Let’s Get Rid of Victoria Day
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This coming Monday, the little park just a few steps away from my house will be filled with people from dawn until late in the evening.
In the early morning hours, aging men and women from China will be practising tai chi on the asphalt volleyball court. By noon, children whose parents emigrated from the Caribbean will be playing on slides and swings. In the afternoon, families originally from Sri Lanka will be enjoying picnics.
Later, gangs of youths will be setting off firecrackers well into the night. Yes, I know it’s illegal, but try telling that to the kids.
This is Canada today.
It’s a land where people from all parts of the world live, work and play in harmony for the most part, and where they can celebrate their unique heritages while at the same time being proudly Canadian.
So why then, in this country that champions itself as a world leader in multiculturalism and diversity, do we continue to set aside a national holiday to honour a foreign monarch who died 107 years ago and who was once the head of the Anglican Church?
I am willing to bet that hardly anyone using my neighbourhood park on Monday will know—or care less—who we are supposed to be honouring with this three-day holiday weekend.
As in past years, I will watch the activities in the park and wonder why Canada, which claims to be independent, keeps marking the birth of a long dead British queen who never set foot on this soil, yet doesn’t have a single national holiday to honour a Canadian.
Indeed, Canada is virtually the last country to mark Victoria Day.
Even the British don’t commemorate it. Instead, they celebrate the Queen’s Birthday—on a Saturday in June, not a weekday. And there’s no national public holiday.
To be clear, I fully agree we should keep the Monday as a holiday. Everybody loves long weekends, especially one linked with the unofficial start to spring gardening and opening up cottages.
But it is time to stop calling it Victoria Day, a sad vestige of British colonialism. Rather, we should rename it for a person or event with more meaning to modern Canada.
Countries change, as Canada has.
When I, the son of a British-born mother, was in elementary school in Ajax, we sang God Save the Queen each morning. We pledged our allegiance to the Queen, which, sadly, immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship must still do. We saluted the Union Jack.
Such bowing and scraping to Britain seems archaic now.
Part of the transformation for Canada has been to drop the notion we are tied to Britain. Obviously, this upsets the tiny band of monarchists, who say Victoria should be honoured as the “Mother of Confederation.” (It also ignores the fact that the Queen is our head of state, which polls indicate just 5 per cent of us know, but that is an issue for another column.)
Canada started celebrating Victoria’s birthday in 1845, when it was still a British territory. She was born May 24, 1819. After her death, the holiday was changed to mark the current monarch’s birthday as well. In 1952, the official celebration was switched to the first Monday before May 25, thus ensuring a three-day weekend.
Several countries mark the Queen’s Birthday holiday, including Australia and New Zealand. Hong Kong stopped marking it in 1997 when the territory reverted to China’s control.
Quebec got smart long ago. It has had several names for the day, but now calls it Patriots’ Day, to commemorate the memory of those who struggled for democratic institutions during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838.
So why can’t the rest of Canada be like Quebec and declare a new name for the day? And no, it shouldn’t be the silly “2-4 Day” that beer companies hope to foist on us in honour of their beer cases.
In the United States, they have Presidents Day. They also have Martin Luther King Day to celebrate the famous civil rights figure.
We could call it Prime Ministers Day. Or maybe Jacques Cartier Day, or Simon Fraser Day.
My friend Duncan says we could call it Peacekeepers Day, but even he admits the name doesn’t have much of a “ring” to it.
Clearly, the choices for a new name are endless, but the point is simple: we can’t be a grown-up country in the 21st century if we stick with Victoria Day.
Email Bob Hepburn at bhepburn@thestar.
(Posted on May 15, 2008)
Comments
The immigrants have changed Canada but did the Canadian people EVER ASK for these changes. Why should Canada’s cultural heritage have been raped by foreigners?
Posted by at 6:23 PM on May 15
The writer misses the true point. The point is do you want Canada and its heritage, culture and institutions to be changed? If you let in hordes of non-assimilable non-Whites it is a given these will all be changed, even eradicated. The point is should this happen? If 30 million foreigners were to move to Japan the country would most definitely be “changed”. That is a given. THE QUESTION IS SHOULD JAPAN BE CHANGED? And if so, WHY? This is the question that was never discussed in Canada in 1967. Or in America in 1965. Or in Britain in 1948. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED, careful studies of what the consequences would be to unsettling long homogeneous countries with non-traditional alien peoples should have been done. BUT IT WASN’t. What was wrong with these countries the way that they were before they were “changed”?
Posted by at 6:38 PM on May 15
About 40 years ago I came to many of the same silent conclusions as this writer when Toronto was basically a mono-racial city but have since abandoned my earlier opinions because our British/Christian traditions are now under relentless attack from multicultural promoters, such as Bob Hepburn.
“It’s a land where people from all parts of the world live, work and play in harmony for the most part, and where they can celebrate their unique heritages while at the same time being proudly Canadian.”
…..a typical regurgitated propaganda statement that usually emanates from the leftist Toronto Star newspaper. Notice when he writes “It’s a land…..” implying the whole of Canada when in reality he’s really referring to a tiny geographically known as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). If he traveled more he would notice that the rest of Canada is not even close to the multicultural “paradise” he alludes to.
