http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/03/21/flashback-burke-keeps-his-promise/
Post Sports columnist Bruce Arthur on Monday received his first National Newspaper Award nomination for a piece on Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke marching in Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade. Published on July 4, 2010, here it is in full:
TORONTO — On the 156th day of the rest of his life, Brian Burke woke up and he tried to keep another promise. He would march, he said. So he marched.
And marching was easier, in a way. Not that it was easy. As Brian Burke walked the streets of Toronto, sweating in the sun and waving at the sea of people at one of the world’s grandest Pride Parades, he thought about his son. He thought about Brendan, his beautiful boy. How could he not? Brendan was why he was here.
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“He was a really bright, motivated kid, but his best attribute was his people skills,” Patrick Burke, Brendan’s older brother, says over the phone. “When he was a kid we’d go to the playground and he’d run around, and by the end, when it was time for my mom to take him home, everyone would be going, ‘Bye Brendan.’ ‘Bye Brendan.’ ‘Bye Brendan.’ He’d just go around and introduce himself. ‘Hi, I’m Brendan. How are you?’ He just had a natural way with people, and that alone would have made him a great success.”