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Pipers pass by the Kentville MTT, (now Bell /Aliant) Telephone Office at the Apple Blossom Festival 2024

 

 

 

May 2025 It's Grande Street Parade Month in Kentville,,

 

 

Pipers pass by the MTT (now Bell/Aliant) Telephone Office in the 2024 Kentville Grande Street Parade ;

 

 

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news clippings ;

 

 

 

Bell Canada Union Busters - Apr 2004 - Bell Canada Toronto has turned its back on telecommunication telephone workers in Atlantic Canada and tried starving out 4300 striking telephone employees in a legal strike that has lasted 5 months while local Supervisors and scab labor try to cope ?

The marathon strike is finally over ? 4300 exhausted Bell Aliant employees from all 4 Maritime Provinces will finally return to work on Sept 16th 2004 after spending 5 months eating road dust on the picket line ?

www.itbusiness.ca/news/telco-union-ends-five-month-strike...

 

Bell Let's Talk ? Abandoning your telephone workers, refusing to talk to them, and leaving them out on the Street for 5 Months does not contribute to good mental health ? And, U Ottawa Scotty suggests that the internet, phones and the Social media are also all taking a heavy toll on the mental health and well being of today's society and so maybe there's some hypocrisy shown here by such a major profiteer of this phenomenon ? www.youtube.com/shorts/31f3sZndK6w

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51844732131/in/album-7...

 

MONTRÉAL, Jan. 6, 2020 - the hatchet-man this way comes ? Bell welcomes Mirko Bibic as the new President and Chief Executive Officer, www.bce.ca/news-and-media/releases/show/bell-welcomes-mir...

 

Apr 12 2024 - Bell Canada’s 4,800 layoffs, largest in nearly 30 years, ‘feel like death by a thousand cuts,’ says Canadian Association of Journalists

www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/02/12/bell-medias-4800-jobs-...

 

Feb 2024 - Bell Canada cuts news in the East Coast - putting Maritimers in peril ? Cructal news coverage cut-backs targeting the Maritimes have created a local community safety hazard ? Bell Canada and CTV have deafened and blindfolded Maritimers after eliminating many hours of critical prime time local and community TV news programming in the Atlantic region ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53577394363/in/album-7...

 

Local news cuts at Bell come even after Bell was granted $40M in regulatory relief: montrealgazette.com/news/national/local-news-cuts-at-bell...

 

Feb 9th 2024 - Trudeau 'pissed off' by Bell Media's 'garbage decision' to lay off journalists ? On Thursday the media company — which owns CTV and BNN Bloomberg — announced 4,800 jobs "at all levels of the company" would be cut. Bell said it's the largest round of cuts in nearly 30 years. After announcing the job cuts Bell said it would push ahead with a more generous dividend payout to shareholders.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-bell-media-cuts-pissed-1...

 

Feb 11th 2024 - Las Vegas USA, - ( 'great Canadians eh' ) ,,

Bell and CTV live broadcast ten hours of American's Superbowl but ignore and refuse to show a minute of their own Countrie's Grey Cup ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53523500175/in/album-7...

 

Feb 11, 2025 - Bell Canada offering severance packages to 1,200 unionized employees'' www.cbc.ca/news/business/bce-severance-packages-1.7456016

 

 

Aug 11 2025 - Bell CTV fills the full Maritime local news Noon hour with a non stop Trump news conference, but airs nothing on local Canadiana news or a critical Maritime forest fires update ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54714491205/in/dateposted

 

 

Aug 11, 2025 - there's no CTV local Maritime news at Noon today ? CTV runs a non stop Trump news conference from the USA , but does not update eagerly awaited news on the raging Maritime forest fires ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54714491205/in/dateposted

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Logan Morse and a newcomer ABF Board of Directors break the hearts of Valley families especially the Children when they terminate the historic long running Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess Pageant after 88 years ? Directors show no remorse, only saying that bold action was needed to improve, evolve and modernize the pageant ? www.pressreader.com/canada/annapolis-valley-register/2023...

 

May 26, 2023 - We Are the Ones. An unusual degree of disrespect is shown when the long running beloved Valley Peoples Pageant is cancelled without consideration or consultation ? A modern generation of newcomer ABF Directors with new ideas have proclaimed themselves to be the generation that will interrupt and then end 88 years of wonderful multi Valley village Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess history ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/apple-blossom-festival...

