Queen's 1953 coronation was big ballyhoo in Winnipeg, but King Charles's lacks fanfare

David Cawsey was two days past his 21st birthday and more than 6,000 kilometres from home in 1953 when he found himself in the biggest parade Winnipeg had ever seen.

"Thousands lined Main Street as we marched by, heading for the Manitoba legislature," Cawsey, now a few weeks from his 91st birthday, recalled from Cheltenham, England. "It was a special occasion in a very special year for me."

On June 2, he was among a contingent of airmen in a lengthy procession as the city, and others in the British Commonwealth, celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Cawsey had arrived from England as part of a crew of Royal Air Force officer-cadets learning navigation skills at the Royal Canadian Air Force base at Stevenson Field, now the site of Winnipeg's airport.

The nine-month secondment was Cawsey's first time in North America, and it started with a bang and a toot. Drums, trumpets and even hand-held glockenspiels were among the instruments played by 20 bands.

"This was primarily a military parade, because every military unit in Manitoba has a direct connection to the head of state, to the monarch, so they were all here in all of their glory," said local historian and blogger Christian Cassidy.

The parade took two hours to wind its way from the Canadian Pacific Railway Station on Higgins Avenue near Main Street to the legislative building on Broadway.

Coronation day was declared a civic holiday, so many festivities actually started the night before, running into the wee hours of the morning, Cassidy said.

A concert was held at the Civic Auditorium (now the Manitoba Archives building), with a special coronation cantata by the Winnipeg Philharmonic Orchestra, while dance halls and nightclubs hosted parties and dinners.

Coverage on the day of the event started at 4 a.m. local time. A Winnipeg Tribune photo showed sleepy kids in pajamas sitting with their parents beside a radio.

There was a special mass at the St. Boniface Cathedral before the Winnipeg parade, which started at 10 a.m. and ended at noon with a 21-gun salute and military flyover.

But the fanfare continued throughout the day with singalongs, picnics, dances, band concerts, tree dedications and fireworks, a Winnipeg Free Press listing said.

And that was just in Winnipeg. The city had not yet amalgamated with surrounding municipalities — now suburban neighbourhoods — so many held their own parades and functions.

The day wrapped up with beacons lighting the night sky.

"It was the story of the decade, and yeah, the city got behind it. I think there was a sense of jubilation," Cassidy said, noting it was only a few years since Canadians returned from war, fighting for king and country.

A new era was beginning, with economic prosperity and a young, glamorous Queen and her dashing husband, he said.

The Free Press dedicated 41 pages to coronation coverage, as well as parts of two other pages. The Tribune had 12 full pages and parts of two others. 

The passage of 70 years has dimmed some memories for Cawsey, but the honour of being involved in Winnipeg's celebration has not faded.

"We were certainly privileged to be part of it," he said.

Elizabeth officially became the reigning monarch in February 1952, when her father, King George VI, died. The formal crowning was scheduled later to give people time to mourn and then to shift gears and plan celebrations.

Similarly, King Charles III has been the monarch since Elizabeth's death eight months ago. His coronation takes place Saturday.

The first coronation in seven decades, however, doesn't hold the same weight in Winnipeg.

A 2 p.m. coronation service will be held at St. John's Cathedral, followed by a gun salute at the legislative building, which will be lit by an emerald-coloured projection, Brad Robertson, chief of protocol for Manitoba, said in an email.

No parades. No singalongs. No beacons. No fireworks.

"I think it was a much more special time in Canada and Winnipeg than it is now," Cawsey said.

At that time almost 10 per cent of Manitoba's population was born in the United Kingdom or was one generation removed, Cassidy said.

"That's a huge segment of the ruling class. So the people who ran city hall and ran the newspapers and ran the military had very, very strong connections to Britain."

That's no longer the case, and since the 1982 Constitution Act, the monarchy's role in this country is largely symbolic.

Support has been on the decline. A recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute suggested only nine per cent of Canadians were looking forward to Charles's coronation.

There is also a growing consciousness of the fact the monarchy was imposed by conquest. 

In Winnipeg on Canada Day in 2021, a statue of Queen Victoria and another of Queen Elizabeth II were toppled during demonstrations focused around Indigenous children who died at residential schools.

The head of the Victoria statue was cut off and thrown into the Assiniboine River.

A group of First Nations leaders from Manitoba are attending King Charles's coronation, not so much to celebrate as to meet with royal representatives and discuss First Nations' issues and remind them of the treaty obligations of the Crown. 

"It's not a good picture, it hasn't been a good picture, but hopefully King Charles being a treaty partner will be able to look at First Nation people differently," Cathy Merrick, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said earlier this month.

Cawsey, who grew up not far from Windsor Castle — and wore a black armband on his uniform in 1953 for Elizabeth's grandmother, Queen Mary, who had died that March — admits he has just a passing interest in the latest coronation.

"I think we'll do a bit of fast forwarding," he said about recording the event and watching it later.

There is excitement among others, though. For several days, people have camped along the route the Queen will follow, Cawsey said.

But outside of London that buzz abates. Nothing much is happening in the other towns and cities, he said.

"I think actually the Eurovision song contest is [more] high in some people's minds, because that's about the same time," Cawsey said with a laugh.