Windsor's Canada Day Parade will take place downtown Tuesday morning.
The parade, which gets underway at 11 a.m., will be themed 'True North Strong and Free'.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Maggie Durocher, executive director of the Windsor Parade Corporation, says the parade is going to back to its roots by starting the route at Ouellette Avenue and Giles Boulevard, then heading north up Ouellette.
"For everybody that has always asked to have the parade back downtown, this is the traditional route, Giles to Pitt," she said. "I'm looking forward to it because I think that's a great venue for it, and obviously with the number of entries that we've had, I think that the community likes it too."
Durocher says the route gives organizers more space for staging.
"Everything is a learning curve, and we've worked and re-worked, and worked again the different areas that we want to be in, and this is my favourite, this where I started 31 years ago with parades, was at Giles and Ouellette, and I am thrilled to be back," Durocher said.
The parade previously started at Ouellette Avenue at Wyandotte Street, before ending west on Riverside Drive near Caron Avenue.
Handysides and Vincent Georgie, executive director of the Windsor International Film Festival, will serve as the parade marshal's this year.
Durocher says attendees with also see nine marching bands along the parade route.
"I know that the Windsor Optimist Band is looking forward to it, I think there will be lots of entertainment, we've also got giant inflatables from Fabulous Inflatables, we've got four of those this year, I think it's going to be a really great parade," Durocher said.
Attendees are invited to the The Fan Zone located on University Avenue East at Ouellette from 10 am to 1:30 p.m. where the all new Tim Hortons special Canada Day Timbits will be offered, with facepainting, Jangles the clowns doing balloon twist from 10 a.m. 12 p.m., colouring pages and much more for free fun before the parade.
Windsor police say a number of road closures will be in place for the parade.
Starting at 9:30 a.m., Ouellette from Shepherd to Giles will be closed.
The closure will expand at 10:30: Ouellette from Shepherd to Wyandotte.
And beginning at 11:30 a.m., Ouellette from Shepherd to Riverside, and Pitt Street from Ferry to Goyeau will be closed.
UPDATE: Beginning 9 a.m., Ouellette Ave. will be closed from Shepherd to Giles. The other closures will still take effect as noted in the original post. Thank you for your patience. https://t.co/M9KjrZocnb
— Windsor Police (@WindsorPolice) June 30, 2025