Armistice Day linked with Thanksgiving Day
Canadians commemorated Armistice Day in 1920 the same way as in 1919.
However, MP H.M. Mowat, of Toronto again brought a proposal before the
House of Commons for a special annual Armistice Day to be held on the
Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. This was to be joined with
Thanksgiving Day, until then a floating holiday held at the government's
discretion. Parliament finally passed this proposal, in the form of the
Armistice Day Act, in May 1921.
Creating a single new holiday on a long
weekend responded primarily to the wishes of the business community, but
it proved unpopular with veterans and the public at large. A day for
celebrating the "bountiful harvest," Thanksgiving normally included
sports and other amusements associated with a festive occasion.
Armistice Day, on the other hand, was a time of commemoration and
meditation, characterized by solemn ceremonies at cenotaphs.
Signs of
trouble were evident as early as November 7, 1921, the very first
occasion that the two events were held together. The front page of the
Toronto Globe, for example, announced that the rector of the Anglican
Church in Smith's Falls, Ontario, had openly criticized the government
for attempting to combine the two events and intimated that "in his
church each would be observed by itself." An official of the local Great
War Veterans' Association proclaimed "henceforth veterans here would
observe only November 11 as Armistice Day."