Ah...

The glorious holiday we Canadians call... the Civic Holiday. We're so whimsical.

Actually, in Toronto the holiday is known as Simcoe day, after John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (now whimsically known as Ontario) and was most notable for effectively abolishing slavery in Upper Canada. He didn't abolish it outright, but forbade new slaves from being brought in to Canada, and decreed that children born to slave mothers would be free on their 25th birthday.

Slavery essentially ceased to exist in Upper Canada by 1810. (The United States invaded two years later to bring us freedom.) For reference, slavery was abolished in the rest of the British Empire a quarter century later, and more than a half century later in the United States.

Anyway, Simcoe is as close as Canada comes to a Lincoln figure, and we don't even recognize his greatness nation-wide - Toronto is the only juridiction that calls it Simcoe Day. I know the rest of the country hates this city, but in this case at least, the country has something to learn from us.