El Labor Day in Canada it is celebrated on the first Monday of September in Canada since 1880. The origins of Labor Day in Canada can be traced back to April 14, 1872 when the parade was organized in support of the Toronto Typographic Union strike for a 58-hour workweek .
The Toronto Offices of the Assembly (TTA) called on its 27 unions to demonstrate in support of the Typographic Union that had been on strike since March 25. George Brown, Canadian politician and editor of the Toronto Globe struck back at his striking employees by pressing the police in charge of the Typographic Union for 'conspiracy. Although laws criminalizing union activities were out of date and had already been abolished in Britain, they were still on the books in Canada and the police arrested 24 leaders of the Typographic Union.
Labor leaders decided to call another similar demonstration on September 3 to protest the arrests. Seven unions demonstrated in Ottawa, prompting Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to repeal "barbarism," anti-union laws until Parliament passed the union law on June 14 of the year. Next, and soon all the unions were demanding a 54-hour-a-week job.
On July 23, 1894, Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson and his government made Labor Day, to be observed in September, an official holiday. In the United States, the New York parade became an annual event that year, and in 1894 it was adopted by US President Grover Cleveland to compete with International Workers' Day (May).
While Labor Day parades and picnics are organized by the unions, many Canadians attend fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Since the new school year generally begins immediately after Labor Day, families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer.
A Labor Day tradition in Canada is the Labor Day Classic, an event of the Canadian Football League, where rivals such as the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue play Bombers on the Day weekend job.
