# Liberals win election, create new holiday
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 12, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467 "2007-10-12T14:40:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/1 "2007-10-12T14:40:28Z")
Yep. The Liberals won a majority in Wednesday’s election in Ontario, and one of the first things the Premier did was to sign a Order-in-Council to create a new statutory holiday.
Family Day will now take place on the third Monday in February, starting on February 18, 2008. It’s just after St. Valentine’s Day, which seems appropriate.
I thought someone would have had to vote on it or something.
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### Author:  [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/2 "2007-10-12T14:41:48Z")
Would not Family Day being celebrated some nine months after St. Valentines Day be more appropriate?
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### Author:  [@meek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meek)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/3 "2007-10-12T14:51:17Z")
… but not without controversy.
::snipped from wiki cuz I’m too lazy to type it.::
> [@](#):
>
> The holiday was proclaimed by Alberta Premier Don Getty, in response to a drug scandal involving his son, Dale Getty, who had been arrested for possession of cocaine and was revealed to have cocaine addiction. Premier Getty was obviously embarrassed by the revelation and admitted publicly that he had neglected his family, saying that it was also important for all Albertans to take more care with their families.
>
> Getty came in for considerable criticism at the time. Many people felt he had abused his position to compensate for his feelings of guilt with respect to his own family. Also, many employers felt that an additional statutory holiday was an unnecessary fiscal burden. In response to the criticism, the August holiday (Heritage Day) was downgraded to a civic holiday, meaning employers no longer have to offer holiday pay that day if they take Family Day off.
>
> Businesses are not legally required to pay holiday pay on Family Day. An employer can explicitly choose to not pay holiday pay on Family Day, in which case it must pay holiday pay on Heritage Day. Provincial government employees have both days off.
FWIW - The Liberals had said they were going to do this before the election.
.
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### Author:  [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/4 "2007-10-12T14:52:56Z")
Luckily, my employer gave us Family Day off as well as all of the other stat holidays, at no loss of pay (in Alberta and NWT). I loved working for a family business.
In the NWT, I believe that day is called Aboriginal Day. Why not? Aboriginals have families, too.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/5 "2007-10-12T15:28:38Z")
Does this mean that we will see Family Day cards in the stores, and Family Day decorations, and people will start putting their Family Day lights up earlier and earlier, until they collide with Christmas, and just never take the Christmas lights down?
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### Author:  [@meek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meek)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/6 "2007-10-12T16:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Does this mean that we will see Family Day cards in the stores, and Family Day decorations, and people will start putting their Family Day lights up earlier and earlier, until they collide with Christmas, and just never take the Christmas lights down?
[/QUOTE]
Or worse - Decorating the family tree by hanging family members from it. :eek:
.
😃
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/7 "2007-10-12T16:10:41Z")
[QUOTE=meek]
Or worse - Decorating the family tree by hanging family members from it. :eek:
[/QUOTE]
My family members are doing just fine hanging where they are, thanks.
No, wait. That’s the family jewels. 😃
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### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/8 "2007-10-12T16:19:23Z")
I’m cool with it. I’m salaried so the paid-holiday part of it doesn’t concern me, but I’m all for another day of not having to work for it. 🙂
Fiscally – well, crap. If Austrian business can get away with 35 annual vacation days for its employees, I’m sure we’ll survive one extra statutory holiday.
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/9 "2007-10-12T17:37:26Z")
Great. Now that I no longer live and work in Ontario ☹
I wonder if we can get the Québec government to do something like this…!
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-win-election-create-new-holiday/422467/10 "2007-10-12T17:41:36Z")
Another holiday Monday, another stat I won’t get to work. I work a 7 shift out of 14 rotation, and another nurse has the balance. She works every Monday and Tuesday, I work every Thursday and Friday, with Wednesdays and weekends alternating. I get none of the Monday stat holidays. This will make 6 holidays she naturally gets, versus 1 I get, and five depending on how they fall in the calander. That being said, if you work Christmas, you work New Years, so… guess who never gets stats.
I dont mind having Christmas off, or Thanksgiving, but when its days that I wouldnt do anything in particular… (no Victoria Day commitments here!) I would really like a chance to work for double time and a half. Drat. I still get time off, but no chance to make some extra coin.