U.S. Embassy celebrates Ottawa Pride, Parliament Hill doesn’t

Who did a better job marking Ottawa’s 30^th anniversary of Capital Pride last weekend?

Exhibit A: Here is U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman showing off the huge rainbow flag draped over the American Embassy’s front entrance facing Parliament Hill.

All of us at @usembassyottawa are excited to show our support for #OttawaPride! #30YearsTogether pic.twitter.com/CySqGM2oCV

— Bruce A. Heyman (@BruceAHeyman) August 17, 2015

Exhibit B: Here is Canada’s Parliament Hill not looking noticeably different from how Parliament Hill looks every other day of the week.

And while Ambassador Heyman decked out the U.S. Embassy in rainbow colours and joined Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson at the city’s Pride Flag-raising, where was Prime Minister Stephen Harper? Where were Harper’s Conservative MPs?

Given he was the only federal leader to skip out on Canada’s biggest Pride parades in Toronto and Montreal, it should come as no surprise Harper was (once again) nowhere to be found.

Harper’s Twitter account didn’t even bother giving a shout-out to the event.

No sign of Pierre Poilievre, the minister in charge of the National Capital Region either (too bad, considering the federal government is also Ottawa’s biggest employer).

A small contingent of provincial conservatives dubbing themselves “LGBTory” did show up, although they were reportedly booed –replacing the “T” in “LGBT” (an acronym meaning Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) with “Tory” was apparently not a hit with the crowd, especially considering the opposition of Senate Conservatives to Bill C-279, which aimed to enshrine gender identity in the Canadian Human Rights code.

The United States Supreme Court ruled only in June that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to same sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for over a decade.  

^{Source: U.S. Embassy Ottawa}