ITC Topic Class: Canada Day Activities

Most communities across the country will host organised celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts, as well as citizenship ceremonies for new citizens. There is no standard mode of celebration for Canada Day; professor of International Relations at the University of OxfordJennifer Welsh said of this: "Canada Day, like the country, is endlessly decentralized. There doesn't seem to be a central recipe for how to celebrate it — chalk it up to the nature of the federation." However, the locus of the celebrations is the national capital, Ottawa, Ontario, where large concerts, presided over by the governor general, are held on Parliament Hill, as well as other parks around the city and in Hull, Quebec. The sovereign may also be in attendance at Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa; Queen Elizabeth II was present in 1990, 1992, and 1997, and is scheduled to attend the celebration in 2010. The Queen also helped celebrate Canada's 100th anniversary on July 1, 1967.

Given the federal nature of the holiday, celebrating the event can be a cause of friction in the province of Quebec. For example, the federal government funds events at the Old Port — an area run by a federal Crown corporation — while the parade is a grassroots effort that has been met with pressure to cease, even from federal officials. The nature of the event has also been met with criticism from English Canadians, such as Ottawa Citizen columnist David Warren, who said in 2007: "The Canada of the government-funded paper flag-waving and painted faces — the 'new' Canada that is celebrated each year on what is now called 'Canada Day' — has nothing controversially Canadian about it. You could wave a different flag, and choose another face paint, and nothing would be lost."

The July 1 date of Canada Day also coincides with Quebec's traditional Moving Day, many fixed-lease apartment rental terms in the province extending from July 1 to June 30 of the following year. Suggestions that the move was a deliberate decision by Quebec sovereignists to discourage participation in a patriotic Canadian holiday ignore that the bill changing the province's moving day from May 1 to July 1 was introduced by a federalist member of the Quebec National Assembly, Jérôme Choquette.

Vocabulary: Match the vocabulary word with the right definition.

Maritime Decentralized Federation Locus Governor General Grass-roots Controversial Coincides Sovereigntist

A person who wants their land area to become a separate country. Near the ocean/on the water The spot or place of focus Dealing with a total country’s affairs The representative of the Queen in Canada Hotly debated, not decided, many people disagree Happens at the same time Not located centrally Starting from the bottom, or general public

Discussion

What are some things Canadians do to celebrate "Canada's Birthday"?
Where is Canada's birthday celebrated with the biggest/best events/parades etc.?
What kind of things would you want to enjoy on another country's birthday if you were visiting?
What kind of things do people do on Korea's birthday?