Oh wow! looks like a fun day. I used to enjoy ice fishing, but haven't gone in years as often the ice doesn't get thick enough to be safe (for very long).

Don't the fish just taste so much better when they are caught through the ice...or is it my imagination?

Thanks for sharing pics.

Sue

You need a much bigger fire! Looks like you had fun.

It hurts my bones to see those pictures.

Gayle

Cool, where in Canada do you live? We don't get that holiday here in Newfoundland.

Great pictures!

I would love to do a winter activity like that.

Casey, Family Day is our new Ontario holiday but if you work for the Federal Government you still have to work so it is not a holiday for everyone.

Anne

Glad I work for regional government. I am so glad to have the day off.

Looks like a great time, although a cold one. Guess you are used to the frigid weather though. I'm a wimp these days. I don't think I could get on enough layers to stay warm. Maybe if I was perched right against that fire. LOL Enjoyed the pics Clairdo. Thanks!

Brings back memories of when I lived back in Quebec/Ontario. Out on Vancouver Island we don't get temperatures much below freezing, so ice fishing isn't seen out here. brrrrrrr

Alberta and Saskatchewan had Family Day, I think that both of them call it, before.

Manitoba has named their day after Louis Riel, a French-Metis guy in the West who wanted some regional autonomy and the gov't. fixed him and his few guys in a small battle in N. Sask. in '85. No idea how many killed, but it wasn't very many.

They hung Louis Riel.

We'd had another tiny revolution in Ontario and Quebec in 1837.

I'd said a while ago that we hadn't had international military battles in N. America N. of the Alamo for 190 years, or within one country for 140, referring to that as the most recent.

But our battle was really the last, 120 years ago in 1885 ... and it was so small that I forgot about it.

The Ontario government declared a new holiday in February, Family Day (to promote "Family Values", I guess, including family-like assemblies based on same-sex couples), after they'd won an election last year.

So now there's a holiday in the four contiguous provinces from Ontario to Alberta on that day. The Alberta holiday, governed by a more Conservative group, with an election in the offing, has defined "family" a bit more narrowly, I think.

About 40% of the people in those areas, for various reasons, had to be at work today/yesterday ... but many of the workers had trouble, for their day care providers were on holiday.

At least some Toronto civic workers were on duty - they had a lot of snow to move.

Just a regular old holiday, same as every other day, for us retirees.

Well, not exactly - quite a few stores closed, and provincial govt. offices (but Fed. workers, as (Susan?) reported, were on duty).

One Federal political leader said that they should make it a Canada-wide holiday.

Some said that such an eventuality is a bit remote, for Canada's productivity is much lower than in the U.S., that the rise in value of our dollar has hurt our manufacturing industries, and though we've had 8 statutory holidays and U.S. workers 13 ... they think that there's little chance of expanding our numbers for a while.

Hope you all find some interesting and memorable things in the rest of this week.

ole joyful