Hello scotborn, I thought you might want to read an article from another great website that I enjoy reading now for many years which is electric scotland. Here it is. It talks about Tartan Day and of course the Scots in Canada and what they have brought from their culture.LOA
Canada
Canada's—´ Scots and Tartan Day Celebrations
by Marie Fraser
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It's refreshing to have a Scot like Alastair McIntyre ask how Canadians perceive themselves and how they celebrate their Scots heritage, rather than being lumped in with those other descendants of expatriate Scots who settled on that smaller land mass to the south of us. I believe it was Professor Edward J. Cowan, a friend and former head of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph, Ontario, now head of the Department of Scottish History at the University of Glasgow, who, during one of his lively lectures, displayed one of those traditional maps of Scotland showing the Shetland Islands in a small box at the top right hand corner. Ted explained that the inhabitants of the latter were so fed up with being identified as that tiny spot at the top right hand corner of the map, they decided to produce their own map of the Shetland Islands showing Mainland Scotland in a small box at the bottom left hand corner of the map. My favourite analogy is Ludovic Kennedy's "In Bed with an Elephant, A Journey through Scotland's Past and Present" (1995), where the Anglo-Scot broadcaster and writer chose the title from a 1969 speech given by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in Washington, DC to relate with humour his view of Scotland's rather stormy relationship with England over the centuries. Trudeau's mother was an Elliott and his father-in-law was Jimmy Sinclair, Rhodes scholar, RCAF fighter pilot in WW II, a well-known federal politician and businessman in Vancouver, BC who was born in Grange, Banffshire.
Background
Scots have been leaving home for hundreds of years. While the population of Scotland is around five million, it is estimated that there are many more millions of people with some Scottish ancestry, worldwide. Wherever they went, Scots adapted to their new country but seldom forgot their heritage. If anything, these expatriates have held onto their Scottishness more enthusiastically than Scots living in Scotland.
The impact of Scots on North America has been considerable. They have integrated into the culture of their adopted countries and contributed to many facets of society, but seldom have they been vocal about their efforts. One might suggest that Scots tend to be "clannish", celebrating their music and customs with one another, but they are often overlooked as an ethnic group in the increasingly multicultural mix of Canada and the United States. To add to this confusion, Scots are usually lumped in with the "English" population when census time comes around, and it has been difficult to estimate what a large group Scots really represent in the population of Canada and the United States.
The impact of Scots on the development of Canada is remarkable. If we accept the claim that Prince Henry Sinclair sailed from the Orkney Islands and landed in what is now Nova Scotia and the coast of New England in 1398, or that Scottish sailors accompanied the early Vikings who landed in Newfoundland in 1010, the influence of Scots may be greater than previously imagined. It is a matter of record that the Fraser Highlanders represented the largest contingent of troops in the British Army under General James Wolfe (1727-59). The role of the 78th Fraser Highlanders, raised in Scotland in 1757 to fight for the British against France during the Seven Years War (1757-63), has been well documented. Many Scottish soldiers stayed on after the regiment was disbanded in 1763, married French women, and settled in the new country, leaving numerous descendants, many of whom are totally Francophone, who are proud of their Scottish ancestry.
Worsening economic conditions in the Highlands following the disaster of Culloden in 1746 caused many Highland Scots to emigrate to countries around the world in search of a better life. Scots came in vast numbers to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Eastern Ontario in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While conditions were harsh in the new country, the hardy Scots adapted well and soon prospered. Highland Scots were the prime movers in the North West Company of fur traders, based in Montreal. They helped to establish trade routes and explore the vast country where only native peoples had been before. Scots built Montreal, helped to establish banks, insurance companies and merchant trading companies. They established educational institutions, were prominent in medicine, law and the clergy. They included politicians, educators and skilled tradesmen, manufacturers and farmers. Scots excelled in all facets of life in their adopted country which, in 1867, became Canada.
The idea of setting aside one day each year to honour the role of Scots in the early history of Canada was put forward in the late 1980s by Mrs. Jean Watson of Nova Scotia. Mrs. Watson worked tirelessly to solicit support from politicians and Scottish groups in Nova Scotia to establish Tartan Day, eventually gaining enough support for the idea to have it accepted. She did not stop there, and continued to write letters to federal and provincial politicians and Scottish groups across Canada, urging them to adopt Tartan Day. Her persistence paid off, when the Clans & Scottish Societies of Canada endorsed her idea and convinced Ontario MPP Bill Murray to put forward a Private Member's Bill in the Ontario Legislature, to adopt Tartan Day in Ontario, which was passed on December 19, 1991, with unanimous support of all three parties. Other provinces and the Yukon Territories followed with similar resolutions, and by 2000 all, except Quebec and Newfoundland, recognized April 6th as Tartan Day.
