The Workers' Festival: A History of Labour Day in Canada

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

One obvious question about Labour Day is, “Why do Canadians and
Americans celebrate it on the first Monday of September when the rest of
the world observes it on the first of May?” Arguably, the first Monday
of September has become more significant as the date of a new beginning
than the first of January.

Heron and Penfold report that Canadian May Day celebrations began in
1906, but May Day symbolized greater radicalism than did Labour Day,
which had become a statutory holiday across Canada in 1894. Newspapers
treated May Day with far less respect. Women marched in May Day parades
but rarely on Labour Day. In 1935, Vancouver’s May Day marchers
compared their mayor to Hitler, while Edmonton’s, in 1937, promoted
the cause of the Spanish Republicans, then engaged in civil war against
Franco and his forces.

Labour Day also marked an opportunity to display workers’
achievements. In 1900, workers in Rossland, B.C., flaunted a house that
they were building. In 1905, the Moncton machinists’ union included a
locomotive built by its members in the Labour Day parade. The 1907
parade in Calgary featured a bathroom on wheels, courtesy of the
plumbers’ union. In 1912, Victoria’s electrical workers displayed
poles, wires, and gadgets. A Quebec City bakery tossed baked goods to
the spectators during the parade of 1929. Averse as it was to
unionization, the T. Eaton Company had a float in Toronto’s 1933
parade. During the Depression, workers emphasized the need for jobs, and
in later years, parades promoted the cause of strikers.

Some Labour Day parades became radical and emphasized discontent with
the status quo. In 1948, the Canadian Seamen’s Union had a float that
featured “a policeman, a fat capitalist, and two ship’s officers
pulling along a jail full of striking sailors.”

This is a fun, generously illustrated book that Canadians can enjoy
while contemplating the end of summer.