What’s behind your city’s civic holiday?
Who you honour on Monday changes depending on where you are in the province
Happy Simcoe Day! If you live in Toronto, that is. Municipalities across Canada have different names for the August Civic Holiday — none of which have a dedicated section in any Hallmark card store.
Simcoe Day, the first Monday in August, is probably still better known as the Civic Holiday. One of the earliest references to Simcoe Day in the Star was in a 55-word news brief from Dec. 12, 1968, saying the Toronto Board of Control decided to change the holiday’s name. The next year, another article said Toronto had failed to persuade other members of the Ontario Municipal Association to follow suit and rename their Civic Holiday after the British territory of Upper Canada’s first lieutenantgovernor.
Simcoe Day (Toronto)
John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) founded the city of York (now Toronto) and ran Upper Canada from 1792 to 1796. He’s perhaps best known for supporting anti-slavery legislation in 1793, only to try to quash a slave revolt in St.-Domingue (Haiti) three years later. Robert Bothwell, a historian at the University of Toronto and author of The Penguin History of Canada, said he isn’t surprised the name Simcoe Day hasn’t caught on. “It’s such an artificial construction,” he said. Simcoe is worth remembering, Bothwell said — by opening a history book. Don’t tell that to the historical re-enactors at Fort York, who traditionally mark Simcoe Day with artillery demonstrations.
Joseph Brant Day (Burlington)
Brant (1742/43-1807), whose Mohawk name was Thayendanegea, was a war chief and statesman who saw action in the Seven Years’ War in a British expedition against the French at Fort Niagara and fought alongside a native Loyalist band in the American Revolutionary War. After that war, he led Mohawk loyalists to a tract of land on the Grand River, which was compensation for their combat losses. He lived out his last days in a stately house in the Burlington area, where he translated sections of the Bible into Mohawk. Burlington marks this holiday with a festival.
Colonel By Day (Ottawa)
Ottawa was once called Bytown for John By (1779-1836), the British military engineer who oversaw the con- struction of the Rideau Canal over five summer working seasons. “It wasn’t a very successful canal,” said Ken Cruikshank, a historian and dean of humanities at McMaster University, “but it was a significant undertaking in the 19th century.” Intended as a military route in the event of war with the U.S., the 202-kilometre canal never served its original purpose. But, as your par- ents remind you each time you visit Ottawa, the canal has the distinction of being one of Canada’s eight sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
James Cockburn Day (Cobourg)
One of the fathers of Confederation, Cockburn (1819-83) moved to Canada from northern England in 1832. He practised law in Cobourg and participated in business ventures with little success. He represented West Northumberland in Parliament from 1861-74 and 1878-81, and served as the first speaker of the House of Commons. He was a Tory after 1863 and there was no love lost between him and Liberal Alexander Mackenzie, who called Cockburn “an inferior man.” The town of Cobourg renamed the civic holiday after him in 1997. Since 1998, they have marked the special day with a oneman play, The Life and Times of James Cockburn.
George Hamilton Day (Hamilton)
Hamilton (1788-1836) was the son of a wealthy merchant and continued in the family business until the War of1812, in which he served as a militia captain. He bought a plot of land at the Head-of-the-Lake in 1815 and sold lots there. He was a member of the legislative assembly for a decade and mostly aligned himself with the reformers. The settlement was eventually named after him and incorporated in 1833. No one knows exactly what he looked like since there are no known portraits of him. On Monday, he will be remembered, along with another famous Hamiltonian — Olympic track and field athlete Richard Gray Lewis a.k.a. “Rapid Ray” — at the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Regatta Day (St. John’s, N.L.)
While Ontario municipalities tend to name the civic holiday after centuries-dead Brits, in St. John’s the holiday is known as Regatta Day, after the 197-year-old Royal St. John’s Regatta. The rowing match in St. John’s Harbour typically attracts 50,000 spectators. “It’s a big event, kind of like a garden party,” said Leanne O’Neil, co-ordinator at the Royal St. John’s Regatta Boathouse. But there’s a catch: If it’s too rainy or windy, the boathouse committee can postpone the holiday, so revellers who party all night long on the night before risk having to go to work the next day with a hangover. Locals call it “regatta roulette.” Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia, Canadian Dictionary of Biography. With files from Star staff