Oakville Names August Civic Holiday Emancipation Day

I was so excited to read the Oakville Beaver article that announced that the August Civic Holiday will now be known as Emancipation Day. You'll want to read the article to truly appreciate the significance of the name and the recognition of the role Oakville played in the Underground Railroad.

I went looking to see how this naming was possible since a friend had once told me that the Ontario Civic Holiday is called Simcoe Day. It is Simcoe Day in Toronto, but if you read the article in The Canadian Encyclopedia, you'll see that many Ontario municipalities have named it to be locally significant to them while other provinces use different names too. I did dig a little further and found an article on CBC's site that indicates that "the entire province of Ontario has dedicated the civic holiday to Emancipation Day since 2008."

If you can, be sure to check out the activities in your area!