Opinions

War of Words

This Week's Topic- Family Day Ll

 

 

 

 

February can be a pretty lame and boring time of year.
Christmas has been over for two months, and Easter is still
a ways away.

Several provincial governments across the country have
suggested inventing a new statutory holiday to lessen the
February blahs. But is creating a special “Family Day” really

 

 

worth the effort?

   

Pro

By Monica Carino

Lig Family Day is the latest statutory
holiday to be declared in Ontario, a day
that will now be celebrated on the third
Monday of every February, giving the
province a total of nine stat holidays per
year.

True, we’ve already implemented
a lot of holidays—Canada Day and
Thanksgiving to name but two. But
while enumerating the number of
official holidays we celebrate may be
important to some, basing an argument
about holidays on the basis of “how
many” we already have is irrelevant to
the whole purpose of having a holiday

in the first place. There are several ways
to react to Ontario’s decision to create
this new day, but I would like to dwell
on the underlying motivation of having
an official Family Day.

Here is a definition of holiday: “a
day fixed by law or custom on which
ordinary business is suspended in
commemoration of some event or in
honor of some person.” Note this key
point—to pay tribute to an event or
person. Hence, Family Day is a day to
celebrate family ties, to promote family
gatherings in our otherwise busy lives,
and if you want to be humorous about
it, even a day to encourage carpooling!

.y

We deserve a day to celebrate the family

Point is, Family Day honours the truism
that “it’s the thought that counts.”
Family Day offers the chance to be able
to see your kids play, or give your wife
something worthwhile — these are small
but important things that always matter.

We need to look at this Family Day
idea from all angles. Like from the point
of view of fathers who are away most
of the time, or from the perspective of
working students who rarely share a meal
with their parents. To see the importance
of Family Day is to wear the shoes of all
the people who will be bettered by it. I
cannot emphasize this point strongly
enough.

And besides, deeming something
“unnecessary” is eloquent, but empty.
There are no grounds to label any holiday
pointless. For every person who puts
effort into declaring a holiday pointless
there will be just as many willing to take
the opposite side. So really, the criticisms
are just arbitrary.

Yes, Family Day will be yet another
addition to the large count of holidays
already out there. But let’s be clear.
Family Day justifies its existence through
its founding purpose alone: a day of
appreciation to that priceless blessing we
call “family”.

 

We have enough useless holidays as it is

Against

By Garth McLennan

Ops in Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba and Ontario, the latest public
holiday is Family Day. Well actually,
it isn’t that new, Alberta has been
celebrating the annual date since 1990.

Family Day was just
pronounced a statutory holiday in
Ontario this year. Really, how ridiculous
is this? While it is always great to
have time off work or school, the year
has become so bloated with official
“holidays” that is becoming tough to
keep track of them all.

Holidays are supposed to be
certain times of the year that we really
appreciate, that we get a break from our
normal routine to celebrate a significant
event or to remember a particular date.

Nationwide, there are over
26 holidays in various provinces and
territories. This includes everything
from Christmas and Thanksgiving to
Discovery Day and Tartan Day.

Honestly, did you even know

 

in Canada, we formally recognize
Construction Holiday or the National
Grandparents Day? Oh, and if you do
know those, don’t forget to celebrate
Fire Prevention Week, National Flag of
Canada Day or Davis Day.

What are we coming to? Is
the nation becoming so obsessed with
political correctness that we really need
Heritage Day or Louis Riel Day?

Another problem is that so
many of the different dates aren’t
standardized nationally. For example,
aside from federal holidays such as
Remembrance Day or New Year’s,
many provinces and territories have
inconsistent numbers of holidays
per year. BC and the Yukon, for
example, have nine holidays, while
Newfoundland has 11, and the
Northwest Territories have ten. On the
other end of the scale though, Nova
Scotia has just five, and Prince Edward
Island has only six.

When you add the totals up,

and include both federal and provincial
holidays, Newfoundland has 21, and
that’s without Family Day. Adding
Family Day to any province only further
dilutes the holiday pool, so to speak.
Why is it that a province requires 21
holidays?

Also, what does Family Day
celebrate or commemorate exactly? I
think the idea is to spend extra time
with your family at home, and while
that is a nice idea, it is hardly grounds
to create a new yearly anniversary.

That is the real problem with
Family Day, and so many holidays that
are kicking around these days—it’s just
plain unnecessary. There is no real need
for Family Day. There are already so
many days on our yearly calendar that
we circle and look forward to; we truly
don’t need another one.

Holidays such as Family
Day, to a certain degree, just cheapen
the more meaningful ones. While it is
true that some people look forward to

 

some of the lesser-known holidays, you
have to accept that most of the people
in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and
Saskatchewan probably aren’t counting
down the days until Family Day next
year.

Now, from a more cynical
standpoint, there are obvious financial
implications to creating another holiday.
While most people would probably be
happy about bugging their employers,
another new statutory holiday will
most likely piss off the people signing
the cheques, as they lose yet another
full day of production. Regardless of
how you feel about big companies
and bosses, it is true that they will
lose money by closing their doors for
another day.

So, when it comes down to it,
Family Day just doesn’t matter enough
to justify holiday-status, even on a
provincial level. There isn’t a need for it
anywhere, and we have enough holidays
as it is.