Most of our offices will be closed from the afternoon of December 23, 2011 through to January 2, 2012. We’ll be back in the offices on January 3 all ready to serve you in the new year. As always our dedicated team of Technical Support reps continues to be available 24/7 to assist you.
Here are the specific hours by department:

Please note: during this closure, there will be no orders or requests processed for the following Service Bureau ccTLDs: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk and .mx.

Happy Holidays to you, your colleagues and your families during this holiday season and the new year!

Shopping for pumpkins in Ottawa (courtesy Wikipedia)

Monday, October 10th, 2011 is Canadian Thanksgiving, which means that our headquarters in Toronto will be operating on holiday hours.

Typical Canadians – Always Trying to Be Different

For trivia buffs, there’s a really good reason why Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October while Americans wait until November (and no, it’s not because we’ll be snowed in – har, har). A quick check of the Book of Knowledge (aka Wikipedia) reveals the following:

“By the end of the 19th Century, Thanksgiving Day was normally celebrated on November 6. 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.”

So there you have it – we’re just trying to avoid conflict in our usual Canadian way.

Holiday Hours

Now on to the official business: Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you. Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

Our normal hours will resume on Tuesday, October 11. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!

First, the official business: Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you. Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

About Labour Day

With that stuff out of the way, I will note that I used to find it kind of ironic that we celebrate Labour Day by not working. However, a quick read on Wikipedia revealed that the origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to December 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Union’s strike for a 58-hour work-week. Makes much more sense!

Absolutely True Facts about Canadians

As is also the tradition here on the blog, I’ll now provide some interesting insights and facts about what we do on long weekends in Canada so that we can further some stereotypes about Canadians.

Here in Ontario, Labour Day is an official day of mourning for kids, and a day of wild celebrations for parents (by government proclaimation). You see, it’s the unofficial last day of summer as everyone is back to school dark and early on Tuesday morning.

It’s also yet another opportunity for many Canadians to drink beer and head for the cottage (preferably in the opposite order – drive to the cottage, then drink beer – Arrive Alive. Drive Sober). In fact, this weekend is one of the last chances to get out on the water before the switchover from jet skis to snowmobiles happens (typical September weather for Toronto is shown to the right).

Those that stick around the city, especially here in Toronto, get to enjoy the last couple of days of the Canadian National Exhibition (the Ex!) just a few minutes south of the Tucows head office at the CNE grounds. It’s deep-fried everything for two weeks. Last year it was deep fried butter…this year it’s deep fried Coke!

Canada Day, also affectionately referred to as Canada’s Birthday, is a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, today called the Constitution Act, 1867, which united three British colonies into a single country, called Canada within the British Empire.

Originally called Dominion Day, the name was changed in 1982, the year that Canada gained full independence from the United Kingdom. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.

Historical facts aside, we think it’s the perfect long weekend for our pet polar bears (each Canadian has one you know) to just chill out and enjoy a cold one on a warm, sunny day. The beaver on the other hand… we’ve tried to get him to relax, but without resorting to prescription meds, there doesn’t seem to be much chance of that.

For those of you more interested in serious business, here are the hours of operation during the holiday:

Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you.

Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Hours by department:

We’ll be closed this Friday April 22nd for the Easter holiday.

Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you.

Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

Special thanks for Flickr user Alanna George for licensing their colourful Easter egg shot under a creative commons license.

We’ll be closed this Monday for Ontario’s Family Day holiday. We’re looking forward to spending some quality time with our loved ones.

Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you.

Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: (.at, .fr, .nl, .ch, .li, .it, .dk, .com.mx)
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

photo by Frank Lemire, Technical Support Team Lead

Here are the hours by department:

Please note that during this closure, there will be:

• No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: (.at, .fr, .nl, .ch, .li, .it, .dk, .com.mx)
• No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

We are looking forward to working with you in the new decade. Happy Holidays to you, your business colleagues and your families.

photo by Imran M., Tucows Lead Engineer

Here are the hours by department:

Here’s our hours by department for Monday, September 7th, 2009:

Have a great weekend!

As a result of the holiday, Tucows headquarters in Toronto will be operating with reduced staffing:

• OpenSRS Technical Support will operate as usual, with regular hours.
• Compliance, Payments, Service Bureau and Special Processing departments will all be closed Monday.

We’ll be back to our regular hours on Tuesday.