Vancouverites commemorate Labour Day quite differently now than they used to around 100 years ago.
While modern-day locals are planning their long weekend getaways and staycations, Vancouver residents a century ago would gather in the streets for a grand parade.
The first Labour Day parade in Vancouver was held on Sept. 6, 1890, just 18 years after the first one took place in Canada when the Toronto Printers Union went on strike on March 25, 1872.
The following month, on April 14, approximately 2,000 workers marched through the streets in solidarity, with more participants joining in along the way until a parade of around 10,000 people had formed. This led to the decriminalization of unions.
Vancouver's Labour Day parade in 1899 was described as the biggest in B.C. to that date, according to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.
Over the years, the popular Labour Day parades drew in crowds with creative floats made by unionized workers, such as a 40-foot replica of the S.S. Umatilla which connected Vancouver and San Francisco, built by longshoremen in time for the 1898 parade, and an imitation elephant constructed by the Columbo Tea Company for the parade in 1900.
Horses were ever so present in the parades over the years, pulling wagons boasting floats or trotting alongside.
