Santa Claus Parade to feature new route, new electric vehicles

MONTREAL -- Montrealers better not cry or shout because Santa Claus is coming to town.

The 69^th annual Santa Claus Parade will head through downtown Montreal on Saturday and will draw an expected 200,000 to 300,000 people.

Sunny weather is forecasted, with a temperature of between 0 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The parade will begin on Guy St. and head a kilometre-and-a-half down Rene-Levesque Blvd. The parade traditionally goes down Ste-Catherine St. but construction on that road necessitated a change in route.

In another change, three of the parades 17 floats will be pulled by electric vehicles. Emile Roux of Montreal’s downtown commercial development society said the vehicles are the first step in a longer term strategy.

“We want to try to integrate three or four a year,” he said. “It’s still a challenge for us because it’s not easy to find electric vehicles powerful enough to pull floats. We are very happy to be integrating these first electric vehicles this year and our goal is that the entire parade will become progressively electric in the coming years.”

Among the floats will be one from Cirque du Soleil which will provide a sneak peak of its new AXEL show.