….and “proudly Canadian”?? How can that be when all these recently arrived foreigners are celebrating their “unique heritages”? An oxymoron, I would say!
If the traitorous Canadian government can select a Black immigrant woman from Haiti as our Governor-General, then I advocate we keep our Victoria Day holiday in memory of our “long-dead” White Queen Victoria.
Posted by at 6:46 PM on May 15
Get rid of Bob Hepburn and all his kind instead. Face it, if the Marxists hadn’t been successfully propagandizing the White race for the last 50+ years, no White country would be dealing with racial issues. This guy is simply declaring that he and his fellow traitors have won, and that it’s time for real Canadians to haul down the flag and place their necks on the chopping block.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 7:01 PM on May 15
Why not just get rid of all our traditions completely? Since we no longer care about our British Heritage, let’s just rename Victoria Day to Multiculturalism Day and do Chinese and East Indian folk dances while we get drunk at campgrounds.
Posted by bobinedmonton at 7:19 PM on May 15
Name it after singer, Anne Murray, and change the national athem from “O Canada” to “Snowbird.” There ya go - problem solved! Max Headroom was from Canada, too. Wow - this could get interesting!
They’d better stop making their famous bacon, though. Muslims don’t take offense to that stuff. Maybe they could just call it “Victoria Bacon” at abolish it too!
What are they going to rename the city British Columbia when old Queen Vic gets the final boot?
Posted by ladytime at 7:44 PM on May 15
Then they should get rid of Christmas also. After all, Jesus died about 2,000 years ago and to the best of knowledge, he had never stepped foot in Canada either. (But I did see a guy who looked an awful lot like him in a covenience store in Saskatoon once.)
Posted by Nornie in Moosup at 8:02 PM on May 15
Canada truly is a nation of third-world immigrants. The Canadians (European descendants) must really be proud of their criminal government. Whites will be pushed out of their once beautiful neighborhoods by gangs of foreign extractions. Their children will no longer be able to get a good education because of the overload of immigrants that will not be able or willing to co-exist with the European descendants. I honestly believe we need to build a border fence along our northern border as well. If Canada loves third-worlders so well, I think we should unload all of ours on them.
Posted by eddie at 9:09 PM on May 15
This is utterly pathetic! It just goes to show how white liberals are the ultimate enemy of western civilization. They will only be satisfied once they have done away with the last vestiges of democratic freedoms based on our Judeo-Christian roots. But do they really think that the third world hordes will support gay rights, civil rights, and women’s rights (i.e., all the liberal pet projects)? FAT CHANCE!
Posted by Matt at 9:26 PM on May 15
“I am willing to bet that hardly anyone using my neighbourhood park on Monday will know—or care less—who we are supposed to be honouring with this three-day holiday weekend.”
Am I going crazy, or is this not a pretty damning indictment of multiculturalism? I would say the very same thing to highlight its failures, and be called a bigot to boot. One of us is crazy.
As Jared says, whites view diversity as some sort of immutable force of nature or something. There can be no other reason they would allow the quoted paragraph to be written without taking to the streets en masse.
Posted by Cynic at 9:56 PM on May 15
So why then, in this country that champions itself as a world leader in multiculturalism and diversity, do we continue to set aside a national holiday to honour a foreign monarch who died 107 years ago and who was once the head of the Anglican Church?
Huh? Is a foreign monarch not part of another culture? So it seems that Victoria Day should tie right in with “multiculturalism.” Or is “multiculturalism” a code word for honoring every culture except that of Europeans?
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 10:15 PM on May 15
“Notice when he writes “It’s a land…..” implying the whole of Canada when in reality he’s really referring to a tiny [locality] known as the Greater Toronto Area … If he traveled more he would notice that the rest of Canada is not even close to the multicultural “paradise” he alludes to. “
Ah, but they’re certainly working on that! You can be sure of it. Just one bite at a time. Check back in another 40 years. Nibble by nibble.
Posted by at 10:27 PM on May 15
That’s the beauty of this holiday, no one cares enough to take offense. In a multicultural paradise *ANY* holiday is going to cause offense to some group and bring up old grudges. Note the demonization of Columbus Day and Thanksgiving, this is only the beginning. Soon, VJ Day and D-Day are going to be phased out even more quickly because they make at least 1 American of Japanese extraction, and a batch of sobbing liberal whites, uncomfortable.
Posted by Lost in Paradise at 11:20 PM on May 15
“It’s a land where people from all parts of the world live, work and play in harmony for the most part, and where they can celebrate their unique heritages while at the same time being proudly Canadian.”
What makes him think that all of these immigrants celebrate their unique heritage but at the same time are “proudly Canadian”? Most of them are just using Canada for what they can get out of it and as their numbers get larger, will keep on erasing the original culture and replacing it with their own until the Canada that existed 40 years ago is eradicated. As Abe Lincoln said-” A house divided cannot stand.”
