Red Tory v.2.0
I love these British teledocumentaries.
Did you know that while it is Victoria Day weekend that this is a joint celebration?
We celebrate the memory of the First Queen of the United Canadas AND the the Birthday of the current Monarch.
From "The Imperialist" by Sara Jeannette Duncan:
"It is hard to invest Mother Beggarlegs with importance, but the date helps me--the date I mean, of this chapter about Elgin; she was a person to be reckoned with on the twenty-fourth of May. I will say at once, for the reminder to persons living in England that the twenty-fourth of May was the Queen's Birthday. Nobody in Elgin can possibly have forgotten it. The Elgin children had a rhyme about it--
The twenty-fourth of May
Is the Queen's Birthday;
If you don't give us a holiday,
We'll all run away.
But Elgin was in Canada. In Canada the twenty-fourth of May WAS the Queen's Birthday; and these were times and regions far removed from the prescription that the anniversary "should be observed" on any of those various outlying dates which by now, must have produced in her immediate people such indecision as to the date upon which Her Majesty really did come into the world. That day, and that only, was the observed, the celebrated, a day with an essence in it, dawning more gloriously than other days and ending more regretfully, unless, indeed, it fell on a Sunday when it was "kept" on the Monday, with a slightly clouded feeling that it wasn't exactly the same thing. Travelled persons, who had spent the anniversary there, were apt to come back with a poor opinion of its celebration in "the old country"--a pleasant relish to the more-than-ever appreciated advantages of the new, the advantages that came out so by contrast. More space such persons indicated, more enterprise they boasted, and even more loyalty they would flourish, all with an affectionate reminiscent smile at the little ways of a grandmother. A "Bank" holiday, indeed! Here it was a real holiday, that woke you with bells and cannon--who has forgotten the time the ancient piece of ordnance in "the Square" blew out all the windows in the Methodist church?--and went on with squibs and crackers till you didn't know where to step on the sidewalks, and ended up splendidly with rockets and fire-balloons and drunken Indians vociferous on their way to the lock-up. Such a day for the hotels, with teams hitched three abreast in front of their aromatic barrooms; such a day for the circus, with half the farmers of Fox County agape before the posters--with all their chic and shock they cannot produce such posters nowadays, nor are there any vacant lots to form attractive backgrounds--such a day for Mother Beggarlegs! The hotels, and the shops and stalls for eating and drinking, were the only places in which business was done; the public sentiment put universal shutters up, but the public appetite insisted upon excepting the means to carnival."
As a child in th
As a child of the 1960's I experienced the dying embers of such celebration; we used to join THOUSANDS of our neighbours and all segue to the local park for the most incredible display of fireworks one can imagine. This was Toronto in the last days of loyalty.
The older clebrations were certainly more carnivalistic; I know this from the anecdotes related to me by my Grandparents and Older Aunts and Uncles. Oh, to have lived and seen a Victoria Day from before the Wars!
At one time it really was one of the highlights of the Canadian Calendar. Too long gone and now so sad ...
It's still kind of a big deal as a civic event here in Victoria for obvious reasons. There's a big parade that attracts marching bands from all over the west coast of Canada and the U.S.
redtory is positively evil for digging up these fascinating documentaries. i have now wasted over a hour of my life that i'll never get back again viewing other epidsodes. 
Time well wasted, as they say.
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