Our language evolves.

In the May 31, 1948 edition of LIFE, an advertisement encouraged Americans to visit Canada during their summer vacation. “Come north,” the ad read, “to fun in the sun at gay summer colonies.”

The phrase has a slightly different inference now.

And our global relationships evolve.

In 1948, American visitors could “. . . go places and see things in interesting ‘foreign’ cities . . . No passport needed.”

Ah, the age of innocence.

The ad was placed by what was then the Canadian Government Travel Bureau of the Department of Trade and Commerce and signed by none other than the minister, the Rt. Hon. C.D. Howe.

So Americans, come on up. Have a gay time. It’s sunny here now (finally).