The theme for the 2019 Canada Day Parade was the Wild West Coast. The Rotary Club of Whistler and Millennium Club took this very seriously and beavered away hours of creative teamwork re creating Cougar Annie's Garden of 1913 vintage in Hesquiat Sound.
Born Ada Annie Jordan in Sacramento, California, Annie moved to the land where she was to live for more than 65 years, Vancouver, BC in 1915 after having lived in England, South Africa and the Canadian Prairies as a child. She arrived with the first of her four husbands to save him from an opium addiction and ensure that the remittance cheques that came from his family in Scotland would continue to arrive. At the time she and her husband settled on the coast, they had three small children. She gave birth to eight more children in this remote location. She acquired her nickname because of her famed marksmanship. She shot dozens of cougars during her long life.
Costumes
Come dressed as an early settler, a mail person (she operated the post office), a gardener (her beautiful and famous garden was a source of income), steamship crew, an animal that may have been her prey (bear, cougar, cats) or an animal from the Wild West coast (Orcas, beaver, raccoon, wolf, eagle)
