Give the civic holiday weekend a Niagara identity

No complaints about having a nice long weekend smack dab in the middle of the summer.

Whoever came up with the idea for civic holiday — good work! But couldn’t a little more thought have gone into the name?

‘Civic’ is as bland and generic as you can get. It means nothing, has no identity and is only one step better than simply calling it Day Off Holiday.

Other places have changed that. We can change it here in Niagara, too.

In Ottawa, for instance, they call it Colonel By Day. It honours Lt.-Col. John By, the military engineer who oversaw the Rideau Canal’s construction. He also founded Bytown, which eventually became Ottawa.

Oshawa calls it McLaughlin Day, for Sam McLaughlin — the much-loved Col. Sam, who founded General Motors of Canada and whose mansion, Parkwood, is preserved and remains open for public tours.

In Guelph, they celebrate — or at least relax during — John Galt Day. But it’s not for John Galt, the principled engineer in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”

Guelph’s John Galt was a Scottish novelist and social commentator in the early 1800s who lived in Guelph but is credited as a founder of Galt, Ont., which was later merged with two other towns into Cambridge, Ont.

Clearly, Niagara can do much better than the whitebread status quo of civic holiday.

Gen. Sir Isaac Brock’s legacy is already well marked by a university, a parkway and a monument at Queenston Heights.

Same for William Hamilton Merritt, considered the father of the Welland Canal. His memory is still very much alive around the region. Laura Secord is well honoured, as well. But there are many other options.

We asked Sherman Zavitz, the Niagara Falls historian and longtime columnist for The Niagara Falls Review, for his opinion.

He thought of John Graves Simcoe, the British army general and first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada.

Simcoe was “also responsible for many of the geographic names still with us in the Niagara region such as Stamford, Wainfleet, Lincoln, Merritton and Louth,” Zavitz said.

But, he noted, Simcoe’s name might also be a reminder of the bad effects of British colonialism.

“Perhaps,” he said, “a better idea would be to name the day Niagara Day — a day to celebrate the wonder and the beauty of this very special place in the world.”

He’s got a point. Niagara conjures images of the magnificent waterfalls, a scenic waterfront, acres of vineyard fields and the iconic canal itself.

Niagara is one of those rare places on Earth whose name has a distinct identity well known to people around the globe.

Considering the millions of municipalities on this planet, we really are part of an exclusive club. Why not take advantage of it?

If you live out of town and are looking for a place to spend the long weekend, where would you go — to a place where they celebrate an obscure name pulled from a dusty history book, or to Niagara?

Kathy Powell, curator of the St. Catharines museum, said she would have a hard time singling out one individual to honour.

But as a rowing fan, she noted Newfoundland renamed it Regatta Day, recognizing the Royal St. John’s Regatta. And, she added, the Royal Henley Regatta in Port Dalhousie does start each year on the civic holiday weekend.

There are options. Niagara is a colourful place with a colourful history. Thousands of tourists arrive here to celebrate the civic holiday long weekend, so it deserves better than such a bland name.

There’s an opportunity here. Let’s jump on it.