....and for the other half of the explanation....
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been futilely attempting to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did, however, establish a settlement in Canada. In the year 1578, Frobisher held a formal ceremony in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This event is widely considered to be the first Canadian Thanksgiving, and the first official Thanksgiving to occur in North America.
It should be noted that the 1578 ceremony was not the first Thanksgiving as defined by First Nations tradition. Long before the time ofMartin Frobisher, it was traditional in many First Nations cultures to offer an official giving of thanks during autumnal gatherings.