Public Holidays in Canada 2026: Complete Guide for UK Travellers

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Canada is one of the UK’s great long-haul favourites, drawing British visitors to Toronto and Niagara Falls, the ski slopes and lakes of the Rockies, and the cosmopolitan waterfronts of Vancouver and Montreal. If you are planning a trip in 2026, it helps to know the country’s public holidays in advance. Canada’s calendar is unusual: a handful of holidays are set federally and observed nationwide, while many others are decided province by province, so the exact days off can change as you cross from Ontario into Quebec or British Columbia. This guide lists every major public holiday in Canada for 2026, explains what stays open and what closes, sets out how the dates differ by region, and shows how the Canadian calendar compares with UK bank holidays so you can plan around the busiest weekends.

Public Holidays in Canada 2026 — Full List

There is no single national holiday list in Canada. Five holidays are federal statutory holidays observed across the whole country — New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day. On top of those, each province and territory adds its own statutory days, and a few dates (such as Easter Monday, Boxing Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) are days off for federally regulated workers and in some provinces but not others. The table below shows the nationally significant dates for 2026, with the type of holiday indicated.

“National” marks the days observed almost everywhere in Canada; “Federal” marks days that are statutory for federally regulated workplaces (banks, post, air travel) and in several provinces; “Provincial” marks days that depend on where you are. Fixed-date holidays that land on a weekend are generally moved to the following Monday.

Long Weekends in Canada 2026

What’s Open and Closed on Public Holidays

On the big national days — Canada Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day — most banks, government offices, post offices and many shops close, and public transport runs to a reduced Sunday timetable. On smaller statutory days, such as Victoria Day, Labour Day or the August Civic Holiday, banks and offices close but a large share of shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants and attractions stay open, often with holiday hours. Liquor stores (the LCBO in Ontario, the SAQ in Quebec, BC Liquor in British Columbia) frequently close or shorten hours on statutory days, so stock up in advance.

How Canada’s Public Holidays Compare with UK Bank Holidays

The UK has eight bank holidays in England and Wales, almost all secular and tied to Mondays to create predictable three-day weekends. Canada shares the love of the Monday long weekend, but its calendar is layered: federal holidays sit under a patchwork of provincial ones, so the number of days off you get genuinely depends on which province you are in.

For the full British calendar to plan around, see our guide to the list of UK bank holidays, and if you are mapping out trips around extended breaks, our overview of long weekends in 2026 is a useful companion. Heading further south on the same trip? Our guide to public holidays in the USA 2026 covers the calendar across the border.

Key Cultural Holidays Explained

Canada Day, 1 July marks the 1867 confederation of the founding provinces into the Dominion of Canada. It is the country’s national day, celebrated with fireworks, concerts and red-and-white flags from St John’s to Victoria, with the flagship event on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Victoria Day, the Monday before 25 May, honours Queen Victoria’s birthday and, by tradition, the reigning sovereign. Uniquely Canadian in its timing, it is treated as the informal opening of the summer season — Canadians call it the “May two-four” weekend.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, 30 September, is Canada’s newest statutory holiday, created in 2021 to honour the survivors and lost children of the residential school system. Many people wear orange shirts to mark it.

Public Holidays That Differ by Province

This is where Canada trips up the unprepared traveller. Several widely known “holidays” are statutory only in certain provinces:

• Family Day (third Monday of February, 16 February 2026) is a statutory holiday in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and, under different names, in Manitoba (Louis Riel Day), Nova Scotia (Heritage Day) and Prince Edward Island (Islander Day) — but not in Quebec or the Atlantic provinces generally.
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day / Fête nationale (24 June) is a statutory holiday in Quebec only, where it is the province’s national day.
• The August Civic Holiday (first Monday, 3 August 2026) goes by many names — BC Day, Saskatchewan Day, Heritage Day, Natal Day — and is not statutory in Quebec.
• Boxing Day (26 December) is a full statutory holiday in Ontario and for federal workers, but only a partial or non-statutory day elsewhere.
• Remembrance Day (11 November) is statutory in most provinces and territories, but not in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia or Manitoba, where it is commemorated without a general day off.

Planning Your Trip Around Public Holidays

If you want the full-throated celebration, time your visit for Canada Day in early July, when every town has fireworks and Ottawa is packed — just book accommodation months ahead. For classic long-weekend energy without the peak crowds, the Victoria Day weekend in May and the Thanksgiving weekend in October offer superb weather (spring blossom or autumn colour) and lively but manageable cities. If you would rather avoid the busiest travel crush, steer clear of the Labour Day weekend in early September, when domestic flights and highways are at their fullest. Whichever dates you choose, remember that holidays shift as you cross provincial lines, so check the local calendar for the province you will actually be in, and secure car hire and internal transport early around any Monday holiday.

FAQ

Sources & Last Verified

This guide was compiled by cross-checking multiple sources to ensure accuracy:

• Government of Canada — statutory holidays for federally regulated workplaces (canada.ca public holidays)
• Provincial and territorial labour standards for region-specific statutory days
• Nager.Date public holiday API — date.nager.at (Canada 2026), cross-referenced with the python-holidays library

Last verified: 17 July 2026
Author: Bank Holidays UK Editorial Team