In a city with a rich two-decade tradition of celebrating and coming out for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Peterborough will have to wait yet another year.
Tim Burke, organizer of the parade that’s a celebration of the patron saint of Ireland, said it pains him to cancel the event for a third consecutive year, but the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic — specifically the rapid community spread associated with the Omicron variant — has left him little choice.
Burke said he had talks with several people and organizations connected with the parade, including Peterborough City Clerk John Kennedy, longtime major sponsor McCloskey International and the Peterborough Canadian Irish Club, and deemed it best to cancel this year’s edition of the popular event that was supposed to go on Sunday, March 13.
“We’ve decided to postpone the St. Patrick’s Day Parade for another year. I hate doing this. In the past, including myself, we considered the St. Paddy’s Day Parade as the kickoff to spring. This year, I had a lot of people saying a few months ago that this year the parade would be the kickoff of the end of Covid. Maybe we could get back to our normal lives and have fun again and I was hoping the parade could be that, but as things are happening, things aren’t going to happen that way,” said Burke who’s been the organizer of the parade for the past several years.
Burke explained it wouldn’t be prudent to contemplate hosting a parade in the face of Omicron variant, as well as the cost of keeping parade-goers safe along the downtown Peterborough parade route was not feasible.
“What my personal beliefs, or your personal beliefs or whoever’s personal beliefs on this particular situation we’re in right now, it doesn’t matter. The overall picture is I don’t think our society is ready for and/or could support a parade as of yet,” he said.
Burke said hopefully there is some light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and the parade will go ahead in 2023.
“I’m hoping that next year, if the opportunity presents itself, that everybody will come back out and celebrate our rich Irish tradition, because we are the most Irish city in Canada. And, I hope that we can get back to celebrating the things that mean so much to us all.”
