It used to be called "Dominion Day"...

Question

Back in 1866, when the fathers of confederation were planning to merge Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into a new country, the question came up of what to call it. It wouldn't be a kingdom, although Victoria would be the Queen. It definitely wouldn't be a republic. Nor would it quite be a colony, since it would be self-governing. Samuel Leonard Tilley happened to read Psalm 72 one morning, and came across verse 8, which reads, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." He suggested that the new country be named "The Dominion of Canada", and so it became, and remains to this day. Other dominions followed, as Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa attained dominion status between 1901 and 1910.

So the celebration of Canada's confederation was called "Dominion Day" until the federal government changed the name to "Canada Day" in 1982. But I grew up saying "Happy Dominion Day", and that's still how I prefer to say it. It's not just Canada's birthday, it's also the birthday of a new kind of country.

In 1986, Vancouver hosted Expo '86, a World's Fair on the theme of transportation and communication. (It seemed appropriate, since Canada in general, and British Columbia in particular, has an abundance of geography, but not a lot of population, so connecting scattered settlements has always been a challenge.) 

The Canada Pavilion at Expo '86 featured a multimedia presentation with lots and lots of photos from across Canada, projected while a new song called "This is my home" played. I never could go through that presentation without tears coming to my eyes, and to this day, I can't even listen to the song without being affected.

Comments

You all know how Canada got it's name, right?  They couldn't agree on that, so a future Canadian decided to pull letters out of a hat, while an American recorded it.

"I've got a C, eh"

"I've got an N, eh"

"I've got a D, eh"

At that point, the Canadian quit in disappointment, but the American was happy.  :)

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I never heard "Eh?" growing up in British Columbia, except when we were mimicking Bob & Doug MacKenzie from SCTV. Nor in Alberta nor Nova Scotia when I was going to school in either place. I do hear it (occasionally, not constantly) here in Ontario. So I think that, like buying milk in plastic bags, "Eh?" must be an Ontario thing (or possibly an Ontario and Quebec thing) rather than a Canadian thing.

(Then again, I'm not sure that I ever bought into the notion that there was such a thing as a "Canadian" accent. When I was going to school in Nova Scotia, I detected three distinct dialects, just among people who were from Nova Scotia. [People from Cape Breton sound a little bit like Newfies, people from Lunenberg County sound a little bit like people from Maine, and people from the rest of Nova Scotia sound much closer to Broadcast English than people from either end of the province.])

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Happy Canada Day Greg!  

Rob, they just went with the flow, reverting to the original name for the St-Lawrence valley French colony.  

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oh, and just for fun, from Edith Butler, modern-day Acadian, and others.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHq1y0DxDnI&feature=share

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Your right Greg, it is an Ontario thing.

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I grew up in northern Minnesota, and people sometimes say I have a Canadian accent. I rarely heard anybody say 'eh', but when you do find that person, they say it a LOT.

I hear people from Alaska on TV, and they sound like the people back home for me, so I assume much of western Canada in between would be the same. But there's always groups with their own accent.  Many of my grandparent's generation had a German accent, very much like Lawrence Welk. And there were a few in Minnesota with a Scandinavian accent (like the movie "Fargo", but it was definitely overdone in the movie).

Anyway, that was just supposed to be light humor, sorry "aboot" the stereotyping  (LOL, aboot is an eastern Canada thing).

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMxGVfk09lU

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roll on the floor laughing, ''aboot'' might be the way it's pronounced in Newfoundland, nowhere else.  

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My aunt was from Ontario and she always said “aboot” even after having been a naturalized citizen of the USA for more than 50 years.  She also pronounced Goerge Washington’s name wiith a stray “r” (“Warshington”).  I loved to hear her talk.

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Accidental duplicate

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Here are some more reasons why we are called Canada

• The name “Canada” likely comes from the Huron-Iroquois word “kanata,” meaning “village” or “settlement.” In 1535, two Aboriginal youths told French explorer Jacques Cartier about the route to kanata; they were actually referring to the village of Stadacona, the site of the present-day City of Québec.Aug 11, 2017
• The word kaná:ta' still means "town" in Mohawk, and related cognates include ganataje and iennekanandaa in the Onondaga and Seneca languages respectively. Prior to archeological confirmation that the St. Lawrence Iroquois were a separate people from the Mohawk, most sources specifically linked the name's origin to the Mohawk word instead of the Laurentian one.

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Interesting to hear your comments which reminds me of my grandfather and others of that generation who chose to pronounce in that manner, a few other words I recall were "warshboard, warscloth, warshup" and so on, it was very common to hear words spoken like that ... Thinking of this now does seem to be unfortunate, with the passing of our grandparents and their generation their manner of expressing or speaking here in New Brunswick (and elsewhere) has disappeared forever perhaps forever ... It is refreshing though you've reminded me of this just now ... One more point from your comments worth mentioning, tourists from the states have mentioned to me of our accent including the manner I pronounce "about" just as you mentioned, I don't think I do??

