From the archives: First Canada day celebrated in style

This story was first published on July 5, 2003, in the Montreal Gazette.
There seems to be everywhere, throughout British America, a common feeling that this day, July the First, will mark an epoch in the political history of America, we may add of mankind. … It is well that the people should so observe it, and give one day’s rest from their several avocations to celebrate and contemplate the great political event.
The Gazette, Monday, July 1, 1867
In such high-flown prose did The G