Don鈥檛 mess with our holiday. Some prominent Canadians, including MP Elizabeth May, writer Margaret Atwood and actor Gordon Pinsent, want to see the Victoria Day holiday changed to 鈥淰ictoria and First Peoples Day.鈥�
While their hearts are in the right place in wanting to honour sa国际传媒鈥檚 First Nations, grafting such a festivity onto the day that memorializes Britain鈥檚 longest-reigning monarch does no one any good.
It makes First Nations seem like an afterthought 鈥� hardly the honour that the creators obviously intend.
Queen Victoria is an odd choice for the concatenation, as Victoria reigned over the most aggressive years of colonial subjugation of First Nations peoples. While she was on the throne, First Nations children were sent to residential schools, exploitative treaties were signed and the potlatch was banned.
A more logical date would be National Aboriginal Day, which is already marked every year on June 21. However, the organizers probably judged that business and government would not stand for the expense of creating another statutory holiday.
If a statutory holiday is needed, we could easily rename the new Family Day in February or sa国际传媒 Day in August. Both names are uninspiring place-holders.
Victoria Day is rich in tradition and deserves to stand on its own. It memorializes a time when Europeans arrived to put their mark on the Canadian landscape.
The people who were already here when the Europeans arrived deserve better than to be tacked onto someone else鈥檚 holiday.
We can have a holiday that honours First Nations without losing the traditional one for Queen Victoria. After all, the May long weekend is special here at the tip of Vancouver Island, where every day is a Victoria Day.
