Family Day

Saskatchwanians do it. Albertans have it. Now, Ontarians, too, will be able to sit back and relax one more day of the year with their loved ones – well, at least two-thirds of them.

Family Day is the new statutory holiday in town, created in commemoration of families. It will fall on every third Monday of February, and this year, a good portion of Ontarians will have a day off on February 18.

Shirley Ma, a Gr. 12 student at A. Y. Jackson Secondary School, is looking forward to enjoying the new holiday with her family.

“It’s a good idea. I’m going to do exactly that – spend time with my family.” she says with a timid smile, suggesting that her plans are to go shopping with her mother and perhaps catch a movie afterwards. 

Shopping, however, isn’t the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind in a discussion about the upcoming Monday. Alice Zheng, another Gr. 12 Jacksonite, has a completely different take on the same topic. “Why a holiday all of a sudden?” she questions. “Why is it called Family Day? What about those who don’t have families, like orphans, and those in retail?”

 “[The government] should have predicted how different groups would react to the change,” Zheng continues, noticeably frustrated. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of people who’d be upset over this.”

She is right – while all four school boards and most citizens will welcome the holiday, certain unionized workers will not qualify for Family Day. In the hospitals, for example, the lab workers will not receive the holiday although Registered Nurses will. In all, the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario estimates that approximately 40 percent of Ontarians should expect a regular work day on the 18th.

Provincial legislators are well aware of the discrepancy. In fact, Premier Dalton McGuinty admits that the holiday has been implemented in a rush and that it is necessary to “iron out some of the wrinkles” that accompany the new holiday.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario president Sid Ryan predicts an imminent commotion between those who are granted public holidays, those who are not, and the Ontario government, citing inequality as its plausible cause. Zheng agrees. “It’s not fair. We should deal with other, more important issues first before diving into another pool of confusion.”