Hmmm we have a day off that the employer pays us our wages for not working.There must be some benefit for the employer out of this after all it is to celebrate a queens birthday who has passed on years ago, let me see we are canadians right? are we still under the british north america act, are we still humble servants to the monarchy?could there still be some strings attached to our leaders that we cannot see? This has a peculiar smell of nobility rearing it's ugly head to make the peasants worship something they will never see, its a matter of control to see if you will do as your told without question. Work on the queen's birthday and you will defy authority. You should be punished in the stocade or at the very least horse whipped!

May Day? May Day is May 1st .... this is Victoria Day weekend.

How come we are out of step with the rest of the world? ... Can't just be the late spring this year...... or can it???

:-)

Yup, Let's trash this holiday too. Christmas (can I say that word anymore?) is on it's way out. Let's trash this Canadian holiday so that no one will be offended by the British monarchs of the past. Let's have a generic holiday instead. This is our country and as such has it's customs that some of us value. Happy Victoria Day.

I can hardly wait for my favourite holiday. I still call it Dominion Day.

May 24th used to be the biggest day of all in Prince George. I don't care whose birthday it is or what is being celebrated. For kids it was just a magic day with Maypole dancing, a trip around the "loop" and Ice-cream at the Fairgrounds The Elks were the greatest at entertaining kids.
Geez, give it a rest, let the kids enjoy the magic of special days!

Ya, lets keep our history and customs alive as long as possible. They are under attack everyday.
I still like the Canadian Ensign that was replaced by the decideous leaf. No history in the new red leaf flag, sad.
The french measurement system Trudeau signed on was only for a slap in the face at the USA and the Canadian consumers got nailed in the pocket book for that one.

I seems everytime we lose another piece of history it is done by people that just want attention. I'm disgusted by those shallow people.

Thank you Foo738. I still remember the magic of the Maypole dance when I was a kid. What a great day for kids to look forward too.

It used to be called "Empire Day", (and still is, in Cumberland, on Vancouver Island). We were once a PROUD member of the greatest Empire on earth, and our Dominion evolved within that Empire to be a completely independent, sovereign nation. Why some seem to feel we should be ashamed of this now, is beyond me.

Through that Empire we achieved the full equal status of the country that once ruled us, and with whom we still, and hopefully always will, proudly share our Head of State. For, if we knew anything of our common history, the Monarchy still embodies a 'living' check on the dictatorial powers so easily acquired by an 'elected' leader, had we not a monarch.

It is NOT a useless, outdated 'ornament' of a by-gone era, as many of our politicos here and in some of the other Dominions that comprise the Crown commonwealth would like us to believe.

A modern monarch has but three 'rights' ~ but if you think about it, they are the vital living embodiements of the powers that can so efficiently provide the 'checks and balances' the Americans, and other republican systems, have tried (and often failed) to embellish in their written Constitutions.

The Queen, and her vice-regal representatives here, the Governor-General and Lieutenant-Governor have the right to "be consulted" (by the elected government's first minister), to "advise" the elected government through him, and "to warn" him of the dangers to OUR rights and freedoms his otherwise unfettered actions might pose.

Our elected politicians know this, and some of them, to serve their own purposes and those of their backers, and the bankers of those backers, will do everything in their power to emasculate and belittle, and eliminate the the role of the Crown.

It will be a sorry day for Canada and British Columbia, and all the other nations who share OUR Queen with us as THEIR Head of State, if they ever succeed.

BTW, Harbinger, I still call July 1st Dominion Day, too. And the old red-ensign still looks more like a flag to me than Pearson's pennant ever will.

There was a parade this morning? I thought Victoria day was tomorrow? Is there anyone left in town to attend? The shops were deserted yesterday and this morning you can fire a cannon dowm Centre St and have a complete miss.

If it dosent rain I can sit on my deck drink beer and not have to listen to the roar on the By-Pass. So if your on Pinewood Avenue drop in and have a beer and we'll celebrate and toss one down for old Vic for years gone by.

Cheers

Whatever!

Thanks for the coverage of the parade, Ben and Elaine

If this parade gets any smaller it will disapear altogether. In the fifties and sixties it was huge and most business's and service clubs entered a float.

Seems we have better things to do these days.

Socred, a lot of people don't get the same warm, fuzzy feelings when thinking about the British Empire. For a lot of cultures and ethnicities the British Empire was synonymous with greed and with oppression, starvation and death.
And a lot of people are coming around to seeing the use of the British royal family as the Canadian head of state as out of touch with modernity. A lot of people are thinking that our head of state should be elected, not simply born into the right family. Some people think that our head of state should be a Canadian citizen, or at least a resident. Some people wonder why our head of state, by law, has to be a member of the Church of England, especially when only a small percentage of Canadians are Anglican.

Nice parade, though.

"We were once a PROUD member of the greatest Empire"

I did not realize we were members of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or Chinese Empire ...

;-)

Once upon a time the sun never set on the British Empire. Now it sets every 24 hours.

Raparee, did you 'elect' your parents? Or did you 'inherit' who you are from them? The concept of a Royal family and 'kingship' is based on that of 'kinship'. Of the family of man.

That the 'family' is the basic unit of human association. It pre-dates Presidents, and Prime Ministers, and Popes. All of whom are 'elected'. Through 'man-made' laws. "Inheritance", however, is based on 'natural law'.

We in Canada enjoy the best of both world's whaen it comes to OUR Royal family, I think.

