After stints in Morden, Altona, and Carman, the Pembina Valley Pride 2026 celebration is coming to Winkler.
The 2SLGBTQIA+ organization announced last week that their sixth annual Pride event will take place in the city on Saturday, June 13.
“Every year after our Pride festivities, we put out a survey post-event: what did we do well, what could we improve on, where would you like to see it happen next year? And every year Winkler was in there and last year it was the number one location,” shared Pauline Emerson-Froebe, president of Pembina Valley Pride. “It is the largest community in the Pembina Valley, so it would only make sense that sooner or later we’d come to Winkler … it is time.”
Emerson-Froebe acknowledges this decision isn’t sitting well with some people. News of the announcement immediately ignited a flurry of social media posts, some supportive and some decidedly negative.
She hopes Winklerites will extend Pride participants the same respect they’d expect from other community members at their own public gatherings.
“We just want everybody to have respect for each other, be nice to each other, be decent to each other. I don’t think that is an unreasonable ask.”
The entire point of a Pride event, Pauline Emerson-Froebe stressed, is to acknowledge that 2SLGBTQIA+ people exist and to provide a space where they can celebrate with others. This can be especially important in traditionally conservative communities where being different can be incredibly isolating.
“It does get really lonely … am I the only one? And then people want to leave and in doing that they take their talents, they take their personalities, they take it all and they leave,” she said.
“We’re having it in Winkler to show the folks in Winkler, the queer people in Winkler—because there are some—that they deserve to exist and to be loved within the community,” Emerson-Froebe said. “Every time we have come to a different community, it has made such a powerful impact on the queer folks of that community.”
This year’s Pride won’t include a march through town but will instead be focused on a rally featuring guest speakers, stage performances, and other activities taking place at one location. Organizers are also planning to double security to ensure everyone participating feels safe.
Emerson-Froebe hopes some of the more hateful comments made online this past week aren’t an indication of how the event will be greeted in real life by Winklerites. She reminds people that no one is obligated to participate in Pride if they don’t feel comfortable doing so.
“If this isn’t your groove, by all means find something else you want to do that day,” she said, noting it’s like any other community gathering in that “if you don’t want to go to it, don’t go to it.
“We’re not trying to indoctrinate anybody with this. We’re just doing this for the [2SLGBTQIA+] community and also for the allies,” she said. “It provides an opportunity for allies to show their support in a public, visible way so that we are reminded that we aren’t alone.
“We’re really excited about this because Winkler really is a lovely place,” Emerson-Froebe added. “There are so many lovely people who have been so welcoming and so kind, and really that’s what we’re hoping for—that all of us for each other can be respectful and kind.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Winkler Mayor Henry Siemens, who issued a public statement in response to online chatter and the flood of emails he began receiving in the wake of the announcement.
In it, the mayor pointed out that this is not a City-organized event, but noted Winkler does have “many public spaces and facilities that are used by the public for a wide variety of events. Council and I don’t personally support all of the beliefs or ideologies of the various groups or events that might take place in Winkler but we do support people’s individual freedom to plan and host their own events.
“It is my sincere prayer that we, as a community, find a way to respect one-another’s freedoms and pray that no one event would define who we are. That we would live out our faith every day with genuine love and respect and kindness for everyone and THAT is what would define us.”
In a later interview, Siemens reiterated that he hopes the true heart of Winkler will win out when it comes to how the community presents itself in the months ahead—and that includes how people act when it comes to dealing with an event they may not agree with.
“How can we put our best foot forward as a community to show the world who we are?” he said. “We are an exceptionally generous, supportive community, and I want us to show the world that.”
