Federal Government & Politics II

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by rbt

That works in the west. From Ontario east businesses get fined for being open on stat holidays. Enforcement on Easter and Christmas is consistent.

As they should. If you don’t like Canadian culture and customs and your only goal is to ruin everything for everyone else… why come here?

[rbt]

Originally Posted by Hecate

As they should. If you don’t like Canadian culture and customs and your only goal is to ruin everything for everyone else… why come here?

Neither Christmas or Easter are Canadian culture. They're things Europeans brought with them when relocating here. It's great that my grandparents were able to bring some of their culture with them while immigrating here, and pass them down the family; but that doesn't make Easter part of Canadian culture any more than Diwali is Canadian culture. Canada has almost no holidays for Canadian culture aside from Canada Day, Thanksgiving Day, and arguably Victoria Day.

It's actually kinda impressive that after 150+ years we've had so few events to warrant a national holiday.

With Atheists rapidly becoming the majority in Canada, old-world religious oriented holidays don't really represent the country well at all. I'll be very surprised if Gen Alpha doesn't rename some of them, especially Good Friday/Easter Monday, in 40 years.

USA has several US specific holidays for events largely unique to their country: MLK, Washingtons Birthday, Memorial Day, Indepdendance Day, Columbus Day, and now Juneteenth.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Hecate

As they should. If you don’t like Canadian culture and customs and your only goal is to ruin everything for everyone else… why come here?

Why the hostility? You do realize that no immigrant asked for this? Yet, the vitriol against immigrants is so quick to arrive.
This whole discussion is because of a Canadian Human Rights Commission discussion paper. Even in the National Post article they note:

Despite the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s assertion that a day off on Christmas constitutes religious intolerance, polls show that non-Christian Canadians almost universally have no problem with the holiday.

A Leger poll from last year asked Canadians who grew up non-Christian whether they were offended by the greeting “Merry Christmas.” Of respondents, 92 per cent said “no.” That same poll also asked Canadians of all religions whether Christmas and other “religious” holidays should be struck from the country’s official statutory holidays. Only six per cent said “yes.”
This is likely why — at least at the Parliamentary level — politicians have largely abandoned any prior reticence to mentioning the word “Christmas” in favour of neutral terms like “Winter” or “Holidays.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — currently the only non-Christian major party leader — even included a “keep Christ in Christmas” aside in his official 2018 Christmas message. “For Christians around the world, this is a time to celebrate the life and teachings of Jesus Christ — and his message of compassion, courage and empathy,” he wrote.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/fed...us-intolerance

Sounds to me more like it's random native born Hosers who want to cancel Christmas than any immigrant.

[Hecate]

Originally Posted by rbt

Neither Christmas or Easter are Canadian culture. They're things Europeans brought with them when relocating here. It's great that my grandparents were able to bring some of their culture with them while immigrating here, and pass them down the family; but that doesn't make Easter part of Canadian culture any more than Diwali is Canadian culture. Canada has almost no holidays for Canadian culture aside from Canada Day, Thanksgiving Day, and arguably Victoria Day.

It's actually kinda impressive that after 150+ years we've had so few events to warrant a national holiday.

With Atheists rapidly becoming the majority in Canada, old-world religious oriented holidays don't really represent the country well at all. I'll be very surprised if Gen Alpha doesn't rename some of them, especially Good Friday/Easter Monday, in 40 years.

USA has several US specific holidays: MLK, Washingtons Birthday, Memorial Day, Indepdendance Day, and Columbus Day.

Christmas and Easter aren’t canadian culture…. Then wtf is? lol they very much are a part of Canadian culture. This entire country and its government systems were literally founded on Christian principles and traditions. Our king is literally the defender of the faith.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by rbt

Neither Christmas or Easter are Canadian culture. They're things Europeans brought with them when relocating here. It's great that my grandparents were able to bring some of their culture with them while immigrating here, and pass them down the family; but that doesn't make Easter part of Canadian culture any more than Diwali is Canadian culture. Canada has almost no holidays for Canadian culture aside from Canada Day, Thanksgiving Day, and arguably Victoria Day.

