Is there some type of Canadian independence day celebration coming up?

Canada Day: July 1. It used to be called Dominion Day. It’s not about independence.

Well, it is sort of about independence. In 1866, Irish-born veterans of the American civil war attempted to invade Canada in order to hold it hostage for the freedom of Ireland. All of them failed, including some intercepted by the United States Navy on the Great Lakes, with the exception of an invading force of several hundred Irish-Americans lead by John O’Neill, a veteran officer of the Untied States Army. The Fenian Brotherhood, as the Irish rebels were then called, inflicted an humiliating (and all too easy) defeat on the purely Canadian force sent against them, including the Queens Own Rifles (Toronto) who probably felt the most humiliated. O’Neill had by then learned of the failure of the other invasion attempts, so he marched his force back to the Niagara River and surrendered to the United States Navy. The British were ready to drop them like a hot rock at that point. In 1812, with their navy badly humiliated by the little American navy, the British had invaded United States territory, as well as continuing to occupy territory they should have surrendered after 1783. After faltering at first, the Americans successfully invaded and held onto a part of the Niagara peninsula until the end of the war, when that occupation helped the United States to back their claims in peace negotiations. There has been a lingering fear of American invasion ever since—I’ve met Canadians who sincerely believe the United States wants to invade and occupy their country. The 1866 fiascoes rattled them badly.

There were two Canadas in 1864—Canada East (now Québec) and Canada West (now Ontario). In addition, Great Britain had colonies on the Atlantic Coast, a huge tract of land in the interior formerly owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and British Columbia. They had already been angling for independence since 1864. Although most Canadians won’t admit it, or even know it, the 1866 invasion played a big part (as more candid Canadian historians acknowledge) because London basically told the Canadians they weren’t going to defend them any longer. The Maratime provinces (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) signed on, and on July 1, 1867, Canada became an independent “dominion” within the British Empire. The former Hudson’s Bay lands were given to them, and British Columbia signed up in 1871. Newfoundland and Labrador signed on in 1949.

None of that matters. The Girl will very likely take the little dog over for the parade this morning, and then very likely we will all go down the street to the arena this afternoon where there will be some entertainment and all manner of junk food trucks. The little dog and i will be looking out for the truck which hands out free pizza samples.

Thanks. That was an interesting little trip through history.

I suppose I should be a little more familiar with Canadian holidays and customs considering that the college I attended was about 15–30 minutes from the Canadian border and I also spent a summer as a camp counselor on a little island near Montreal, St. Anne de Bellevue.

I’ve always liked and appreciated Canada and its citizens. A bit more civilized than we unruly Americans :)

Always entertaining to read an American’s (Setanta) take on Canada Day.

I’d go with the wikipedia link for the most part other than the timing on when it started to be called Canada Day (much earlier than wikipedia suggests).

I did go to the local parade – like a small town parade which is always a surprise given the size of Toronto. Left the dog at home. She got a few adventures later in the day. Now we’re just waiting for it to be fireworks time – which we will watch on our street with our neighbours oooooooohing and aaaaaaaaaaahing.

Well, we passed Rob Ford’s birthday…

And we were referred to as Upper and Lower Canada not East and West. First time I’ve heard that.

In the 1830s, there was a violent uprising in Upper and Lower Canada, which lead to the two being combined in a single province of Canada. The two provinces were renamed Canada East (Québec) and Canada West (Ontario), with a common legislature. That was in 1841.