Holidays

Holidays
Canada recognizes and celebrates the following national holidays (some provinces may have minor differences):
New Year's — 1 January
Family Day — 3rd Monday in February (not observed in all provinces, known as Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, Islander Day in PEI)
Good Friday — typically sometime during week of April, always on a Friday
Easter Sunday — typically first Sunday in April
Canada Day—1 July
Victoria Day—Last Monday in May before 24 May (always one week before the U.S. holiday of Memorial Day)
Civic Day — first Monday in August (only applies in some provinces, under different names ie. in Ontario its referred to as Simcoe Day after an early Lieutenant Governor)
Labour Day — first Monday in September
Thanksgiving—Second Monday in October (the same day as the U.S. holiday of Columbus Day)
Remembrance Day —11 November (this day is observed in the U.S. as Veterans Day)
Christmas — 25 December
Boxing day—26 December
Note also that Canada's Labour Day is not celebrated on 1 May, as in much of the world, but on the first Monday in September (the same day as the U.S. celebrates its Labor Day).
Canada's government is a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system inherited from the British and similar to the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Canada is formally a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state. She is represented in Canada by the Governor-General, currently David Lloyd Johnston, who carries out her duties. The monarchy serves mostly as a bygone figurehead, though, and in practice the Prime Minister is largely seen to wield political autonomy and power.
Canada is a federal state and provinces have a great deal of autonomy. Each province has its own legislature and provincial government, and the Canadian constitution defines certain areas of exclusively provincial jurisdiction. For example, each province sets its own drinking age, minimum wage, sales tax, labour regulations, and administers their own road, healthcare and education systems. Two of the three territories' legislative assemblies (Nunavut and the Northwest Territories) are peculiar, as they are non-partisan - no political parties are represented.
There are four main parliamentary parties at the federal level: the Conservative Party (right of centre), the Liberal Party (left of centre), the New Democratic Party (left), and the Bloc Québécois (a left-wing, Québécois nationalist party that promotes the separation of Quebec from Canada and does not run candidates outside of Quebec). Only the Conservatives (currently) and (more often) the Liberals have ever been the national government, though the NDP have governed various provinces. The Bloc - who are for obvious reasons regarded somewhat negatively in other parts of the country - do not participate in provincial-level politics, but another provincial-level sovereigntist party, the Parti Québécois, has won provincial elections and formed the government in Quebec on several occasions. Compared to American politics, all of these parties trend somewhat more "liberal".