Thoughts on Canada Day

I live in an area of Canada with a long and rich history.

1SC wrote a comment yesterday that encouraged me to do a little historical research in the Canadian Encyclopedia. I really did not know all that much about the history of Upper Canada/Ontario since I was born and lived in mainly French-speaking, Quebec.  But when I started to work on this post I found it quite interesting. 

As you know, we are close enough to the US to see the cars and trucks moving along the highway and hear the lunchtime whistle at one of the factories in the small NY town directly across the St. Lawrence River. In fact, many of the early settlers here were Loyalists and frontiersmen moving north after the American Revolution.

Before it became the province of Ontario, this area was part of what was known as Upper Canada. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the old French colony of Quebec into Lower Canada (on the lower reaches of the St. Lawrence River) and Upper Canada, along the present-day Ontario-Québec boundary. 

The British were not happy about what they saw as far too much democracy in the American colonies and they wanted to be sure that the same thing would not happen in these two new provinces. Although each area had an elected assembly they were advised by an executive council which was responsible directly to the British Crown.

From 1791 to 1841, Upper Canada had quite a tumultuous history- war with America, an armed rebellion, political and economic growing pains. In 1841 Upper and Lower Canada merged again into the Province of Canada.

It was not until July 1, 1867,  that the Constitution Act was signed in Charlottetown, PEI,  proclaiming Canadian Confederation, with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Yesterday, July 1, 2018 we celebrated 151 years since Confederation. 

Mike and I spent part of the day in Montreal. It was very, very hot.

Canada Day is always a lot more low key in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada.

The boys were part of an international attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. Two hundred live performances of Beauty and the Beast were held simultaneously between 1 and 2 pm, EDT on July 1. In all, 20,500 young performers took part around the world. The boys' group performance was part of the Canada Day Festivities in Beaconsfield the West Island of Montreal.

It was a lovely way to spend Canada Day. At the end of the play, some of the children sang a bilingual version of the National Anthem. Unfortunately, I was only able to get part of it.



Let's hope both of our nations remain strong and free for many, many years to come.