Canada

Canada Day on CBC: Celebrate with us

Celebrate Canada’s 147th birthday with CBC on Tuesday, July 1, live from Parliament Hill, featuring performances from some of Canada’s top musical acts, including Serena Ryder, Brett Kissel, Marianas Trench, Nadja, Daniel Lavoie, Véronic DiCaire and folk rockers Whitehorse.

A guide to CBC's July 1 special event coverage

CBC is covering the Canada Day events on Parliament Hill. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Celebrate Canada’s 147th birthday with CBC and Radio-Canada on Tuesday, July 1, live from Parliament Hill.

The Canada Day festivities from Ottawa will highlight the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, the end of the mission in Afghanistan and the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown and Québec Conferences, as well as our Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

The celebration on Parliament Hill features performances from some of Canada’s top musical acts, including Serena Ryder and Brett Kissel, punk rockers Marianas Trench, French pop sensations Nadja and Daniel Lavoie, singer/impersonator Véronic DiCaire, and folk rockers Whitehorse.

To mark Canada's birthday, CBC News is also inviting Canadians to share their thoughts on what defines the country. Canadians everywhere are being asked to fill in the blank: "My Canada is ____." Have your say about what Canada means to you using #MyCanadaIs on Twitter and Instagram, by emailing community@cbc.ca, or uploading video to yournews.cbc.ca/upload. Submissions will be showcased during the July 1 Canada Day coverage across CBC News platforms.

Canada Day programming

Tune in to CBC radio, television and online for coverage of the Canada Day festivities. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Kick off Canada Day with host Heather Hiscox live from P.E.I., starting at 6 a.m. ET on CBC News Network, as the province celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference that led to the foundation of Canada. 

Evan Solomon hosts a live CBC News Canada Day special from Parliament Hill, beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET on CBC News Network and on cbcnews.ca. Evan is joined by CBC’s Rosemary Barton and Jelena Adzic, who will be reporting live from Parliament Hill and talking to Canadians. (The special will air again on CBC-TV beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET, and on CBC News Network at 5 p.m. ET.)

Beginning at 12 p.m. ET, Céline Galipeau and Emmanuelle Latraverse will co-host the show on ICI Radio-Canada Télé, ICI RDI and ICI.Radio-Canada.ca. Daniel Thibeault will host the show for radio listeners starting at 12:06 p.m. on ICI Radio-Canada Première.

The evening concert, Canada Day in the Capital, will be televised on CBC-TV at 9 p.m. ET (11:30 p.m. AT/12 midnight NT), and on ICI Radio-Canada Télé and ICI.Radio-Canada.ca at 9 p.m. ET, with special programs on ICI Musique and icimusique.ca at 10 p.m. ET. The concert will be broadcast in its entirety live on CBC Radio 2 with host Tom Power (Radio 2 Morning) beginning at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. AT/9:30 p.m. NT). CBCMusic.ca/CanadaDay will also stream the concert live starting at 8 p.m. ET.

ICI ARTV will rebroadcast a one-hour edition of the Canada Day in the Capital concert on Wednesday, July 2nd at 2 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET.

Special Extras

CBC RADIO ONE: 

CBC Canada Day Songwriter Circle at 12 noon ET/1 p.m. AT/1:30 p.m. NT - Lucy van Oldenbarneveld of CBC News Ottawa will be hosting The CBC Canada Day Songwriter Circle on July 1st.  What better way to celebrate than with some of Canada’s most exciting singer songwriters? Joining Lucy on stage will be the talented Lynne Hanson, Sally Folk, Lauren Mann from Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk (winners of CBC Music’s Searchlight 2014) and John MacPhee from the Paper Lions.

O Canada at 4 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. NT - Ever wondered what Peter Mansbridge, Piya Chattopadhyay and Jian Ghomeshi will be listening to on Canada Day?  Garvia Bailey and Pete Morey have the answer. They're hosting a Canada Day music party on July 1st with musical suggestions from some of CBC's heavy hitters. They'll also test out Canadian music trivia on unsuspecting citizens and get some musical suggestions from Canadians enjoying Canada Day.

CBC RADIO 2:

Top 20 Canada Day All Request Weekend at 7 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. NT on Friday, June 27 - This week the Radio 2 Top 20 is showing our great nation some love with an all request special. Canadians from across the country told us what they wanted to hear on Canada's 147th birthday weekend and we obliged. Plus, a few requests from some of your favourite CBC personalities. Canada, this one's for you! 

CBC MUSIC:

100 Best Canadian Songs - Listen to the top 100 songs on CBCMusic: Sonica, available at CBCMusic.ca/Sonica and channel 171 on Sirius Radio. On July 1st, CBC Music launches its next big project: the 100 best Canadian songs. Ever.

It took months of arguing over whether something’s a “tune” or not, but a team of producers buckled down to choose 100 songs that are Canada’s absolute best. They then asked an array of musicians, actors and authors to weigh in and defend a song each.

Artists from Jenny Lewis to Dolly Parton to Shad to Yannick Nézet-Séguin spoke up for songs on the list, which will begin rolling out July 1 with numbers 100 to 76. The list will continue to be published in weekly segments of 25 songs apiece, until the best Canadian song is revealed on July 22.