It's a lovely day for a holiday. Thank you, Queen Victoria. Or, in Quebec, merci aux "Patriotes" whoever you are. They keep changing the name of the Holiday here, for reasons known only to the powers that be.
For a long time, people called it la Fete de Dollard in honour of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, who it then turned out was some kind of historical dud, so he lost the holiday. Now it's for your run-on-the-mill Quebecois patriots. I'm so old-fashioned I still call it La Fete de la Reine. As far as I'm concerned, Queen Victoria is not an imminent threat to our "national" identity.
We'd be better off calling it tomato and flower planting day because that's what most people do anyway.
Or we could call it one-day-before-the-transit-strike day. I really hope they settle this transit dispute without a strike tomorrow. Otherwise that will be a pain in the ass.
2 comments:
Don't feel guilty - we get the second Monday off in June for the Queen's Birthday (its traditionally the start of the ski season) - no matter that her birthday is in April....we'll take a holiday whenever its offered!
I read a newspaper columnist a few days ago who grew up in the states and had never heard of victoria day before she moved north - she said when she heard her first "what-are-you-doing-on-the-victoria-long-weekend?" phone-in show on cbc radio - she was delighted that canada had a "beginning of gardening season" holiday- I'm w/her
Post a Comment