Happy Canada Day, eh!

G’day and a Happy Canada Day to you! Pour yourself a steaming mug of alzheimer’s-fighting brew and snag a maple doughnut. Today, July 1, 2011 Canada celebrates it's 144th year since Confederation.

Canada Day celebrates the events that occurred on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act created the Canadian federal government. The BNA Act proclaimed "one Dominion under the name of Canada," hence the original title of the holiday, "Dominion Day." Dominion Day was officially renamed "Canada Day" by an Act of Parliament on October 27, 1982. This change reflected the policy of successive governments to down play Canada's colonial origins.

Canada means village or settlement. Its name comes from an Iroquois word. The Iroquois Indians (now known as Native American or Aboriginal People in the US and First Nations People in Canada) originally lived in what is now New York State along the St. Lawrence River. The Iroquois were know as the "Five Civilized Tribes". These tribes included the Cayuga,  Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca. The league later became known as the Five Nations. In 1722, the Tuscarora joned their league and the name changed to Six Nations as it stands today.

In 1921, King George V proclaimed the official colours of Canada as red, from the Saint George's Cross, and white, from the French royal emblem since King Charles VII.

As early as 1700, the maple leaf began to serve as a symbol celebrating Canada's nature and environment. The maple leaf on the flag is a sugar maple leaf. Sugar maples are native to Canada and have brilliant fall foliage. The number of points on the leaf has no significance; they do not, for instance, represent the ten provinces plus the federal government. In fact, some of the very first Canadian flags made had maple leaves of 15 points: the lower single points were tripled like the top three.

By a figure-ground reversal of the white square and the maple leaf, the two upper corners of the square can be seen as silhouettes of two angry faces arguing. This has often been considered evocative of the nature of Canadian federalism, but was wholly unintentional.

In Canadian Culture, various patriotic comic book Canadian superheroes use the Maple Leaf Flag as the basis for their costumes. Hence, these characters' costumes are typically red and white with a red maple leaf as their symbol. Canadian superheroes who use this visual motif include Captain Canuck, Guardian and his successor, the Vindicator and Northguard.

So, like, when you click by next time, be sure you wear your Captain Canuck costume, eh! No Batman outfits!

See ya!

Bob