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August 5, 2012

The idea of a public holiday on the first Monday in August can be traced back to a proposal put forward by a few members of Toronto City Council in the late 1860s. It was their belief that citizens would appreciate a nice long weekend during those hot summers when air conditioning consisted of blowing across a large cake of ice, and that August would be the perfect time for it. However, it wouldn’t be until 1875 that the necessary arrangements were finalized, and even then more than a few of the city’s store and business owners were upset that their employees were getting a day off work (without pay).

Since no one really knew what to call this new holiday, it appears that it was simply given the rather nondescript title Civic Holiday.

(By the way, that inaugural date of 1875 confirms the fact that the holiday was not named in honour of a popular Japanese car, since the first Honda Civic didn’t make its appearance for another ninety-eight years.)

The Civic Holiday title remained in effect for nearly a century until the provincial Minister of Tourism, James Auld, suggested in 1968 that the name be changed to honour the province’s first lieutenant governor, John Graves Simcoe (the original David Onley). Auld’s reasoning was that he could work this fellow Simcoe into his tourism mandate, while the term “Civic” had virtually no marketing potential aside from, as some believed, promoting a car.

John Graves Simcoe (1752–1806), the man for whom the holiday on the first Monday in August is named, unless you live outside Toronto that is. (Photo from the Ontario Archives.)

Toronto’s Union Station was officially opened August 6, 1927, by Edward, the Prince of Wales. This wonderful photo of the station was taken in 1938, a date confirmed by fellow Thornhill Cruisers Car Club members Roger Ritter and Gary Lynas, two experts on identifying old cars. The streetcar is a large Peter Witt hauling a trailer, something I figured out by myself.

For whatever reason, Auld’s suggestion went over like the proverbial lead balloon with most of the province’s municipal officials. All except for Toronto’s Mayor William Dennison, that is. His Worship managed to convince his council that this fellow Simcoe was more worthy of recognition than simply calling the day the Civic Holiday. As a result, a decree went out from City Hall affirming the fact that effective August 4, 1969, the first Monday in August would henceforth be known as Simcoe Day.

In addition to being the first lieutenant governor of Ontario (which was known back then as Upper Canada), Simcoe’s most important Toronto connection was the fact that it was he who in 1793 ordered the establishment of a community that would evolve into the modern metropolis of which we are (or should be) proud in spite of her flaws.

Simcoe’s plan for York (as he called the place after Frederick, Duke of York) was to make it the site of a well-protected naval shipyard where armed vessels that would help protect the young and vulnerable province against the military aspirations of our friends to the south would be built.

While Simcoe was to leave his Town of York in 1796 to carry out important responsibilities in other parts of the British Empire, his concerns about the invasion of our young province came to pass in 1812. This fascinating story will be featured at this year’s CNE.

One other misconception about Simcoe’s impact on our province is that he named Lake Simcoe after himself. Rather, it is in honour of his father, John (sometimes referred to as James) Simcoe, who served many years in the Royal Navy until succumbing to pneumonia on board his ship, HMS Pembroke, on May 15, 1759. Not only did Simcoe Sr. teach the explorer James Cook (Cook’s Bay) the fundamentals of navigating and surveying, he is also said to have been responsible, in great measure, for the plans followed by James Wolfe that resulted in the invasion and capture of Quebec City in the fall of 1759.