Most people won’t begrudge folks getting another statutory holiday every year (except maybe some struggling business owners), but how Family Day came together was the epitome of political bumbling and fumbling.
On May 25, Premier Christy Clark announced British Columbia’s first Family Day would occur on the second Monday in February in 2013.
There wasn’t a lot of fanfare over the announcement other than a few B.C. Liberal minions clapping each other on the backs for doing such a wonderful thing for families in this “Families First” province.
Maybe British Columbians will become more excited next year, as the new Family Day long weekend gets closer.
The fact that the extra day off falls just prior to the next provincial election is probably just a coincidence.
To think it wasn’t would be cynical, and it would be like handing out free shots in the parking lots at the polling stations.
No, this was the premier following up on a promise she made during the B.C. Liberal leadership race in January 2011.
At the time, she promised to make the third Monday in February a new holiday.
It would fall on the same day Family Day is celebrated in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island.
The reasoning was sound because, presumably, the thinking was this would give people an extra long weekend each year, so they could spend time with family in other provinces.
However, that was when the anointed premier was popular and wasn’t chasing her tail to find the lost lustre.
Now, as the B.C. Liberals lag in the popularity polls, she is prepared to do anything to show she and her cronies are the party of the people.
Clark wanted to show the great unwashed the B.C. Liberals had learned their lesson from ramming the HST down our throats, so she was determined to allow the “people” help her government make the extremely important decision of when to hold Family Day.
Apparently, 30,000 people responded to the plea for input and the decision was another B.C. Liberal leader would break a promise.
Family Day will be held on the second Monday when the ski resorts and other vacations spots might be less busy than the busier third Monday when these venues would be crowded with people spending time in B.C. with their out-of-province families.
