Ontario Liberals propose new February statutory holiday

Letter to the Editor

I think it’s a good idea for Ontario to join other provinces and add a new statutory holiday in February (Critics pan Liberal’s proposal for winter holiday, Sept. 5, 2007, The Whig-Standard). As a society I believe we should be trying to be wealthier by having more time rather than having more money. Decades ago futurists were predicting that we would have more and more leisure time. Nothing of the sort happened. We certainly got wealthier, but it seems like we worked more to earn more money so we could buy more “stuff”. Since the Liberal government wants to call the holiday, “family day”, it seems appropriate to consider the example of average Canadian household size which decreased from 3.9 in 1961 to 2.6 in 2001 and continues to decrease. One of the reasons for this decline is that we have been working to buy more living space. But in this day and age when we are worried about environmental sustainability, perhaps we should put a higher value on having ‘time’ and a lower value on consuming ‘things’.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses claimed that, “a paid day off means a $2-billion ‘blow’ to the province’s economy”. My answer to that is that if the CFIB really believes that one more holiday would be a $2-billion ‘blow’, then why don’t they advocate one less holiday which by their logic might be a $2-billion ‘bonus’ to the Ontario economy. Shall we get rid of Christmas? The point is that an extra day of life for every working Ontarian, to spend as they please or offer to others, should be worth something too – perhaps, ultimately, comparable to the money missing from their pockets. Are businesses going to be seriously harmed by having to pay wages and losing ½% of a year’s work in return? In the long run I think not. Inflation has been running at around 2% per year recently. So holding the line on salaries for 3 months would be a crass way of getting back that ½% if a business were really intent on doing so.