Canadian "Civic Holiday" Today

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It's the first Monday in August so today is officially a civic holiday across Canada, well everywhere except for Quebec. I'm sure Quebec has another holiday celebrating something to make up for it though.

In 1869 Toronto City Council came up with the idea for a summer "day of recreation." and by 1875 they finally settled on the first Monday in August as the date for the official "Civic Holiday". That's probably the fastest decision ever made in Canadian politics. Other cities, not wanting to miss out on the summer slacking, immediately followed along and proclaimed this a municipal civic holiday as well.

In 1968 Toronto officially renamed the holiday "Simcoe Day" to recognize one of Ontario's earliest historical figures, John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. Toronto MPPs have attempted over the years to get the rest of the province of Ontario to recognize "Simcoe Day" instead of "Civic Holiday" but to no avail.

We'll take your holiday Toronto, but we'll make up our own name for it