Viscount Monck, Canada’s first governor general, issued the 1868 proclamation asking Canadians to celebrate July 1.
On June 20, 1868, Charles Stanley Monck, 4th Viscount Monck, issued a royal proclamation calling on Canadians to celebrate the anniversary of Confederation. The request helped establish July 1 as a recurring national observance after the new Dominion’s first anniversary in 1867.
The proclamation did not immediately create a statutory public holiday. Parliament formally designated July 1 as Dominion Day in 1879. The name Canada Day was adopted much later, in 1982, after the Constitution Act, 1982 and the broader modernization of Canada’s national symbols and terminology.
The alternative names can be confusing because several later governor generals became prominent in Canadian history. The Marquess of Lorne served from 1878 to 1883, Lord Stanley from 1888 to 1893, and the Earl of Dufferin from 1872 to 1878. None issued this 1868 proclamation.