It's actually kinda impressive that after 150+ years we've had so few events to warrant a national holiday.

With Atheists rapidly becoming the majority in Canada, old-world religious oriented holidays don't really represent the country well at all. I'll be very surprised if Gen Alpha doesn't rename some of them, especially Good Friday/Easter Monday, in 40 years.

USA has several US specific holidays for events largely unique to their country: MLK, Washingtons Birthday, Memorial Day, Indepdendance Day, Columbus Day, and now Juneteenth.

I.e. core Canadian culture.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Why the hostility? You do realize that no immigrant asked for this? Yet, the vitriol against immigrants is so quick to arrive.
This whole discussion is because of a Canadian Human Rights Commission discussion paper. Even in the National Post article they note:



https://nationalpost.com/opinion/fed...us-intolerance

Sounds to me more like it's random native born Hosers who want to cancel Christmas than any immigrant.

Definitely true. It's a way of elevating oneself as virtuous.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I.e. core Canadian culture.

For better and for worse. But still reality.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

For better and for worse. But still reality.

Absolutely for better, imo, but that's a discussion one would want to engage in nowadays.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Sounds to me more like it's random native born Hosers who want to cancel Christmas than any immigrant.

Indeed.

The screechiest voices aren't generally the new arrivals who are trying to make it here, or the people at the bottom of the pyramid. They don't have time for that; they're working too hard just trying to get by.

It's a subset of the long-term locals with lots of free time and 'big ideas'. The Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution were mostly students. Fine, if the goal is to actually accomplish something for the maligned, but it seemingly is a performance-based show by the entitled. That's on both ends of the spectrum too, so this isn't a political orientation argument.

Not that I'm a huge fan of what Christmas has morphed into. Consumerasmas perhaps is a more apt description. It's saccharine, packaged, brought to you by Coca-Cola. Maybe the government can make 'Black Friday' a national holiday. Seems more in the ethos of early 21st century Canada.

[Djeffery]

All over Facebook this time if year are the old white guys posting their "In this house, we say Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays" memes. I just love intentionally saying Happy Holidays to them lol.

I work with several Muslim Jewish and Sikh people and not one of them bemoans the fact they have to take Good Friday or Christmas Day off. They say Merry Christmas as often as anyone else, they bring their kids to the work Christmas party, I'm jealous of the Christmas decorations the one guy has on his house lol. When the time of the year rolls around that there are important days in their religion, they simply ask for the time off or book vacation around it if they want the time.

Canada did also recently add a holiday of our own, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept 30. It does kind of bother me that this new holiday has taken on more significance than Remembrance Day has. I work in a federally regulated business so we should have both off, but we work Nov 11, as do all our competitors in our industry. Management has always said there are a certain number of stat holidays we are required to provide and since we also have a couple of provincial holidays, like Family Day or Ontario Civic Day (or Baptiste Day in Quebec), that they exceed the required number of days off we get. So why Sept 30 and not Nov 11 instead if we have to choose 1? Well, first we are in the transportation of goods and Nov 11 is closer to the start of the busy Christmas shipping season than Sept 30. But the biggest reason is public perception. It would be seen as too politically incorrect and disrespectful to not take that day.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Hecate

Christmas and Easter aren’t canadian culture…. Then wtf is? lol they very much are a part of Canadian culture. This entire country and its government systems were literally founded on Christian principles and traditions. Our king is literally the defender of the faith.

To the extent Christmas and Easter are still part of Canadian culture it is in the highly secular world of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, etc. Only half of Canadians identify as Christian and only a third of those attend religious services.

[Hackslack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

To the extent Christmas and Easter are still part of Canadian culture it is in the highly secular world of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, etc. Only half of Canadians identify as Christian and only a third of those attend religious services.

Yet a majority still put up a Christmas tree, eat chocolate bunnies, hide Easter eggs, and sit on Santa’s lap.

Oh ya……. and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for those occasions… not part of Canadian culture my ass

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Hackslack

Yet a majority still put up a Christmas tree, eat chocolate bunnies, hide Easter eggs, and sit on Santa’s lap.

