Today's a Holiday with a Good Name: La Journée des Patriotes
What's this nonsense of starting a
I can readily understand renaming the third Monday in May something else, but Quebec, which for a while called it the Fête de Dollard, has come up with a very good event to commemorate: the 1837-38 Rebellions.
Called the Journée des Patriotes here for several years, the holiday's name refers to the nearest thing Canada had to a revoltution. Taxation without representation and a number of other advanced ideas were behind the uprisings which ocurred in both Upper and Lower Canada. The upshot was a series of changes in relations between the Mother Country and the several North American colonies which resulted a few years later in a combined legislative assembly for the two Canadas, setting the pattern for Confederation two decades down the line.
If the Harper government were serious about remembering nation-building events from the past it would start here. But don't bet on it.
I can readily understand renaming the third Monday in May something else, but Quebec, which for a while called it the Fête de Dollard, has come up with a very good event to commemorate: the 1837-38 Rebellions.Called the Journée des Patriotes here for several years, the holiday's name refers to the nearest thing Canada had to a revoltution. Taxation without representation and a number of other advanced ideas were behind the uprisings which ocurred in both Upper and Lower Canada. The upshot was a series of changes in relations between the Mother Country and the several North American colonies which resulted a few years later in a combined legislative assembly for the two Canadas, setting the pattern for Confederation two decades down the line.
If the Harper government were serious about remembering nation-building events from the past it would start here. But don't bet on it.
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