July 1st, 2008
Canada Day
While those of us in the United States are looking forward to the upcoming three-day weekend we get for Independence Day on July 4th, today is an important day of note for Canada, and I wanted to take a moment to wish our Canadian readers and contributors a Happy Canada Day!
What’s Canada Day?
It’s not quite the same as the “Independence Day” other countries celebrate throughout the year. Instead, it makes the anniversary of July 1, 1867 when the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada (which in the process was divided into Quebec and Ontario) into a federation.
While it is generally regarded that Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country, though they were gradually shed - the last of them ending in 1982 with the Constitution Act, which patriated the Canadian Constitution.
While July 1 does not, then, mark a clear-cut independence day, it’s still referred to as “Canada’s birthday” in the press.
Happy Canada Day!
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
Thank you for this!! Celebrating the birth of our country, of being proud to be Canadian and all that means has been a celebration I have enjoyed since childhood. We certainly don’t “do it up” as Americans do for July 4th, but we honour ourselves and this great country in our quiet way, but are no less filled with pride and thanks.