What does a mechanical bull have to do with the pro-life message? The ARPA chapter in BC’s Bulkley Valley made the connection earlier this summer. Organizer Austin Olij says they were forced to get creative with their messaging when they entered a float in the annual summer parade in Smithers, BC.  He says the chapter had been participating in the event for the past several years, but this year, the theme for the parade was “party till the cows come home.”

Olij says while it may be a fun theme, it didn’t really give his group much to work with. In the end, they borrowed a giant cake from a pro-life group in Langley, and emblazoned it with the words “every child deserves a birthday party”. As for the “cows coming home”, they towed a flatbed trailer behind the truck as kind of a mobile stage. They put a makeshift mechanical bull on it, and Olij says he did his best to make people laugh. He says the response at the parade was positive, and the experience was another example of how sometimes it’s good to think outside the box to get the pro-life message out there.