Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day all. This country has somehow survived though 142 years.

Factoid: Did you know that there are also province days? Sure there is no "Ontario Day" or "Quebec Day" but each province celebrates a certain date.

Each province has a civic holiday on the first Monday or August. A civic Holiday is sort of a rich mans holiday, as those in salaried jobs tend to get it off while the hourly workers tend not to, nor do they tend to be compensated extra for their time worked on the holiday.

New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan each celebrate a province day (IE Saskatchewan Day) on this date. Alberta celebrates Heritage Day. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island celebrate Natal Day. Ontario also celebrates, but each city makes up a name, for example, Simcoe Day in Toronto, or Colonel By day in Ottawa.

Beyond this; Manitoba celebrates a Louis Riel Day on the third monday in February. This a very "Manitoban" thing to celebrate. Newfoundland has an "Orangemen's Day" that is celebrated on the 12th of July, though without official status. Quebec celebrates a Fête nationale du Québec on the same day as St. John the Baptist Day.

So on what date were the various provinces founded?
Alberta and Saskatchewan were carved from the NWT on September 1, 1905. Manitoba was carved out of the NWT on July 15, 1870. The remainder of the provinces joined as former colonies.
New Brunswick was cut from Nova Scotia on August 16, 1784.
Ontario was cut from Quebec on December 26, 1791.
Unfortunately, the other provinces (Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia) were never cut from another colony, so to speak, and hence a "founding date" for any of them is difficult to ascertain.