Civic Holiday (Canada)

The Civic Holiday is celebrated on the first Monday in August and is a publicholiday in some provinces and territories. The civic holiday is not a statutory holiday although it is a day off for many employees across the country.

The Civic Holiday is commonly referred to as the August long weekend and is a very busy day on Canadian highways due to numerous weekend vacationers.

It is known by different names in different provinces and municipalities.

It is called Regatta Day in Newfoundland, abnd Terry Fox Day in Manitoba (after Winnipeg native Terry Fox, who in 1980 and 1981 attempted a trans-Canada marathon run after having a leg amputated due to the cancer which eventually forced him to abort his run and then claimed his life), It is called Saskatchewan Day in Saskatchewan, British Columbia Day in British Columbia, Natal Day in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and Simcoe Day in Toronto (after John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant governor of the colony of Upper Canada and the man who started the abolition of slavery in Canada). It is called New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick and Colonel By Day in the national capital of Ottawa (after Lieutenant Colonel John By, who supervised the construction of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, in 1828-1832). It is called Heritage Day in Alberta and Joseph Brant Day in Burlington, Ontario (after 18th-century Mohawk military and political leader Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea). And it is called Benjamin Vaughan day in Vaughan, Ontario (after the 18th-century British diplomat Benjamin Vaughan, who helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution and for whom the city of Vaughan is named).

 

See https://www.statutoryholidays.com/civic-holiday.php for more information.