The Ontario Government should declare April 8 a statutory holiday to mark the total solar eclipse as an extraordinary occasion.
For the nearly 20 million Canadians living in the Quebec City-Windsor corridor—half the country’s population—this is the best chance we’ll ever have to see a total solar eclipse. Major cities and tourist spots including Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Kingston, and Montreal will be in the path of totality, while those in Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec City can drive less than an hour to reach a spot in the path.
Solar eclipses are relatively common, but the chance of any specific location on Earth being in the path of totality during an eclipse is exceptionally rare. The last solar eclipse that could be seen from Kingston was in 1349, and the next won’t occur until 2399.
Cities including Kingston are preparing to welcome thousands of tourists for this truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but governments should go further. April 8, 2024, should be a public holiday in the provinces closest to the eclipse, namely Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Many school boards in Ontario have decided to make April 8 a professional activity (PA) day, so students won’t be going to school. The boards cited concerns with traffic safety and children looking at the sun without proper protection, as the eclipse is happening around the schools’ normal afternoon dismissal times. Subsequently, some teachers’ unions are asking for teachers to be permitted to work from home, arguing if it’s not safe for children, then it’s not safe for adults to be working on site.
April 8 will be easier for everyone if it’s a holiday. People can stay off the roads during peak darkness. If parents have the day off, they’ll be able to supervise their kids at home and even turn eclipse-viewing into a fun family activity. More people can enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event without worrying about work or school obligations.
Queen’s students will find it difficult to spend the afternoon watching the eclipse, as their exam period starts just three days later, and some classes are still taking place on April 8.
It would be a pity for someone to be in Kingston, have a chance in their life to see a total solar eclipse in all its glory, and be forced to miss it because they’re too busy finishing a final assignment or studying for an exam that week. A holiday unfortunately won’t solve everyone’s problem—essential workers will still have to work, and Queen’s students need to plan their time well over the next few weeks, so they’re prepared enough for their exams to afford a few hours off on April 8.
But for many people living in Toronto—or from further away such as northern Ontario—who want to drive to Niagara Falls to see totality, or for those in Kingston who would rather be camped out by the waterfront looking at the sky instead of working at their desk or peeking through their living room window, making April 8 a holiday would be a huge benefit.
Making April 8 a public holiday wouldn’t be an unprecedented decision, as governments have declared one-off holidays before. Two years ago, a few provinces made September 19, 2022, the date of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, a public holiday.
Ontario chose not to make the Queen’s funeral day a holiday, in part so students could “stay in school and learn about the contributions the Queen made to the people of Ontario and the entire commonwealth, as well as the accession of King Charles III.” With April 8 being a PA day for many students, however, this rationale doesn’t quite work this time.
Following Queen Elizabeth’s ing, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) opposed making the date of her funeral a statutory holiday, arguing the short notice “would be deeply unfair for small businesses and cost the economy billions.”
Unlike the Queen’s ing, however, we’ve known for years the eclipse is coming. It’s unfortunate there hasn’t been an earlier push to make April 8 a holiday and give everyone more time to prepare accordingly. Nonetheless, many of the businesses the CFIB was concerned about last time, such as restaurants, hotels, and movie theatres, in the hospitality sector and will likely benefit from the increased tourism of an April 8 holiday.
Unlike a day of mourning where businesses are expected to close, the eclipse is a joyful occasion that will draw people out to spend money in bars and restaurants, which typically stay open on holidays, as part of their eclipse day festivities.
Elizabeth II was Canada’s head of state for 70 years. The monarchy is an important part of our constitutional system, and her ing was a significant moment in global history that deserved commemoration. However, many also viewed her as the head of an antiquated, colonial institution, with little impact on Canadians’ day-to-day lives.
While few Canadians ever met their monarch, millions will experience the eclipse on April 8 in their home communities in a very real and personal way.
A solar eclipse is a magnificently emotional and unifying event. It’s a wildly lucky cosmic fluke: by pure chance, the moon is exactly the right size and distance from the Earth to make this sight possible at all. Everyone stops what they’re doing, comes together and watches the sun disappear and the sky turn to night in the middle of the day. The bright star that makes life on this rocky, blue planet possible, replaced by a round, black void, surrounded by the white, filamentous ring of the otherwise invisible corona.
For those, including myself, who’ve never seen an eclipse in person, nothing can prepare us for how stunned we’ll be until we see it happening. If there’s any culturally significant, buoyant event worth marking with a holiday, it’s this April 8. If we get an annual day off to celebrate the Earth completing one more rotation around the sun, we should for this equally impressive—and rarer—cosmic event too.
This year, April 8, should be a statutory holiday. But holiday or not, come hell or high water, I’m not missing out on the eclipse.
Oliver is a second year law student.
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