Oh ya……. and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for those occasions… not part of Canadian culture my ass

And, at present, both Christmas and Easter have very little to do with the birth or death of Jesus Christ anyway. They have been almost completely transmogrified into secular holidays concerned with overweight elves and talking rabbits.

If these two holidays are no longer religious, then why cancel them???

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I dare JT to eliminate Christmas as a federal statutory holiday.

To do so would be to destroy the Liberal Party of Canada utterly and completely and irrevocably for all time.

Do it JT - I dare you..........

It's a commission that determined it not the JT government. I have yet to hear any politician actually suggest removing Christmas as a stat holiday and doing so would be political suicide.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Hackslack

JT cancelling Christmas in the name of racism is on par with that stupid city of Calgary councillor who tried to cancel Canada Day celebrations because of white colonialism. Fuck those cancel culture losers. Ruining my country and its history.

MEANWHILE…. We got pro terrorist groups marching in the streets calling for the genocide of Jews…. AND TRUDEAU IS WORRIED ABOUT CHRISTMAS?!


But but but… watch out for Danielle Smith….

Making a big deal about JT about something that never happened...

It's not your country it's ours.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

And, at present, both Christmas and Easter have very little to do with the birth or death of Jesus Christ anyway. They have been almost completely transmogrified into secular holidays concerned with overweight elves and talking rabbits.

If these two holidays are no longer religious, then why cancel them???

Most Indigenous people I know have a deep attachment to Christmas so the colonialism argument won't work. It really annoys me when non-Indigenous people will blame things on colonialism yet celebrating Christmas is a personal choice today and almost every Indigenous person sees Christmas as a positive thing.

While the findings of the commission are actually correct in many ways, they don't take into account our democratically made choices. I don't see any evidence of Indigenous, minority and religious groups calling for an end to Christmas and Easter as stat holidays.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Hackslack

Yet a majority still put up a Christmas tree, eat chocolate bunnies, hide Easter eggs, and sit on Santa’s lap.

Oh ya……. and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for those occasions… not part of Canadian culture my ass

Yes, the secular stuff, which is exactly what I said.

[someone123]

My main criticism of this is that it's more ammunition to make the Canadian Human Rights Commission look like they're unserious and either don't have substantial issues to look at or don't know what they're doing. We have a bloated civil service that will eventually need to be cut back.

This Easter egg hunt for discriminatory elements is critical rather than constructive and it seems the low-hanging fruit was picked long before they started. I don't think this mentality is going to yield much improvement in quality of life for anybody except the few people who have these BS jobs writing silly reports.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by thewave46

Not that I'm a huge fan of what Christmas has morphed into. Consumerasmas perhaps is a more apt description. It's saccharine, packaged, brought to you by Coca-Cola. Maybe the government can make 'Black Friday' a national holiday. Seems more in the ethos of early 21st century Canada.

As someone who grew up in a Catholic immigrant family, Christmas in North America is pretty gross. It's a gluttony of meaningless consumerism. That people virtue signal over it, is kinda ironic, especially when at least half of those who get worked up about saying, "Happy Holidays!", are unlikely to be churchgoers. If you aren't Christian, why the offence at Winter Solstice Holiday being called something else? It's not like your religious sensibilities are being offended.

What has always been interesting and bizarre to my religious parents is the fact that Good Friday is not a federal holiday in the US, a country that is seems hyper Christian at times. Yet, that day is arguably the most important in the Christian calendar.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by acottawa

To the extent Christmas and Easter are still part of Canadian culture it is in the highly secular world of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, etc. Only half of Canadians identify as Christian and only a third of those attend religious services.

Agree on religion but the idea it isn't a part of Canadian culture is dubious. All schools and post-secondary institutions close. Offices have parties. Absolutely everything closes and streets are empty on the day itself. Many immigrants (from non-Christian countries) also have trees, exchange gifts, decorate their house, sing etc. It is by far the biggest holiday of the year. And yes for many it has nothing to do with the pagan holiday Christians took over to celebrate the birth a prophet.