John

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I hear "aboot" occasionally on the show "Curse of Oak Island".  That's filmed in Nova Scotia.

I never thought I had a Minnesota accent (or that there really was such a thing) until I left Minnesota. It was a shock to be "corrected" by Texans, of all people! :-)  And the dictionary backed them up - "flag" rhymes with "flack", not "flake" like I say it.  (And bag, sag, rag, etc.).  Then there's "boughten", "ishy", "choppers", etc.

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All is interesting discussion.  Wikipedia bring up even interesting issues about CANADA.  In school, we were taught about New France, but another was used and that was Canada.  Canada was in use from French Colonial times to identify ares along the St Lawrence River and the area North of the Great Lakes.  Since then Canada has been in use in no form or other since then.  Has been part of official as identified in both Canadian and British Acts of Parliament.  It is interesting where these Wiki Tree discussions will take you and what related question they generate.

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Interest point Greg, with time with forces - People thing I am from Newfoundland but actually from Toronto with ancestry back through Pictou County.  Do I use 'eh'?  Don't really know - not consciously anyway.  When I have rubbed shoulders with American Armed Forces Personnel - they indicated I do.

Your entries do generate some interesting questions which also compel me to pursue.  A number of related facts come to mind:

First the Change of Dominion of Canada to Canada can be linked to Louis St Laurent, Prime Minister of Canada.  He was the Justice Minister Prior to being elected as the Prime Minister.  It was during his Tenure that Dominion of Canada was changed to Canada within legislation.

Second, during Her Majesty's Coronation - the term Dominions was changed to Realms.

Thirdly, around the time that the Constitution Act of 1982 (repatriotating the constitution according to the terms of the Westminister Statute of 1932) the name change of Dominion Day changed to Canada Day.  Also around the time of the appearance of THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH.

Answer 1

Thanks for the post Greg, and hats off to all our friends in Canada today.

Comments

Greg, that was a wonderful post and thank you for the background.  Dominion is a wonderful word to have chosen.   Oh Canada!

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thank-you Cindy

Answer 2

In the beginning, Dominion Day was pretty controversial, on both coasts. There was no celebration at all for the first 12 years, and even now it can be used to draw attention to regional differences, rather than the unity of Canada. 

But I'm with you Greg!! Out waving my flags today!!

My childhood was nomadic. By the time I was young adult I had seen Canada from the inside, east to west, and from the outside, from Europe and the US.  But it was Expo '67, in Montreal, amid the debate about our country's identity that brought "Canadian" into focus for me.  

"Something to Sing About" was the unofficial theme song of Expo 67, and its still a campfire song for me and mine. 

Happy Canada, eh!

Comments

I loved Expo '67. It was better than Disneyland for a kid like me.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozeZ6ahqdUQ

This was the official theme song for Expo 67   I was living in Montréal then so got to go.

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Happy Canada Day everyone! Lucky you, Greg and Danielle. My family moved from London (Ontario) to Toronto that summer, so we weren't able to go to Expo 67. Thanks for the video, Danielle. What a "blast from the past" !

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No stroll down the musical memory lane of 1967 is complete without a reference to Bobby Gimby's Canada Song, which occupies first, second, and third place on my list of the worst songs of the year. You have been warned. 

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lol, Greg, I always liked that song and still do.  

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Every-body sing - to ge-ther!

Last time we sang that was on a roller coaster at LaRonde.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODEjSEB6rxs

hehehe, la Ronde.  

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la Ronde brings back memories. I was in high school and spent a month at a hostel, going to Expo every day. I can still remember the Swiss Fondue place as you entered la Ronde!

Answer 3

Happy Dominion Day, Canada!  Best neighbors, ever!

Answer 4

Happy Canada Day - although for some reason, someone in my neighbourhood started celebrating a tad too early!!

This fellow was letting of fireworks at 12.30 AM on the 30th of June!!

So he was perhaps 24 hours too soon and maybe should have waited 44 hours before setting them off  :)

Eventually he stopped but not before I think I heard a police siren and then the fireworks stopped, I wonder if someone called the cops to tell him to stop!!

Comments

Our community fireworks can be anywhere from the 29th of June to the 4th of July!  There is no set date, as they are to celebrate both Canada Day for the locals, and Independence Day for our American cottagers 

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Maybe he felt the need to practice 

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Fireworks started here on Saturday night. And they will continue, on and off, all week. We are way up in a highrise, and can see Detroit from the balcony, so we get the fireworks from both sides here!

Answer 5

Thanks for the post Greg - I lived in Vancouver during Expo"86 - great to be reminded of that song and all the other memories of that time.