 

Annapolis Valley Families enter into shock and children cry upon learning that their beloved Queen Annapolisa Pageant has been cancelled without notice, consultation, respect, consideration or compassion ? Newcomer Directors say they are taking bold action to improve, evolve and modernize the historic Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival ? www.saltwire.com/atlantic-

 

Valley residents lose a long time major public yearly entertainment event after the ever popular ABF Greenwood Airshow is terminated and will be no more. Fast forward to Aug 24, 2024, and corporate greed ? Air Show Atlantic Inc. now charges big bucks to see taxpayer owned aircraft at a taxpayer owned airport in an inferior airshow ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52345513615

 

Kentville IS the Cornwallis Inn and the Cornwallis Inn IS Kentville ! If you were to google the 2 words Cornwallis Inn you will get over 600,000 entries with almost all of them married to the word Kentville.. (what a great promotional tool) . The world famous Cornwallis Inn is the source of many fond memories for all local and Valley residents.. "It was the centre of everything’: The past and present of Kentville’s iconic Cornwallis Inn"

www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/lifestyles/it-was-the-centre...

 

Kentville,, an identity crisis , help, Is there a Superhero to save Kentville ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51811175986/in/album-7...

 

The controversial 2017 Grand Street Parade - Has Kentville once again been the target of exploitation ? After Warden Brothers, (Greenwood ) and Liberal MP L Glavine (Kingston) had all but hijacked Waterville Airport and then relocated it to their own home riding in the Kingston/Greenwood area, it seems that the town of Kentville must face yet another attack from the Kingston area when Alxys Chamberlain, the Kingston Apple Blossom Princess, and ABF Directors attempt to take yet another major source of revenue and major attraction away from the town of Kentville ?

Et tu, Madama Chamberlain ? The unconscionable attempted hijacking and subsequent recovery of Kentvilles's most beloved yearly event ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/18506181065

 

2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade - Disregard for safety shown as unrestrained Senior citizens are precariously perched atop an unshaded, no sided, stop and go, large unstable jerking motion moving platform ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53900780519/in/album-7...

 

Exploiting a Queen in a photo op ? Politicians at the official opening of the 2023 Apple Blossom Festival pretend that there's still a Pageant while knowing full well that Queen Annapolisa has been terminated forever and will no longer be a part of this Festival ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53755100811/in/album-7...

 

2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade ABF stewards defy the Trudeau call for inclusion and diversity in Canada ? Many of the nearby local Valley towns and villages that always normally attend are now excluded from the parade ? This exclusion has contributed to the subsequent denial of the highly valued diversity brought with them ? Where is Canning, Digby, Annapolis Royal, Hantsport Greenwood, Windsor ? Where's Queen Annapolisa ? Where's the Apple Blossom Princesses and all of the individual Town floats including Princess Kentville ? To view the complete 2023 Kentville Grand Street Parade press here, www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie

 

89th Kentville Grand Street Parade May 27th 2023,, It's the sad ending of an Era ? Organizers take away diversity and create exclusion when all Royal proceedings are removed from the festival, www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52934419451

 

Facebook, Friends of Kentville - The site Administrator, a new arrival from PEI, says she wants to see Kentville as the queerest town in all of Nova Scotia ? www.facebook.com/groups/2588266877982288

 

Will a drag Queen replace an apple blossom Queen in Kentville ? www.nsbuzz.ca/life/kentville-all-ages-drag-show-draws-pro...

 

Nov 16 2023 - Apple Blossom Princesses call for a return of Queen Annapolisa,

www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/communities/former-apple...

 

The Town of Kentville has moved to cut back and terminate more hours of public long time outdoor entertainment ? The citizens of Kentville are to be once again punished by Town cost saving cut backs and cancellations to numerous days public entertainment that are always held at Memorial Park as an important part of Apple Blossom Festival celebrations ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52094784785

 

A medley of guest Tribute bands that have performed at Memorial Park Kentville - Always free of charge in the past at the Apple Blossom Festival : Petty Larceny, Fleetwod Mix, Keep the Faith, Stones Tribute, Green River Revival, Viscious, Eddy's Basement, Matt Minglewood,

www.dailymotion.com/video/x5hqti9

 

Mean and stingy corporate greed is shown by the newcomer ABF directors in this years Apple Blossom Festival ? Instead of providing a free guest Tribute band at the free Memorial Park Friday night concert, it's now going to cost you 50.00 pp to see the 'Queen' Tribute band performance. that's 50.00 per ticket in 2025 ? acadiau.universitytickets.com/

 

Scrooge and the Town of Kentville rip off its own citizens (and right at Apple Blossom Festival time) ? A cold capitalist attitude is shown by the Town of Kentville and by the newcomer ABF management ? Citizens are to be burdened with an out of pocket charge of TWENTY DOLLARS each just to attend an outdoor dance held downtown on taxpayer owned public streets of Kentville during the Apple Blossom Festival ? Is there no sense of shame left anymore ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54546051832/in/photost...

