Monday, August 01, 2005

SIMCOE DAY

Today Ian Urquhart, advocates for Ontario to officially recognize the August long weekend as 'Simcoe Day,' in honour of the British administrator who was the first Lietenant-Governor of Upper Canada.

John Graves Simcoe — a British soldier who led the elite Queen's Rangers regiment during the American revolutionary war — was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1791 and served until 1796.In those five short years, Simcoe moved the capital from Niagara-on-the-Lake (then called Newark) to Toronto (then called York), started the building of Yonge and Dundas streets as the main north-south and east-west thoroughfares, abolished the importation of slaves, attracted settlers (many of them his erstwhile American enemies) with land grants, and made plans for judicial and educational systems.

In short, he laid the foundations for the province we know today.
Indeed.

Simcoe is certainly deserving, and I suppor any measure that injects a little more historical memory into our society, no matter how trifling. It would certainly be an improvement on, 'the civic holiday.'

On the subject of holidays, we still need ones for February, June and November.

Posted by Matthew @ 1:24 p.m.