I just completed the Great Ride ‘n’ Stride for Cancer in Hamilton. It’s a 20km ride on the Lincoln Alexander Parkway, aka “the Linc,” along the Hamilton Mountain that I’ve been doing for the past 6 years. This year it was just my Dad and I riding since my sister was doing a run in Ottawa. Like many of us, my life has been touched by cancer a few times, so I’m happy to do something to help and have some fun doing it.
The Great Ride ‘n’ Stride is a non-competitive, pledge-based fundraiser run by the Canadian Cancer Society across communities in Ontario. Participants can ride, walk, run, or rollerblade. Some communities have been running their events for over 40 years now, and the Hamilton ride is one of the better ones because of the route.
The Linc opened in 1997 and was named after Lincoln Alexander, Hamilton’s most celebrated citizen. Alexander was Canada’s first Black Member of Parliament, elected for Hamilton West in 1968, the first Black federal cabinet minister as Minister of Labour in 1979, and the first Black Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1985 to 1991. The parkway was named by a unanimous vote of Hamilton city council, and Alexander appeared with his family alongside Premier Mike Harris at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 5, 1997.
What made the Ride ‘n’ Stride special in those years was that Lincoln Alexander himself would come out to support the event. He was in his 80s by then but still showed up, still engaged with people, and still represented everything good about Hamilton. Having him present on the road that bore his name, cheering on a cancer fundraiser, felt like the kind of full-circle moment that only happens in a city like Hamilton. He passed away in 2012, and January 21 is now recognized as Lincoln Alexander Day across Canada.
