BC's First Annual Family Day (By: Mark Zhang)
Most of you probably can’t recall a date like Family Day ever being on the calendar before this year; and you would be absolutely right.
This year, on February 18, B.C. celebrated it’s first ever Family Day.
Before coming to B.C., this statutory holiday was already being celebrated in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and P.E.I.
A statutory holiday is a holiday in which most workers are able to take the day off as with Christmas and New Years Eve.
Family Day first started in Manitoba in 1990 and was the only province celebrating it until 2007 when Saskatchewan began to participate as well.
As the name suggests, Family Day is a day that has been set aside for families to spend some quality time together without any other theme attached to it. Of course most students simply treat it as any other holiday. You may not care too much about it other than the fact that it’s a day off, but there are some interesting facts about Family day you may find intriguing:
· Many businesses in Saskatchewan did not appreciate the addition of another holiday and implored the government for compensation for the financial losses it caused. The Government gave compensation in the form of $95-million corporate tax cuts. However, most corporations had already taken matters into their own hands and simply removed a day off for their workers at some other time in the year.
· B.C. premier Christy Clark of the Liberal Party was the one who got Family Day approved in the province after it was rejected by the Campbell government from 2007 to 2011.
· In Manitoba, the holiday is actually called Louis Riel Day and is dedicated to the spiritual leader of the Métis and a founder of the province.