From my posting last year:
This is a holiday weekend for us. The first Monday of August is Civic Holiday in much of Canada.But several people pointed out last year that it isn't called "Civic Holiday" everywhere. From Wikipaedia:
When I first moved here 78 years ago, I had never heard of Civic Holiday. Colleague Robin Carter carefully explained to me that Canadians very intelligently decided they should have a holiday in August because they had official holidays in May, June, July, September, and October and they didn't want to go through August without having one then, too.
Civic Holiday commemorates nothing. It's just a good excuse to have a three-day weekend in August.
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Saskatchewan have civic holidays on the first Monday in August. In British Columbia it is called B.C. Day, similar in New Brunswick with New Brunswick Day, while in Ontario it is generally referred to as Civic Holiday but is named differently in some cities. In Toronto it is Simcoe Day while in Ottawa it is Colonel By Day, for instance.