ANYONE WHO BRAVED last weekend at a campground must have been left wondering why it was that our federal politicians opted to move the Victoria Day holiday to the Monday preceding the May 24 whenever it doesn't happen to fall on the actual birthday of Queen Victoria 190 years ago, in 1819.

Moving the holiday to a Monday wasn't that bad an idea, in that it gave most Canadians a long weekend roughly twothirds of the way through spring and allowed those Ontarians lucky enough to own cottages or boats a chance to open up the former and launch the latter.

Occasionally, the weekend in Southern Ontario is lovely, with the lilacs in bloom, the trees all in full leaf and our highways handling huge volumes of traffic.

But not so last weekend; instead, there was rain most of the day Saturday, frost just about everywhere Monday morning and winds Sunday afternoon that made hiking challenging for all but those in full winter garb.

Then, as those few who had braved it to the cottage or campground headed home Monday afternoon, came the long-range forecast calling for above-normal temperatures by mid-week and sunny skies and seasonable temperatures next weekend and into Monday the 25th.

Clearly, a tiny change in the federal holidays statute would have given most Canadians a far more pleasant holiday weekend, by moving Victoria Day to the Monday closest to the 24th.

Granted, there's no great rush to make the change, since next year the 24th falls on a Monday. But perhaps our MP, David Tilson, would find all-party support for a private member's bill that would put to an end this nonsense of marking "the 24th" on the 18th of May instead of the 25th.