OUTTAWA, ON
While our neighbours to the south take the day off today to celebrate the achievements of organized labour in a holiday known as ‘Labor Day,’ Canadians celebrate a completely different holiday called ‘Labour Day,’ which honours our unique tradition of excessive vowel usage.
“No matter what colour, religion, or creed, we make no judgements, because what unites us as Canadians is our love of putting U’s next to O’s,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Troudeaou. “That’s what Labour Day is all about, eh.”
The annual celebration of Canadian spelling culture is a favourite for families across the land, who spend their paycheques on maple-flavoured ice cream and sign up for rigourous Canadian spelling bees.
“It’s my favourite time of year, eh,” said Doug Poutine of Vancouver. “You get a day off work…and you get to spend it relearning the unique rules of both Canadian football and Canadian spelling!”
Labour Day festivities are planned across the country, although in Quebec the day is used to change all the English signs to French.
“To us Labour Day is not just about Canadian spelling, but Quebec spelling in particular,” said Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard. “Rather than spending the day switching labor to labour and neighbor to neighbour, we gather as a Province to change Canadian to Canadien and adding an accent above E’s and below C’s whenever we come across them.”
Labour Day was first held in Canada in the 1880s, when it was initially planned to celebrate our unique pronunciation of the letter Z.