As far as an institution of government goes, it's probably one of the very few that "pays its own way". The Queen 'costs' us very little, since she's not resident here. Yet we can enjoy the independence from having a Head-of-State beyond the corrupting influences of 'monied' politics that can protect our rights and freedoms within the law.

We spend far less on her Vice-Regal representatives than it would ever cost us to ELECT their replacements.

Would American tourists flock across the border to see a Canadian "President", like they do when our Queen is present in Canada? Spending their money here, to see what's so singularly absent in their own country?

Many ethnicities were found within the British Empire, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the relationship between the ruled and those doing the ruling was always just or harmonious. But were they so in other places? Are they so today, in other places? Look at what was existent in many cases BEFORE British rule of the various lands that made up the Empire.

Did the Moghul rulers of India exhibit a peculiar kindness to their conquered subjects that was superior to that of the British raj?

Had the various peoples found in many of Britain's former African possessions advanced to where their daily lives were so much better off under the pre-British barbarism that often existed there?

Without any of the benefits of modern civilization in even the most fundamental aspects of health-care and education, let alone the ability to stave off imminent famine, or reduce their enormous infant mortality rates?

You make mention that the Queen is the head of the Church of England, and that the monarch there must still be an Anglican. That there is not a separation between Church and State there. Yet. But such is NOT the case here. Nor in Australia, New Zealand, Belize or any of the other realms which have retained the constitutional monarchial form of government with OUR Queen as THEIR Queen, too.

Could the President of Israel be a non-Jew?
Could the President of many Latin American republics, or the King of Spain, be anything but a Roman-Catholic? Or the heads of State of any of the Islamic Republics anything but a Muslim? Not all lands have the same open mindedness regarding separation of religion and government we do.

You say the Queen is a 'non-Canadian' and that should disqualify her from being our head of state. Do you know the last time England had a Royal Family that was originally from England?

We all came from somewhere, and as an elederly Chinese lady once told me, after being sponsored to come here from VietNam by her daughter in Canada in preference to being sponsored to come to the USA by a son there, when I asked, "Why?", (expecting her to say because we have Medicare, or a better 'social safety net', or something of the like).

"I come here because Canada have Queen. VietNam once have Emperor, everything there pretty good. Same thing China, long time ago. U.S. republic, like VietNam become, China, too. Too muchee fighting, alla time. Everyone want to be top man. Way better have Queen." And there you have it. Happy Empire Day!

"Raparee, did you 'elect' your parents? Or did you 'inherit' who you are from them? The concept of a Royal family and 'kingship' is based on that of 'kinship'. Of the family of man."
I did inherit who I am from my parents, but not WHAT I am.

"We spend far less on her Vice-Regal representatives than it would ever cost us to ELECT their replacements."
It would be more important to me to have a head-of-state that represents the Canadian people instead of representing some old woman from across the sea, even if it costs a bit more.

"Look at what was existent in many cases BEFORE British rule of the various lands that made up the Empire."
I see now. The British were LIBERATING the Irish by invading and occupying the island for 800+ years. The Boer women and children that the British soldiers herded into concentration camps to starve to death... should they have been grateful that the British were bringing them civilization? I'm sure they'd rather have done without. The tens of thousands of US revolutionary soldiers who died on British prison ships during the revolutionary war... I suppose it wasn't starvation that killed them, but remorse at rejecting British 'civilization'. How about the Chinese who died because the British forced opium on them at gunpoint? Maybe they weren't aware that drug-trafficing and use were essential in British civilization.

"... let alone the ability to stave off imminent famine..."
Great Irish Famine (1740-1741)
1727-1728 famine in England
Bengal famine of 1770
1789-92 Doji bara famine in India
1800-1801 famine in Ireland
1845-1849 Great Irish Famine
1846-1857 Highland Potato Famine in Scotland
Orissa famine of 1866 in India
Rajputana famine of 1869 in India
Irish famine of 1879
1876-1879 Famine in India
1896-1902 famine in India
All these famines, and the millions and millions of resulting deaths occurred in British controlled countries. Think maybe the Brits left something out when teaching the "benefits of modern civilization" to these "barbarians"? Naw... no arrogance there.

"...But such is NOT the case here."
I suppose one could argue that we do not have a separation of church and state if our head of state BY LAW has to be the head of the CofE.

"Could the President of Israel be a non-Jew? Could the President of many Latin American republics, or the King of Spain, be anything but a Roman-Catholic? Or the heads of State of any of the Islamic Republics anything but a Muslim?"
Are the heads of these nations legally required to be of these faiths? Is there an Israeli law that stated their President has to be Jewish? It's besides the point, really, even if they did. If the head of some Latin American nation was required to be RC, at least it would representitive of the population. Why should the Canadian head of state be legally required to be the head of a religion that less than 7% of Canadians belong to? Why should the Canadian head of state be legally required to belong to ANY religion?

"Do you know the last time England had a Royal Family that was originally from England?"
What does that matter? Let the English do as they will. If they want to be ruled by a foreigner, let them. I, and a growing number of Canadians, want better: an elected, accountable, CANADIAN head of state who represents the CANADIAN people.

Happy Republic Day
Whack fol the diddle fol the di dol day.








And there you have it.

To Northern:
We are not subject to the British crown; we are subject to the Canadian crown. Elizabeth is Queen of Canada.

The fact that some people in BC are calling the Victoria Day weekend May Day is an embarrassment to the rest of the nation. I lived in BC for almost fifty years and never once heard this misnomer.

Come on, people! May Day is May 1.