Happy Civic Holiday, Canada!

Found via Reddit. Click the photo to see at full size.

Even though I’m in Tampa as I write this, I’d like to wish the people in those provinces in Canada that get a day off today a happy Civic Holiday! I’m sending this greeting in the form of a photo taken by Colonel Chris Hadfield, the Space Station’s best spokesperson ever, who took this shot while flying over Niagara Falls with the Snowbirds earlier today.

The Civic Holiday is held on the first first Monday of August, and judging by the many names it goes under and that fact that it’s not celebrated everywhere, it seems to exist largely as an excuse to have a long weekend in August. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Here are the names it goes by:

• British Columbia Day in British Columbia
• Civic Holiday in Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Prince Edward Island
• Heritage Day in Alberta
• New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick
• Saskatchewan Day in Saskatchewan
• A lot of names in Ontario, depending on the city or town:
  • Founders’ Day in Brantford
  • James Cockburn Day in Cobourg
  • John Galt Day (put it back in your pants, Libertarians, this isn’t the Ayn Rand character) in Guelph
  • George Hamilton Day (not the well-tanned actor) in Hamilton
  • McLaughlin Day in Oshawa
  • Colonel By Day in Ottawa
  • Peter Robinson Day in Peterborough
  • Alexander Mackenzie Day in Sarnia
  • Simcoe Day in Toronto

Want to know how the various civic holidays got their names? The Globe and Mail tells all.