civic holiday

civic holiday

It's that time of year again: the August Long Weekend. Officially it is called the "civic holiday" - nice generic term that means absolutely nothing. Apparently somebody with no imagination decided that Canadians needed a long weekend in August.

Now, I'm all for long weekends. The August long weekend has (for the last several years) become a tradition for my mom's side of the family; a reunion of sorts in Fairmont BC.

But, somehow "August Long Weekend" is decidedly unpoetic. I know, the Victoria Day weekend is more commonly known as "May long weekend", but the lack of imagination is disturbing... sort of reminds me of the Canadian Football League a decade or so back, with only 9 teams but two of them named "Roughriders" and "Rough Riders".

So, I am hereby proposing that we give the August Long Weekend a better name.

It should be a name that means something, a day to honour some individual who has helped to define Canada as a nation. I propose that the first Monday in August be renamed Terry Fox Day. His Marathon of Hope, besides being a huge inspiration to all Canadians, continues to raise money worldwide for cancer research through the annual Terry Fox Runs.

I don't know how to get this made official though. Maybe if enough Canadian bloggers support this, we can get some MPs on side and get the government to make it official. Let's make it happen.

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