Premier Ford Promises More Cash for Carnival

Premier Doug Ford and Charmaine Williams

 By Stephen Wier

Photos by: Stephen Wier & Mervin Murrell

No Toronto Star. No Globe and Mail. No Toronto Sun. It is a big secret, as the Caribbean Camera is the only print media in town that knows all about the Carnival’s good news.  We showed up at 8:30 a.m. last Saturday for the official opening of this year’s Toronto Caribbean Carnival. Sponsors CP24 was there covering it too so we both got dibs on the scoop of the summer.

Standing on the stage in front of the nearly empty bleachers were the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, councillor Michael Thompson, and mayor Olivia Chow. There were two NDP MPPs, the Calypso Monarch (King Cosmos), and, of course, Jennifer Hirlehey, the head of the Festival Management Committee (which runs the parade).

Mayor Olivia Chow ready for the road

A smiling Ford took to the mic and announced that he was aware that the Parade and the Carnival itself need money to stay alive in 2025, and that his government wants to throw them a lifeline in the very near future.

Mayor Olivia Chow praised the Premier, saying that his presence at the parade launch was much appreciated and secondly (and this was what the media didn’t know), for making this shocking unscripted million-dollar promise to the festival.

Chow, wearing a modest Mas costume, said that she had visited a number of hotels and restaurants in the city that were full, many with out-of-town visitors. She estimated that the festival would bring in millions to the city coffers and that over two million people would attend the parade and festival events that she and Ford were officially opening.

Later, Hirlehey added that the festival does indeed bring big money into the city: “We are the Little Engine That Could!”

Toronto Mas
Toronto Mas

Some of the other speakers agreed with the Mayor’s guess on the size of the 2024 parade and predicted two million people would make it down to the Lakeshore that day. However, The Camera surveyed the parade and followed two different Mas bands during the eight-hour event, and unfortunately, there weren’t millions of people on the spectator side of the parade fences, although there were thousands of stormers on the road, gumming up the progress of the parade.

“Stormers at the Toronto Caribbean Carnival Parade on Lakeshore Blvd. One security guard, who I photographed, tried to stop them at first but gave up. The worst are the ones with young kids. What a wonderful example to set,” said long-time carnival photographer Tony Sladden.

Toronto Mas

Visitor Chris Switzer kept his stormer comment brief and to the point: “Can’t stand Toronto anymore.” Meanwhile, Mas man Hayden Harbin posted, “Only in Toronto. When will this ever stop?” The final word on stormers was posted by Aunty Fun-Times on the Camera’s Facebook account, who asked, “Toronto, if you see random men around you start to have violent stomach aches, don’t worry; it’s just the stormers from today. I cursed them.”

A stormer is a person who isn’t in costume but somehow gets onto the parade route without paying. They walk on the parade route, blocking revellers who have paid hundreds of dollars for their costumes and the privilege of being in the parade.

Toronto Caribbean Carnival Grand Parade

The Caribbean Camera isn’t the only news source to say attendance was down, both in the audience and in the number of revellers on the road. The website news source ByBlacks.com reported that “this year, participation drastically declined. We reached out to the leaders of the five major bands in the city, and two leaders said they’ve seen a 40% decrease in registration compared to 2023, while a third band leader reported a 53% drop, marking an unprecedented decline.”

Social media was full of reports of Mas bands having fewer people in costume than in years gone by and a shocking increase in number of stormers in civilian clothes who behaved badly within the ticketed CNE grounds.

University student Theresa Gomes noted that stormers not only snuck onto the parade route but also stormed the VIP area, where paying customers got lunch and the best view of the Mas camp’s on-stage presentations.

But it wasn’t all bad. The view of the Mas bands performing on a ramped stage before the judges and the audience in the bleachers was an amazing showcase of Caribbean culture and carnival costumes.

The parade route had the bands starting at the stage area and then taking it on the road. The revelers were fresh, the costumes intact, and the music loud and clear.

The Band of the Year was Tribal Carnival led by Celena Seusahai