We have a holiday today in much of Canada. The best part is that there’s no real reason for it, other than someone at some point in time having decided that there should be a long weekend in August.

When I was a kid, the first Monday in August was known as – ready? this is pretty creative – “the August Bank Holiday”. Yup. It was a name that got the point across and not much more. I can’t remember anyone much caring what it was called – it was a day off, that made for a long weekend in August, and that was good enough. By the time I was working, I really appreciated it.

Eventually people chose to give the holiday a real name – now it’s called Simcoe Day by everyone I know, although Wiki suggests otherwise. The idea is to commemorate the efforts of John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

Now you know!