure for a very appreciative St. Albertan and Canadian.
“I was honoured to have won this and be in Ottawa, in our nation’s capital, for our country’s 150th birthday. I could not have had a better weekend.”
