While Toronto's 31st annual Pride Parade went off without a hitch in front of an endless wave of visitors on Sunday, the focus of Canada's largest gay rights event was the absence of one man: Mayor Rob Ford.
Ford stirred controversy in June, when he announced he would skip the parade and instead spend time at his family cottage, following a 30-year Canada Day tradition.
Ford was the first mayor to miss the parade in 16 years, with Barbara Hall, Mel Lastman and David Miller all attending the event. The last mayor to miss the event was June Rowlands in 1994.
Officials from Pride Toronto, Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke and city councillors including Kristyn Wong-Tam all asked Ford to reconsider earlier in the week, but said they did not hear back.
Francisco Alvarez, the co-chair of the event, said he was disappointed by Ford's choice. He said it was Ford's chance to send the city's gay and lesbian community a clear message of support.
Even attendees amid the partying crowd managed to turn their attention away from the colourful parade's hundreds of beads, glittery balloons and rainbow flags to voice their opinion.
Esther Freeman, 21, told The Canadian Press that it's the mayor's responsibility to attend all major events in the city.
"I think it's stupid for him not to be here. He's supposed to represent who Toronto is and Toronto is everybody," she said.
Others chose to keep cheering on the parade's colourful floats and dance to blaring music as various LBGTQ groups marched down Yonge Street under Sunday's blazing sun.
One such reveler was former Toronto mayor David Miller.
"I'll leave the comments about (Ford) up to others. I just love being here, look at all the people, aren't they fantastic?" he asked before yelling, "Happy Pride Toronto" to a screaming crowd.
Andres Fagundez, who came from New York to watch the parade, said Canadians knew how to party.
"This kind of crowd, this kind of people celebrating, this is something you don't see in many other places," he said.
Sunday's parade marked the culmination of the city's annual Pride Week and began shortly after 2 p.m. EST in Toronto's downtown Church-Wellesley neighbourhood, with the majority of the parade marching down Yonge Street.
Leading up to the parade
Earlier in the week, Toronto celebrated Pride Week with a multitude of colourful activities celebrating the city's lesbian, gay, transgender and queer communities.
On Saturday morning, a 5-kilometre Pride and Remembrance run was held in support of the Casey House and Black CAP, two outreach programs which aim to reduce HIV/AIDS in Toronto's LGBTQ and African communities.
Pride Toronto also held the annual Dyke March on Saturday afternoon, highlighting the strength of women and transgender people in the community.
Family friendly activities were also part of the celebration, including the weekend Family Pride event featuring children's entertainers, arts and crafts and inflatable bouncy castles on the grounds of a junior high school.
With files from The Canadian Press.
