The earlier Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada have been attributed to the earlier onset of winter in the North, thus ending the harvest season earlier. Thanksgiving in Canada did not have a fixed date until the late 19th century. Prior to Canadian Confederation, many of the individual colonial governors of the Canadian provinces had declared their own days of Thanksgiving. The first official Canadian Thanksgiving occurred on April 15, 1872, when the nation was celebrating the Prince of Wales' recovery from a serious illness. By the end of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6. In the late 1800s, the Militia staged "sham battles" for public entertainment on Thanksgiving Day. The Militia agitated for an earlier date for a holiday, so they could use the warmer weather to draw bigger crowds. However, when World War I ended, the Armistice Day holiday was usually held during the same week. To prevent the two holidays from clashing with one another, in 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed Thanksgiving to be observed on its present date on the second Monday of October.

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