Calgary celebrates its largest pride parade ever

Calgary's pride parade featured more than 4,000 participants this year, a far cry from the days when 2016's parade marshaldidn't even feel safe attending the event in the '90s.

"I never went to the pride parade when I was living in Calgary because I was living at home and it wasn't safe for me. So to have this many people here, I feel safer, and I think a lot of people do," said Rae Spoon.

Over 60,000 spectators were expectedfor Sunday's celebrations, the largest pride parade in Calgary's history,according to paradeco-director Craig Sklenar.

Prior to the event, Alberta premier Rachel Notleymused on how far Alberta has come in such a short time.

"When I first got elected to the legislature we still didn't have stipulated protection for people based on sexual orientation in the human rights code," she said.

"I think what's even more important is that it's no longer acceptable in the legislature to articulate some of the kinds of things that were being articulated even when I first got elected in 2008."

Notleycautioned, however, that work towards acceptanceand inclusivity is never done and there is still more to be done.

Spoon, who said it was a "huge surprise" to be a marshalof any parade,highlighted some of the tensions leading up to this year's march, with calls for police to be banned from marching in their uniforms.

"Within Calgary, there has been some conflict around this pride paradewith Voices, the Coalition for People of Colour in Calgary," they said.

"So I think there's a lot of development happening with negotiations between them and the Calgary Police Services. And that's happening in prides across Canada. I think an issue that we have to work on in prides in general, is racism."

Deputy mayor Richard Pootmanssaid pride is an important event for Calgary.

"We can't define ourselves by commodity prices or economic cycles," he said."Our city is about people and we will succeed if we continue to focus on that the opportunity for everybody to participate."

Pride celebrations continued until 6 p.m. in Shaw Millennium Park.