ACAPO organizes the largest Portugal Day Parade in Canada

Since 1987, the Alliance of Portuguese Clubs and Associations of Ontario (ACAPO) has organized the largest Portugal Day Parade in Canada, and even perhaps in North America. The event takes place along Dundas Street West, in Toronto, and attracts thousands of participants who line up on the sidewalks to watch an endless procession of floats and various other displays of Portugal’s heritage. The event is part of festivities that last more than a week at different locations across the city.

It seems that Father Cunha was the first to organize a small-scale celebration of Portugal Day in Toronto, but later the Council of the Portuguese Communities and the local Consulate took over until the formation of the ACAPO, in 1987. It was a fitting passing of the baton since our community organizations remain the main promoters and preservers of our heritage in Canada.

The parade is the highlight of a series of events that begin days before with the official opening of the celebrations at the Portuguese Consulate in Toronto. Member associations of the ACAPO, sponsors, celebrities, politicians, and personalities of all walks of life take part in the two-hour long walk along Dundas St. W. from Lansdowne Avenue to Bellwoods Park. Floats idle along with magnificent cultural and culinary displays that include music and the unforgiving scent of sardines on the barbecue. Children and youth parade wearing traditional clothes of decades past, dancing and jumping over the streetcar tracks, and waving to acquaintances and strangers who cheer and applaud. On the sidewalks, Portuguese flags flap at the wind at the will of spectators who wear the national soccer team jersey, of which Ronaldo’s is, easily, the most popular. When the last float finally crosses FPTV’s headquarters, the crowd quickly dissipates and heads to a barbecue held at someone’s backyard or to a favourite restaurant to recharge batteries for the performances that ensue and last well into the night.

These celebrations are replicated all over the country. Montreal follows Toronto as the second largest parade in the country, but cities such as Cambridge, London, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Metropolitan Vancouver and Victoria promote major festivities that are always anticipated by locals to the regions. This year, Winnipeg marked the festivities with the unveiling of Portugal Way, a section of a street that flanks the Portuguese Association of Manitoba, the oldest and the largest in the province. Although in a smaller scale, locations such as Saskatoon, Northern British Columbia and Northwestern Ontario also promote well-attended festivities organized to celebrate Portugal Day.

ACAPO’s Portugal Day Parade in Toronto is remarkable for its magnitude, but even more extraordinary because it is exclusively organized by volunteers. This is a tribute to the work of our community organizations, which are the cultural pillar of our presence in Canada and embody the true essence of our past, present and future.