 

She's Ruined It ! Our great Festival is no longer even recognizable ? How could anyone take a world class event and turn it into something that can only be described as stupid ? President Erica Gillis has to be the worst ever ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54493011308/in/dateposted

 

2025 Kentville Grand Street Parade - A brief 45-minute and a very limited and compacted Kentville Grand Street Parade this year ? Zero large marching street bands and majorettes invited other than 1 mini version of the standard RCMP entrée, No Sottish pipers or pipe bands, zero in Royalty or their famous royal floats, Most of the regular nearby Valley village participants weren't here, Zero horses or wagons, No armaments, soldiers, bands or displays from the Aldershot military or Greenwood, etc etc, ? And yet the Guest parade announcer proclaims in her, quote @ 29:17, " this parade is the largest in Canada, incl Toronto - it's the longest with the largest route and has the most entries. " Wha-a-a-t, where did she come from and what is she talkin about ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQuaIdrQi00

 

2025 Kentville Grand Street Parade - A new Royal rider rolls down Main Street aboard the Kentville Apple Blossom Princess float ? This year the newcomer Mayor will grace the royal throne,, 'Somebody get that king a crown and scepter '

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54557663677/in/dateposted

 

they've ruined it part 2 ? May 31st, 2025 Grand Street Parade - From 100,000 down to 10,000, Parade attendance shrinks to an all time low, www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54568017261/in/photost.... Also see, They've ruined the Festival and the Parade too ?

www.facebook.com/avabf

 

ABF Directors may disapprove and may have terminated the beloved Queen Annapolisa pageant and the multiple village Apple Blossom Princess competition but Valley residents will always admire, support, respect and remain fond of the British Monarchy. The majority of Valley citizens are delighted to hear that his Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla are invited and will be coming for a royal visit to Canada on May 26 and 27, 2025. This year's incomplete and now Royalty-less ABF starts on the 28th, www.cbc.ca/news/politics/king-charles-canada-visit-1.7524946

 

The long proud history of past Queen Annapolisa and Apple Blossom Princess winners has been removed from sight and erased from the official Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival website ? A special honorary history page dedicated to previous Queen Annapolisa winners from 1933 thru 2019 has been taken down and apparently replaced with jumbo size portraits of the newcomer President and other ABF directors who have taken over and ruined the world famous Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival ? www.appleblossom.com/history/past-queens

Meet the directors,

www.appleblossom.com/about/

 

May 30th, 2025 - High level security enforcement for this years Memorial Park Friday night rock concert ? ( must have taken up most of the budget ) ? Town of Kentville brings in outside police, closes roads, and sets up manned traffic guard posts to provide tightened security for their Friday night Memorial Park Apple Blossom outdoor concert that in the past had always featured guest rock bands, interesting displays, and a Royal visit following a prestigious coronation ceremony in Wolfville, but is now severely cut back to some kind of an outdoor romper room type family show featuring food trucks, fireworks, air blown up jumpers and some minimal live local entertainment as their main stage event ? Reports that one parking violator was successfully apprehended thanks to the upgraded crowd control security and strict traffic control hired for this event ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54558198569

 

May 30th, 2025 Memorial Park Kentville - Seniors and those with disabilities are made to walk long distances in order to reach this year's disappointing ABF Friday night outdoor rock Concert that didn't bring in a rock band, (nor much of anything else) ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54558198569/in/photost...

 

 

.Upgrade 2025 ? There's been a large town expenditure budgeted for a major cosmetic upgrade to the Mayor's business backyard - Downtown Kentville Webster Street gets a total makeover with new installations of street paving and decal paint, new sidewalks both sides, and new curb and gutter ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54835340734/in/photost...

 

 

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On the recent 2023 edition of the Grand Street Parade :

 

 

"it looked as if some spectators along the route just joined in and began to walk along and make themselves a part of the parade ? "

 

