Today is Canada Day!  Well sort of, since today is a Sunday, it is officially observed this year on Monday :-).

One of the great things about traveling is that you have friends all over the World and get to know about their countries. However, while looking up what Canada Day was all about, I discovered that I need to learn more about our neighbors to the North.

Canada Day (formerly known as Dominion Day) is the National Day for Canada and commemorates the British North American Act of July 1, 1867. The  British North American Act united the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single country known as the Dominion of Canada. At the same time the Province of Canada was divided into two provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

Although Canada became a country in 1867, they did not have full legislative freedom. This came in stages starting with the Statue of Westminster in 1931 which allowed Canada to become self governing. Even then they did not have the power to make changes to their own constitution. In 1982, the Canada Act gave them full control of their Constitution. At that time The British North American Act became known in Canada as the Constitution Act and they changed the name of the July 1st holiday to Canada Day.

Many of us know the general story about how the United States expanded and became the 50 States, but probably had no idea that Canada followed a very similar process. Shortly after the Dominion of Canada was formed the United Kingdom transferred much of their remaining holdings in North America to them, including Rupert’s Land and the Northwest Territories. Sounds a bit like the Louisiana Purchase. I will not tell the rest of the story about how this area was carved up into provinces, but Canada now has 10 provinces and 3 territories.

OK, the sign above does not not say Dominion of Canada, but I thought of this sign when writing this post. I took this picture at the Toronto Zoo at the beginning of my long walk through the section where the large Canadian animals are quartered. Look for some of their pictures in the future.

So, to all my Canadian friends, Happy Canada Day!

Steven