Santa 1, Jesus 0: city one step closer to Christmas Day shopping
Retail lackeys of Toronto, get ready to duke it out for vacation time, because the city’s economic development committee voted 5-1 in favour of allowing stores to stay open on holidays. Council will vote on the decision next month. The holidays affected are New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Family Day—holidays councillor Kyle Rae says “are no longer sacrosanct.”
“On Christmas Day, I spend my time in a movie theatre,” says Rae. “It’s a great time… Family isn’t always a good thing.” We’re sure Rae’s family will be very happy to hear that. The irony of all this is that Family Day was instituted in order to allow families to spend more time together. We’re also wondering if this will throw Boxing Day sales schedules out of whack if malls stay open on Christmas.
Canada: where we have the freedom to marry our same-sex partners, get free health care and shop at the Gap year-round.
• City poised to allow Christmas Day shopping [Toronto Star]
City councillors don’t seem to mind forcing other people to work Christmas & Easter but I bet they would change their tune if they were forced to work Christmas & Easter. Especially at such a meaningless minimum wage job.
Retail stores should be open on those few holidays that remain sacred ONLY if all of those bureaucrats who voted for this move are at their desks @ City Hall as well and not on a beach in Florida or on their docks in Muskoka when retail workers are in the stores. Would bet dollars to donuts that Mr. Rae would protest loud and long if he was not given the Jewish high holidays off. Even Americans have enough sense to give EVERYONE at least a few mandatory holidays off. Surely there are bigger issues facing Toronto – like lowering property taxes – that should be keeping Mr. Rae up at night???
@Michael Jersperson
Forced to work on holidays? With the opportunity to work for overtime pay, most people will jump on that chance. Most family gatherings and celebrations are done on Christmas eve. Being non-religious, Christmas happens to be one of the most boring days for me. Whether I do nothing at home or actually go out to spend my own time should be dictated by me, not by what’s open or close.
I say if the retailer wishes to stay open, they can. But if they chose to close on Christmas they can as well.
No one is FORCING anyone to work on a religious or otherwise sacred holiday against their will.
I believe we should leave stores closed on the designated holidays already in place. We are such a busy city and it gives people a chance to slow down for a day a few times a year and appreciate time spent with family and friends.
Canada was founded as a Christian nation, and those holidays that fall under the Catholic and Christian calendar should remain sacrosanct, As a consumer I may be tempted to use the extra day to catch up on the very last minute shopping that I neglected to do, due to time constraints because I was working at my retail slavery job. It may also have been due to the fact that my retail slavery job didn’t allow me enough money to shop until the very last day because it doesn’t pay enough and my children need to eat. Thank the Christian God that there is the Christmas Wish Foundation or else my children probably would not get anything for Christmas at all since I spent most of the money on presents for others so we would not be embarrassed attending celebrations with family empty-handed because of my low paying job that most certainly is not worth working on Christmas day.