Canada has only two holidays observed by everyone in the country: Canada Day on 1 July and Christmas Day. Everything else depends on the province and on whether an employer is federally or provincially regulated. There are ten federal statutory holidays for the roughly 6% of Canadian workers under federal jurisdiction, and each province and territory has its own list for everyone else. Quebec's calendar shares only about half its days with Ontario's.
The Federal Statutory Holidays
| Date | Holiday | Description |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | Celebrations; Polar Bear Swims in several cities |
| April 3 | Good Friday | Christian holiday; observed by all provinces except Quebec (Easter Monday instead) |
| July 1 | Canada Day | National day; fireworks, concerts, and celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa |
| September 7 | Labour Day | End of summer; back-to-school preparations |
| September 30 | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation | Honours victims of residential schools; established in 2021; also Orange Shirt Day |
| October 12 | Thanksgiving | Harvest celebration; turkey dinners; second Monday of October |
| November 11 | Remembrance Day | Honours military veterans; poppies worn; two minutes of silence at 11 AM |
| December 25 | Christmas Day | Family gatherings; gift exchanges; winter celebrations |
| December 26 | Boxing Day | Shopping sales; statutory in some provinces |
Federal Versus Provincial
The Canada Labour Code sets ten general holidays for federally regulated industries: banks, airlines, railways, telecommunications, interprovincial trucking, the federal public service and a few others. That covers around a million workers.
Everyone else falls under provincial employment standards legislation, and each province decides for itself. Ontario has nine statutory holidays, British Columbia ten, Alberta nine with several optional, Quebec eight.
The consequence is that two people working next door to each other in the same city may have different days off, depending on whether their employer is a bank or a bookshop.
Only Two Days Are Truly National
Canada Day and Christmas Day are statutory everywhere. New Year's Day and Labour Day are nearly universal, and Good Friday is statutory in every province except Quebec, where employers may choose between Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Victoria Day, the Monday before 25 May, is a holiday in most of the country and not in the Atlantic provinces or Quebec — Quebec replaced it in 2003 with National Patriots' Day on the same Monday, commemorating the 1837 rebellions.
Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October is statutory in most provinces and optional in the Atlantic ones. Boxing Day is statutory in Ontario and federally and nowhere else.
Family Day Has Five Names
The third Monday in February is a holiday in most of Canada under a different name in almost every province. Alberta introduced Family Day in 1990, the first province to add a February holiday, and Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick followed with the same name.
Manitoba calls it Louis Riel Day, after the Métis leader executed in 1885. Nova Scotia calls it Nova Scotia Heritage Day. Prince Edward Island calls it Islander Day. British Columbia observed it on the second Monday until 2019, when it moved to the third to align with everyone else.
Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and the three territories have no February holiday at all, which leaves a stretch from New Year's Day to Good Friday with nothing in it.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
30 September became a federal statutory holiday in 2021, created in response to Call to Action 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and legislated within weeks of the announcement of probable unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
It is a federal holiday and a statutory holiday in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. Most other provinces mark it without closing, which has been criticised.
It coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots observance begun in 2013 in memory of Phyllis Webstad, whose new orange shirt was taken from her on her first day at a residential school in 1973. The orange shirt is now the standard way the day is marked.
Quebec Is Different
Quebec's calendar diverges the most. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day on 24 June is the province's national holiday, a full statutory holiday with concerts, bonfires and parades, and it is not observed anywhere else in Canada.
The province also observes 2 January as a holiday in many collective agreements, and Quebec's Labour Standards Act lists eight statutory holidays against Ontario's nine.
Quebec's construction industry adds a further peculiarity: the province mandates a two-week industry-wide construction holiday in late July, during which most sites shut and a large share of the population takes leave simultaneously. Traffic and tourism data show the effect clearly.
The Territories Add Their Own
Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut each have holidays found nowhere else. Yukon observes Discovery Day on the third Monday in August, marking the 1896 Klondike gold discovery on Bonanza Creek that triggered the gold rush.
Nunavut observes Nunavut Day on 9 July, commemorating the passage of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act in 1993, which created the territory six years later. The Northwest Territories observes National Indigenous Peoples Day on 21 June, the summer solstice, as a statutory holiday — the only jurisdiction in Canada to do so.
Yukon also makes National Indigenous Peoples Day statutory, adopting it in 2017. The day has been observed nationally since 1996 and remains a working day in every province.
Civic Holiday, the One With No Name
The first Monday in August is a holiday in most of Canada and has no national name. Ontario calls it Civic Holiday and lets municipalities name it locally — Simcoe Day in Toronto, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, Founders' Day elsewhere.
British Columbia calls it British Columbia Day, Alberta calls it Heritage Day, Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Day, New Brunswick New Brunswick Day, Nova Scotia Natal Day. Newfoundland has Regatta Day in St John's, whose date depends on the weather — it is the only public holiday in North America that can be postponed on the morning by a committee decision about the water conditions on Quidi Vidi Lake.
In Ontario the Civic Holiday is not a statutory holiday under the Employment Standards Act, so employers are not required to give it. Most do.
Thanksgiving Is in October
Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday in October, six weeks before the American one. The date was fixed by parliament in 1957.
The earlier date reflects the earlier harvest at Canadian latitudes. Canadian Thanksgiving observances predate the American ones — Martin Frobisher's crew held a service of thanks in what is now Nunavut in 1578 — though the modern holiday is largely a nineteenth-century construction shaped by American practice.
It is a considerably lower-key occasion than its American counterpart, with far less travel and no equivalent of the Black Friday retail event attached.
Remembrance Day
11 November is a federal statutory holiday and a provincial one in six provinces and all three territories. It is not statutory in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia or Manitoba, the four provinces holding most of the population.
The argument in Ontario recurs regularly. Supporters of making it a holiday say the day deserves the same status as elsewhere; opponents, including some veterans' organisations, argue that keeping schools and workplaces open allows ceremonies of remembrance to be held there rather than dispersing people.
Two minutes of silence at 11am is observed nationally regardless of holiday status, and the poppy campaign run by the Royal Canadian Legion begins on the last Friday of October.
Provincial Holidays That Exist Nowhere Else
Newfoundland and Labrador has the most distinctive list in the country. It observes St Patrick's Day, St George's Day, Orangemen's Day and Discovery Day, all moved to the nearest Monday, reflecting the Irish and English settlement history of the island.
None of these is statutory in the sense of being required of private employers; they are government holidays that many employers follow. Newfoundland only joined Canada in 1949 and its calendar reflects a century of separate development.
Prince Edward Island has Gold Cup Parade Day in Charlottetown, tied to the harness racing festival in August. Manitoba's Terry Fox Day on the first Monday in August is unique in honouring a private citizen, the runner who attempted a cross-Canada Marathon of Hope in 1980.
What Canadian Workers Get
Statutory paid annual leave in Canada starts at two weeks in most provinces, rising to three after five years and four or five after longer service in some. That is low by European standards and higher than the American baseline of nothing.
Public holiday pay rules are set provincially and generally require premium pay of one and a half times for hours worked plus a day in lieu, though the formulas differ and eligibility often depends on having worked a qualifying period.
Total statutory time off in Canada — nine or ten public holidays plus ten days of leave — is among the lowest in the OECD outside the United States and Japan. For related context, see religion in Canada and the count of countries in North America.