A few new public holidays for Canada

Canada has serious gaps in its public holidays calendar. Here's how we can fill them up –

1. Chinese New Year. Falls in early February or (occasionally) late January. Fills the February-holiday shaped hole in our national heart and celebrates the contributions of Chinese-Canadians to our country.

2. Baisakhi. A pleasant mid-April holiday is always welcome! Nominally the Sikh and Hindu new year and celebrated as a secular harvest festival in various South Asian cultures, as Gudi Padva, Vishu, Bihu, Pongal, Poyla Boishakh, etc.

3. National Aboriginal Day. This falls on the summer solstice (June 21) every year and is marked by dry, bureaucratic pronouncements with almost nil mainstream awareness. Admit it, we stole this land and Canada is a living fossil from a bygone colonial era. The least we can do is acknowledge and highlight the culture of 1.2 million Aboriginal Canadians.

Between them, these three holidays add about 3.8 million people (11% of the population) whose presence in the Canadian hodge-podge gets respected and celebrated as it rightly should be, and we get an extra 3 days off in late winter, almost summer, and midsummer.