Efforts have been made to recognize the contribution of Scots by establishing similar events to Tartan Day in other countries, but these events have usually been held on July 1st. Since July 1st is celebrated as Canada Day, the date of April 6th was chosen to celebrate Tartan Day in Canada.
On 6th April 1320, at Arbroath Abbey on the east coast of Scotland, the nobles, barons and freeholders, together with the "whole community of the realm of Scotland," subscribed a letter to Pope John XXII, asking him to recognise the country's political independence under the kingship of Robert Bruce, declaring the independence of Scotland from English domination following the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Sir Alexander Fraser, who in 1316 married Robert the Bruce's widowed sister, Lady Mary, was appointed Chamberlain of Scotland in 1319, and his seal appears on this inspirational document which became known as The Declaration of Arbroath.
"But if our King were to abandon the cause by being ready to make us, or our kingdom, subject to the King of England or to the English, we should at once do our utmost to expel him as our enemy and the betrayer of his own rights and ours, and should choose some other man to be our king, who would be ready to defend us. For so long as a hundred of us shall remain alive, we are resolved not to submit to the domination of the English. It is not for glory, wealth or honour that we are fighting, but for freedom and freedom only, which no true man ever surrenders except with his life."
Since that time, Scotland has been a sovereign nation, now part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
As Past Chairman of Clans & Scottish Societies of Canada, my husband, W. Neil Fraser, represented CASSOC at a conference of the principal organizations in the United States, convened by the Caledonian Foundation, USA Inc., in Sarasota, Florida in March 1996. During that conference he explained why it would have been inappropriate for us to choose July 1st (Canada Day), in the same way that it would be inappropriate for them to choose July 4th (Independence Day). He also reported on the efforts of CASSOC to establish Tartan Day as a national day to celebrate our Scottish heritage in Canada and explained the concept of the event celebrated in Canada since 1987. The idea was met with great interest by the participants and was subsequently adopted by the Coalition of U.S. Scottish Organizations established as a result of the Sarasota conference.
The first observance of Tartan Day on a national basis in the United States was on April 6th 1997, and a resolution proclaiming April 6th as Tartan Day was entered into the U.S. Congressional Record on the following day.
In February 2000, Neil and I were invited to attend the Sarasota conference of the Scottish Coalition, representing six of the leading U.S. Scottish organizations, where he chaired a workshop on Tartan Day (April 6th).
Alan L. Bain, President of The American-Scottish Foundation, Inc., based in New York, telephoned Neil and sent a transcript of his remarks about National Tartan Day, on the occasion of the Wallace Award Presentation to Sir Sean Connery in Washington, DC on April 5, 2001, in the presence of Vice President Dick Cheney; Sir Sean and Lady Connery; Senator Trent Lott, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer; First Minister McLeish, Dr. Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Senate Chaplain and President of the St. Andrew's Society of Washington, DC, and other distinguished guests.
"And finally to two individuals who are not present today but for whose efforts Tartan Day may have never come into being, Neil Fraser, Chairman, Clan Fraser Society of Canada, who introduced the concept of Tartan Day to the Scottish Coalition, and Duncan MacDonald, defacto Head of the Scottish Coalition, a lady of indomitable spirit who, by sheer force of her will, drove Coalition members to make Tartan Day a reality. Thank you one and all."
Proof, once again, that Scots can work together to accomplish almost anything - especially when they are steered in the right direction by such dynamic ladies as Duncan MacDonald and Joanne Phipps!
Celebrating Tartan Day in Canada
The date of April 6th was chosen to celebrate the role of the independent Scots who helped to discover, conquer, explore, settle and build the country now called Canada.
The Scottish Studies Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to actively supporting the Scottish Studies Program at the University of Guelph, established in 1966, and the eventual establishment of a Chair of Scottish Studies. The Foundation also plans to work with other universities across Canada to create and develop similar programs for the preservation of Canada's Scottish heritage. The Scottish Studies Society hosts an annual Tartan Day Celebration Dinner in April, with the proceeds being donated to the Scottish Studies Foundation. During this major fund-raising event, which has been held in Toronto since 1993, a prominent man or woman is honoured as Scot of the Year. |
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That post would be very much at home in many other threads (I can think of a few in 'The Celts' forum). Even when derailing, a poster should try to hold onto the original topic in some way.
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::thumbsup 
It's funny, but people around here say that all the time if they think you're pulling a fast one. Get away with yeh. It kind of mildly proves a point about little bits of culture holding on in certain regions of the new world. Common traditions, so to speak.... literally to speak.