Heritage Day and Pierre Berton

The effort to create a national holiday to celebrate our history

Today is a holiday of many names in Canada. It is Family Day in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

In Prince Edward Island it is Islander Day, and in Nova Scotia it is Nova Scotia Heritage Day. In Manitoba it is Louis Riel Day and elsewhere in Canada it is just a normal day.

But, decades ago, there was an effort for a nationwide Heritage Day on the third Monday in February.

And the effort was led by the man who helped inspire a massive interest in Canadian history during the 1970s.

Pierre Berton.

Berton tried to use his substantial national profile to create a holiday to celebrate the history and heritage of Canada during the first part of the decade.

Berton said in Volume Two of his autobiography My Times

"My biggest and most controversial contribution to the heritage movement was my attempt to make the second Monday in February a holiday to be known as Heritage Day."

Berton said that opposition came from the business community, who stated they couldn't afford to give workers an extra day off between New Year's Day and Easter.

Berton said,

"We need to get people talking about heritage. We need something startling to shake the nation from its lethargy. So what if people took the day off to go skiing?"

Unfortunately, even the power of Berton and his bowtie could not create the holiday.

Each year, the Heritage Canada Foundation does celebrate a Heritage Day but it is not an official holiday. It not a federal holiday, although the federal government does recognize it.

A few years later in 1990, Alberta celebrated the first Family Day and every other place in Canada also began to follow suit with their own holidays.

But what could have been with a Heritage Day nationwide.

Kudos to Nova Scotia though, for celebrating its history on the third Monday of February each year.