Who is this Simcoe Guy, Anyway?

Happy Simcoe Day, everyone!

Since those of us with cottages get to stay at them an extra day this weekend, I figure we should at least take a moment to understand why. And thanks to Craig Marlatt’s helpful page on the subject, I can tell you this:

• Toronto City Council came up with the idea of a midsummer holiday in 1869, beating England to the inauguration of their national bank holiday by two years.
• In 1969, two anagrams later, it was officially renamed “Simcoe Day” after Major-General John Graves Simcoe (above), who among other things helped to abolish slavery in this country, almost a quarter-century before the Brits and more than fifty years before the Emancipation Proclamation in the States.
• Though most of Canada has the day off—sorry Québec—the holiday goes by different names in different provinces. As a matter of fact, the “Simcoe Day” moniker only applies to the city of Toronto proper.

So if you’re outside the GTA today you can avoid any faux pas by honouring the local excuse to skip off work and drink beer.

Patriotism: Canada vs. USA

I’m off to Bermuda for the double-holiday weekend; while I’m away I’ll leave you with the results of this University of Chicago report on the differences between patriotism between Canada and the U.S.

If you’re too lazy to click, here’s the gist of it:

Canadians rank higher regarding pride in their social security system and their treatment of different groups within their society than on any other dimensions. They ranked relatively low in their pride for their sports, arts and literature, military and history.

I’d say they’ve pretty much got our number. For me, what I love about Canada is:

1. We’re generally more tolerant and—let’s face it—smarter than Americans.
2. We wouldn’t dream for a even a moment that we’re the center of the universe.

And here’s what I hate:

1. Like Americans (and others), we’re generally complacent and lazy, too self-absorbed in the myopia in our everyday lives to care about big important stuff.
2. When it comes to our art and culture we have a huge inferiority complex, and neither our broadcasters or government are doing much to help.

How about you? Share your loves/hates in the comments section, and lets see what we can do to make our goddamn beer-drinkin’, butter tart-eatin’, hockey-watchin’ country an even better place to live!

Bell Internet Users: You’re Being Watched

I was a little surprised to see this covered by an organization that also falls under the Bell Globemedia empire; nonetheless, yesterday’s Globe & Mail carried news that Bell Sympatico is logging the internet activities of its users, and has been doing it since June 22nd!

As a subscriber to the other media empire’s internet service I can’t be too smug, as Bell’s snooping is apparently in advance of a Canada-wide Internet Surveillance Bill coming down the pipe. Of course such legislation will protect us all from terrorists and pedophiles—oh, and perhaps make Steven Harper and his cronies some extra cash when they sell our individual surfing habits to advertisers and data-mining companies…