May 27th, 2023 - Dismay, disillusion and some extreme disappointment prevail in Kentville over shocking changes and many missing regular entrees in this years 2023 Grand Street Parade ? Where is our famous Queen Annapolisa and where are the many Apple Blossom Princesses and their child attendants riding in their beautiful hand crafted decorated floats ? Where's the town criers ? And what about the dazzling majorette groups, the Scottish pipers and large multi instrumental marching bands that always attend ? And where are the Hantsport and Windsor floats and their large delegations ? And where are Digby, Aylesford, Annapolis Royal, Canning, Middleton, Wolfville, and more ? Why are so many of the Valley towns and villages that normally participate not included in the parade this year ? It was also a major disappointment for many when for the first time ever, Kentville Apple Blossom Princess (aka Miss Kentville) was no longer included as there are many town residents young and old who identify with the Apple Blossom Princess at this time of year ? However, the now purposeless Apple Blossom Princess float was used this year to transport a grouping of everyday town residents as they sat around together in a social scene meant to identity Kentville with diversity and inclusion ? The New Minas float also did not include an Apple Blossom Princess for this year, however her float was transformed into an advertisement for the famous New Minas UFO incident which all New Minions identify with. The Berwick float didn't include a Princess Berwick this year either. but was altered to proudly identify with the town's upcoming Centennial celebrations. And the Kingston float was also missing an Apple Blossom Princess this year but was instead promoting their long running Kingston Steer Barbecue that all Kingstonians readily identify with. It was good to see an RCMP contingent again although they sent far less officers this year than usual ? And it was notable that only 1 other large marching band appeared in the parade when usually 4 or more big bands, many with many pipers usually attend after traveling up from places like Cape Breton, Bridgewater, Dartmouth etc ? And where have all the pets and animals gone ? There's no horse teams, wooden wagons, riders or livestock this year ? Even the usual greyhound dogs weren't there ? Also noticed that some spectators must have just joined in and began walking along within the parade, and others must have come over from the Children's parade with their strollers to join in ? There was a variety of advertisers, most from out of town but some local ? There were various Political parties represented, with the largest delegation coming from the Kody Blois Liberals ? All in all, this Year's parade seemed a bare minimum and a weak effort that really missed the inclusion of royal pageantry and the 7 to 10 spectacular Princess floats, and also missed the large marching bands and majorette groups that usually enter, the usual agriculture horticulture and livestock component, the popular Scottish pipers bands that always attend, and also the many large out of town contingents that always normally participate ? This was not the famous grand street parade that patrons are accustomed to seeing, and did not represent the high standards and degree of professionalism set by all previous Grand Street Parades ? It became obvious that what was being advertised as a newer, bolder, more inclusive and more diverse parade was instead the exact opposite because this new version of our Grand Street Parade had lost the inclusion, diversity and the major contribution put forth by the absent Valley communities along with their individual Princess contestants and Child attendants that always come to Kentville to participate in the Queen Annapolisa competition, the Friday evening coronation gala at Acadia University in Wolfville, the many Princess Teas, and the Royal attendances at schools, hospitals, senior citizen homes and shut-ins, as well as appearances at the Friday night Memorial Park outdoor concert and fireworks, Royal attendances highlighting the Saturday morning Children's Parade, and a Royal trip down Main street Kentville aboard a beautiful hand crafted royal float in the famous Grand Street parade ?

And so, to quickly sum up, can a strange looking, incomplete, shortened, now Royal-less, newcomer mentality amateur version of our elite world-famous Kentville Grand Street Parade that was now missing her heinous Queen Annapolisa and also missing 7 to 10 Apple Blossom Princesses and their individual 7 to 10 beautifully handcrafted Town Princess floats, and also missing much of the unique character and diversity usually provided by the numerous Valley villages and communities who were no longer included, and that also failed to include many of the large out of town marching bands and pipers and majorettes who usually attend, and that also lacked representation from local area farming, agriculture and livestock,, now signal the end of the once glorious Grand Street Parade era ?

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Some past Grand Street parades :

 

2011 Grand Street Parade Kentville 79th ABF

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVgh3Dh2xn8&t=208s

 

 

2012 Grand Street Parade Kentville www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB1VBx50b18

 

 

2014 Kentville Grand Street Parade www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEo14IZKxp8&t=11s

 

 

2015 Kentville Grand Street Parade

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBifeG2SdPY&t=47s

 

2016 Kentville Grand Street Parade www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2wedvN5_Iw&t=8s

 

2017 Kentville Grand Street Parade www.youtube.com/watch?v=JozwyGpvfSY&t=1978s

 

2018 Kentville Grand Street Parade www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOK1GmiLmNk&t=986s

 

2019 Kentville Grand Street Parade www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMdEx8Zf-q0&t=1492s

 

2023 Grand Street Parade - To view a complete (newcomer version) of the world famous Kentville Grand Street Parade press here www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie www.dailymotion.com/video/x8lchie

 

 

They've ruined the Festival and the Parade too ?

www.facebook.com/avabf

 

A concerned Kentvillian must finally speak out, www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/44424045874

 

 

Kentville is an incorporated town in Nova Scotia. It is the most populous town in the Annapolis Valley. As of 2021, the town's population was 6,630.

 

 

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Uploaded on May 3, 2025