CACanada · 2026

Observance

Created in 2021 to honour the survivors and the children who died in residential schools. Orange shirts are worn, and the tone is commemorative, not celebratory.

Business

Federal workplaces and banks close; provincial observance is uneven, so many private employers work.

Transport

Normal services; local closures around memorial walks.

Written for this country

Observance

Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, six weeks before the American one, and is tied to the harvest rather than the Pilgrim story. A family dinner rather than a public spectacle.

Business

Statutory in most provinces: banks, government and many shops close. Optional in Atlantic Canada, where retail often trades.

Transport

Holiday timetables; the leaf-peeping drive out of the cities makes it one of the busiest road weekends of the autumn.

Written for this country

Observance

Officially recognised as a public holiday, so most people have the day off work. It applies only in certain regions rather than nationwide.

Business

Expect offices, banks and the majority of shops to be closed.

Transport

Public transport usually runs a Sunday or holiday timetable.

General guidance based on this day's official classification, not country-specific reporting.

Observance

Two minutes of silence at 11am on 11 November, with poppies worn from late October. A statutory holiday in most provinces but notably not in Ontario or Quebec, where schools and offices stay open and hold ceremonies instead.

Business

Closed where statutory; in Ontario and Quebec business runs as normal with a pause at 11am.

Transport

Normal services with brief stops at 11am and closures around cenotaph ceremonies.

Written for this country