Enjoy Thanksgiving! (But don’t re-elect the turkey!)
Hi all:
It’s Thanksgiving, here in Canada, and I’m not going to be doing much in the way of posting, today.
But while you’re eating your turkey, think of Stephen Harper.
Because tomorrow’s THE DAY — the day we go to the polls to decide who’ll form the next government.
If you’re an official Canadian citizen, and you’ll be 18 or older tomorrow, you’re in.
So go and vote!
Just don’t re-elect the turkey!
What to do, what to DO?
Are you registered to vote? If you are, no worries.
If you’re not, go to your local polling station on elections day and register then.
Don’t know where it is? Call 1-800 INFO VOTE (1-800-463-6868) and give them your postal code.
To vote, you’ll obviously need to be able to prove you are who you say you are, so you’ ll need:
A) One piece of ID from a government or government agency with your photo, name and address.
B) Two original pieces of ID authorized by the chief electoral officer of Canada and containing your name; one piece will also have to have your address on it.
C) An elector whose already on the list of electors in the same polling division and who can identify himself or herself can vouch for you. If that’s the way you go, both of you will have to make a sworn statement. But the person who’s doing the vouching can only do it once, and the person being vouched for can’t vouch for someone else.
If you’d like more detail on this, click here for an excellent and easy-to-understand explanation from the NDP’s
Elections Canada also has a long list of frequently asked questions and answers such as, Can a person who’s homeless vote?
The answer is Yes.
Of pilgrims and turkeys
Meanwhile, our brethren in the States also celebrate the holiday, but well after we do.
And it’s all Martin Frobisher’s (above right) fault.
An English explorer, he was trying to find a northern passage to the Orient and instead ended up in Canada.
Cate Eales, a transplanted American now living in BC, sums it up like this »»»
As Americans ready themselves for a day of Thanksgiving, Canadians find themselves preparing for Christmas. Thanksgiving here was in October, even before Halloween. It takes some getting used to. Canadian Thanksgiving has nothing to do with Pilgrims. Here is the story:
Martin Frobisher and crew first celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in the eastern Arctic in 1578.
Frobisher was driving his boat around the Arctic in 1576 looking for a northern passage to Asia when he discovered Frobisher Bay (and wasn’t that an incredible coincidence?!?) and some ore he thought might contain gold. Frobisher spent the next couple of years trying to become rich mining what seemed like gold ore, and attempting to establish the first English settlement in North America. He failed on both counts, but did manage to celebrate the first North American Thanksgiving. Pilgrims and turkeys (with the possible exception of Frobisher himself) had nothing to do with it.
Besides The Frobisher Incident, there is some anecdotal evidence that Canadian Thanksgiving also draws on a tradition started by residents of Halifax, Nova Scotia who celebrated the end of the Seven Year’s War in 1763. Frankly, I suspect that said citizens actually appropriated the idea from their relatives in Salem, Massachusetts because Halifax was probably the sort of place where any excuse for a party would have to do. Some Canadians claim that this explains the introduction of pumpkin pie, turkey, squash, and the four-day weekend into the holiday. Others blame the United States of America for … well, for being the United States of America.
Here’s what the Wikipedia says
The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in North America, although celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops had been a long-standing tradition throughout North America by various First Nations and Native American groups. First Nations and Native Americans throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Cree and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay.
At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed ‘The Order of Good Cheer‘ and gladly shared their food with their First Nations neighbours.
After the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763 handing over New France to the British, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving days were observed beginning in 1799 but did not occur every year. After the American Revolution, American refugees who remained loyal to Great Britain moved from the United States and came to Canada.
They brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. The first Thanksgiving Day after Canadian Confederation was observed as a civic holiday on April 5, 1872 to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) from a serious illness.
Starting in 1879 Thanksgiving Day was observed every year but the date was proclaimed annually and changed year to year. The theme of the Thanksgiving holiday also changed year to year to reflect an important event to be thankful for. In the early years it was for an abundant harvest and occasionally for a special anniversary.
After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11 occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays, and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.
On January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed: A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.
Now you know.
But back to the future, WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T LET GEORGE W. HARPER IN TOMORROW.
Vote for the NDP or, if you can’t manage that, the Greens.
Cheers! And all the best (and enjoy your turkey — the other one 
) ……..
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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