Fellow Queerios, it is finally here. The month of Pride. While some of us wait until the actual weekend to do something, there are a few of us who enjoy Pride as a celebration of all things Queer. Its Christmas, but with balloons, hot sticky weather and left of centre politics. For Pride Toronto or -PT- it has been a very interesting year, indeed. The Pride Festival surrounds us, and brings in people from all over the world. -PT- has come out on top from crumbling politics, set up primarily by the Queers Against Israeli Aparthaed or,...

It felt a little Cannonball Run to tell you the truth. Betti Forde and I got on a plane in Toronto, bound for Vancouver, Jubilee, Kenzie Clarke and Mama Miche (Bitchin') caught a flight from Calgary, and B.Traits was already in Van City having flown home a day early after the Banff show. We all met up at 9:30AM, a little groggy, a little banged up, but happy to see each other and get the last leg underway.

VANCOUVER

It's that time of year again. When I pack up a bunch of the grimiest girls on and off the decks into a car and we traverse the Great Canadian North. The tour diary has become just a legendary as the parties of the years, so i hope I don't disappoint you with this one. First thing's first, we are NOT cut out for car rentals. For some reason this tour does not come equipped with licenses that go with credit cards. Those two things do not mix in the same wallet, so our friend Kitty offered to drive. She can't...

I was amped when I saw that Betti Forde was coming to Winnipeg, and even more amped when I saw that it was taking place at Gio’s. Gio’s is Winnipeg’s premier gay bar. Being the stereotypical straight white girl I immediately have images of Carrie Bradshaw dancing in a neon mesh see threw combo outfit at a gay bar in New York. Tonight I was going to shine like Carrie Bradshaw. My crew and I made our way down to the bar where we were angrily greeted by the bouncer. He said that there was no...

Name: Betti Forde aka Maren Hancock. Occupation: DJ, MC & Vocalist in StinkMitt, freshly appointed Graduate Student at York Biggest turn on: BC Bud Biggest turn off: Gordon Campbell City: Vancouver How long have you lived there?: 11 years, all on the same street (Pacific St.) in the West End, which I call the Rear End. Here is the view of Sunset Beach at 7am from my friend G-Luve's apartment, one block away from mine. Why do you call it home?: Up until last year it didn't snow and you could ride your bike 24/7. Not so much now though, thanks to global...

So in the middle of the shit show, we decided that it would be super fun to go to Whitehorse.

Yup, Yukon. Cold. But hey, when else will you be able to say you went to the Yukon on tour?

So we fly in from Van in the morning to a chilly Whitehorse (fun fact #1, 30,000 people live in the Yukon, 25,000 of which live in Whitehorse) and are met by the lovely Lauren Tuck, who booked our show and took care of us well.

We grabbed a coffee and headed off to the CBC, which is...

Everyone who has ever lived in Montreal will tell you the women are gorgeous, the weather is brutal and everyone sleeps around like the world is about to end. It's a town filled with student/artist-living, perpetually in it's early twenties at any age. Montreal, much like Mexico, is a beautiful place to visit. I would be lying through my teeth if I said we took it easy on the French. We weren't gentle with the the Calgary-cowboys or the Van-mandals or the Bore-ontonians, I can't see why we'd take it any easier on a bunch of womanizing alcoholics. Truthfully,...

We rolled into Toronto like syphilis making a comeback. Having only slept two hours before leaving Deadmonton, and getting seated in kiddie playland on the four hour plane ride, we separated right quick to find dark corners to die in. After a solid 14 hour catch up nap and a few half-assed remorsefully alcoholic promises never to wrestle that rider again, we were back in the saddle, this time joined by DJ Barbi and rap-pop group, The Royal Society. Oh Wrongbar, there ain't nothing wrong about you. You're like sex on wheels...

Holy Edmonton was cold! Shit bitch, get some summer up in there quick. We asked some locals what people do in Edmonton and they responded, "try not to get beat up and huff gas". Rough is an understatement. The Pawn Shop is the spot there and Ryan hooked us up proper DJs Short N' Sweet opened for us. They are both of those things. Mad  shout out to Lydia who is the dopest jam in Deadmonton by far. On a side note, Fierce Helder is a big hit with the everyone on this tour. First she picked up sandals man at the liquor store in...

Oh Calgary, you were so much hotter when we were still just courting. The first couple of dates were great, and now that your all comfortable in this relationship, suddenly you're showing up to watch movies in jogging pants and sandals. It's just to soon to show us your back zits and all. Calgary was a bit of a roller coaster ride. Let me start with the drive. It was all peaches and blue sky's on the drive from Kelowna to Calgary. We were Cruising the Dub on the reg, making friends with gophers and enjoying the Rockies. Here's a couple of gems from...

It started out kinda tame. We stayed with a couple of creeps named Rosa and Berger who are so level eleven out of ten that Fierce and I wrote down some emergency numbers and gave them to the Bitchin' girls in case we didn't make it out alive. One of the biggest differences about touring with girls over boys have been the level of care and thought put into even the most banal things. Here's an example: girls get dressed up and sorted out before they leave the house to DJ and they always manage to find some way to incorporate unicorns...