Attendees at the Pearl of the Orient Philippine pavilion were joined by a special guest Monday night, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a brief appearance during the second day of a weeks-long multicultural festival in Winnipeg.
Ruth Provitina said she was one of the lucky few who knew the prime minister would be attending the pavilion, but worked hard not to let the cat out of the bag before he arrived to shake hands and take photos with members of the city’s Filipino community and other attendees.
“We’re lucky he chose to have his dinner here,” she said. “He likes egg rolls!”
Maridol Madolora said she couldn’t get over the amount of people who flooded into the halls of north Winnipeg’s R. B. Russell Vocational School to greet Trudeau.
“He has so many fans here,” she said of Trudeau’s appearance, which lasted less than half an hour. “He’s almost like a star or something, a movie star.”
The prime minister, who did not speak with reporters, made his way through a sea of attendees at the event — many of whom were shocked he showed up at the pavilion.
One of those people was Angelina Ovejas, who is from Toronto, but is on vacation in Winnipeg.
She said she came to watch her niece’s children perform at the pavilion and ended up with much more than expected.
“It’s unexplainable,” she said. “We’re all so excited.”
Meanwhile, Eric Garcia said there had been some buzz about Trudeau possibly making an appearance, but said “you don’t believe anything until it happens.”
“It was pretty crazy seeing someone famous come through our pavilion,” he said. “It doesn’t happen so often.”
He said it was great to see the prime minister come out and support the Filipino community, if only for a few minutes.
Trudeau’s visit to Winnipeg comes ahead of a byelection in the city’s Elmwood-Transcona riding next month to replace New Democrat Daniel Blaikie, who announced earlier this year he was resigning the seat to jump to provincial politics.
The vote in that byelection will be held Sept. 16. No public events are on Trudeau’s official itinerary on Tuesday.
Folklorama — which calls itself the longest-running multicultural festival in the world — kicked off Sunday as communities in the city geared up to showcase the best their country has to offer. This year’s edition of the festival runs until Aug. 17.
The festival also features 38 pavilions this time around.