Posted by KC at 6:37 AM on May 16
“It’s a land where people from all parts of the world live, work and play in harmony for the most part”
But they’re NOT in harmony. Note that each ethnic group occupied the park at different times of day. This self-segregation is not “harmony”.
Posted by at 10:43 AM on May 16
The way to get Canadian liberals to accept Victoria Day will be to wait until whites are a minority, at which point the day will be an expression of diversity.
Posted by at 10:44 AM on May 16
It’s a land where people from all parts of the world live, work and play in harmony for the most part…
I love that caveat, ‘for the most part’.
If people from all parts of the world live, work, and play (in harmony) why point out the fact that Chinese from China will practice Tai Chi or Caribbeans and Sri Lankans will be celebrating among their own?
Multiculturalism is an illusion which too many desperately need to believe in.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 11:42 AM on May 16
Let them celebrate Robert Mugabe day instead. That’s where they’re heading.
Posted by at 12:04 PM on May 16
I missed this part:
“they can celebrate their unique heritages “
Remembering only a couple of dozen days a year can be declared legal no-working holidays, there are too few to give each component of the Diverstiy groups more than a day or two apiece. Every group is going to be unhappy with their share. This will bring up a lot of lawsuits.
Posted by Lost in Paradise at 1:02 PM on May 16
“This is utterly pathetic! It just goes to show how white liberals are the ultimate enemy of western civilization. They will only be satisfied once they have done away with the last vestiges of …our Judeo-Christian roots.”
Matt
- - - - - -
I wouldn’t precisely boil it down to “white liberals”, Matt, although you’re certainly getting very close. They are just as misled as everyone else is.
Posted by at 2:14 PM on May 16
Yes, immigration (by non-Whites) HAS changed Canada… in a very adverse way. But unfortunately, any White nation that stupidly permits an invasion by non-Whites suffers the same way. Look no further than France, Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries or Germany.
The crime count, of course, rising with commensurate with the influx of non-white immigrants! But ADMITTING the publically inadmissible is supposed to be in bad form. Thanks to the absurd stupidity of political correctess. An idea, I understand, drawn from Alice in Wonderland.
Posted by Fed Up at 2:26 PM on May 16
Third world immigration always and everywhere creates third world conditions, so that even my dog does not want to go to the park anymore…due to the smells and the havoc there.
Posted by Horatio Nebulus at 4:21 PM on May 16
I do not care what Canada does. But, I can see the same thing happening in America. How long before we stop celebrating July 4th or Memorial Day. Don’t worry though, we will always celebrate MLK Day.
Posted by Frank at 5:19 PM on May 16
Why not make it your own Martin Luther King Day? Just as
we have replaced our Heroes for King, so could you. And it’s
appropriate: you have lost your soul, you aren’t breeding, and
so your future in non-White. Why even bother to call yourself
Canada anymore since it doesn’t mean anything to the immigrants?
You got rid your Flag and replaced it with a corporatel logo so
why not just do the same thing with the Country itself? Guess
what? You already have! You’re just too dumb to have noticed.
The Revolution has passed you by Comrade. You better run and
catch up!
Posted by Freyr at 8:33 PM on May 16
Canada will never be multicultural unless it gives up this stupid idea that it is OK to be a Canadian and a Pakistani or Lebanese at the same time. During the last Lebanese war, Canada suddenly had 50,000 “citizens” living and working there screaming bloody blue murder at the Canadian government demanding to be gotten the hell out of there. A Saudi murders in Saudi Arabia, gets sentenced to death, suddenly he is Canadian and the government has to protect his rights. Thousands of refugees come here every years, stay long enough to swear allegiance to the QUEEN, get a passport and go straight back to whatever place they claimed to be fleeing. Right now, Canada is not multicultural, it is European with a dozen isolated cultures doing their own thing.
Posted by ciccio at 8:46 PM on May 16
Huh? Is a foreign monarch not part of another culture? So it seems that Victoria Day should tie right in with “multiculturalism.”
Tim in Indiana
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Not so. As Queen of Canada, there was nothing “foreign” about her.
Posted by at 1:40 PM on May 17
Mr. Hepburn is no longer Scottish in any discernible or meaningful sense. He should change his surname.
On Queen Victoria Day, check out Mark Wegierski’s comment 3 years ago on the EnterStageRight.com website. Excellent insights on the strange disappearance of British Canada. No wonder Quebec has so little trust in the federal government to look after Quebec’s culture - look at what it’s done to English Canadian culture.
Posted by marvell at 11:35 AM on May 19
Canada has been and should in future consider itself an ethnically defined bi national state defined exclusively as consisting of descendants of ethnic natives of the British Isles and of francophone Europe (France, Monaco, and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Belgium).*
The presence of anyone else there is not a matter of entitlement or moral right, but of generosity and tolerance on the part of those above, and should repaid with permanent gratitude, deference, and quiescence. Nor should anyone else expect to change Canada’s history, heritage, symbols, flag, holidays, heroes, culture, traditions, songs, stories, museums, languages, and touchstones.
*along with some aboriginal tribes.
Posted by Irish at 1:03 PM on May 19