On the 100th anniversary of B.C. becoming a colony in 1958, the Socreds had launched a year-long celebration, capped by a ceremony at Fort Langley, where Gov. James Douglas had proclaimed the colony.
But that was on Nov. 19 (it had taken a few months for the news to reach B.C. from London). There was another asterisk — the proclamation was only for the B.C. mainland, because Vancouver Island was a separate colony at the time. (They merged in 1866.)
Still, the first Socred government in B.C. had been sworn in on Aug. 1, 1952. Bennett once marked the anniversary with one of the most flamboyant stunts in B.C. history, the “burning of the bonds.”
Basically, he declared B.C. was debt free (it wasn’t), put a bunch of B.C. bonds on a raft in Lake Okanagan, waited until nightfall, then sent a flaming arrow into the bonds. He missed, but a strategically placed RCMP officer lit the bonds up.
So it was the NDP that introduced the B.C. Day legislation in March, 1974. The idea was for all B.C. residents to remember the pioneers who Dave Barrett said helped make the province into “one of the finest places to live in the world.”
B.C. Day was a hit with the masses. And in 1975, most of the holdout companies gave their employees the day off.
https://www.timescol...he-year-9308514
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 August 2024 - 05:42 AM.
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