Parade of Homes | Fall 2025

45 YEARS PARADE OF HOMES ❖ ORIGINS

Origins

It got popular pretty darn quick. I think it’s been an extremely good thing for the builders. Without the Parade of Homes, it certainly wouldn’t have been as fun. At the time, it gave that extra incentive to do your very best and present your very best.” “

–RUBIN DIAMOND, FOUNDER, SIGNATURE HOMES

PHOTO BY DARCY FINLEY

The public took notice of this collaboration and attention to detail, not just in Winnipeg but also across the continent. “It was one of the biggest Parades in North America — certainly the biggest in Canada by far. I think it probably still is,” Diamond says. “People would come from all over the United States and the world to

people that go to see the Parades to get new ideas for their houses and see what’s new — what are the kitchens like, what is the deco- rating like — and they talk about it,” Diamond says. “They’ll talk about certain builders that stand out. As a builder, that’s what you want.” Looking forward into the future of the Parade of Homes, Jaquet is just as confident in the Parade’s continued success as he was about it on Day 1. “It’s nice to see it’s still successful after all these years, and the public sees it too. It’s excellent,” Jaquet says. “It’s a nice feeling to see something you start to where it is today. It’s come a long way, and it will continue to grow.” 

their standards of construction are extremely poor, especially in the energy savings area. Winnipeg has an extremely high level of quality of home construction in comparison.” At the same time, Diamond recog- nizes Jaquet’s impressive work heading up the Parade of Homes committee in the early days. “Randy Jaquet did such a good job of refining that committee that the Parade went to new heights of excellence,” he says. “His contri- bution was invaluable.” To this day, people in the community look toward the Parade of Homes to see what’s new and exciting. “There’s a large percentage of

see our Parade of Homes.” The quality of housing also improved with the Parade of

Homes, with more builders joining the MHBA and therefore adhering to their standards. “The standard of our homes is really quite high,” Diamond says. “Minneapolis was pretty good, but for most of the American cities,

12 PARADE of HOMES FALL 2025

Powered by