OPINION: Family Day is a different kind of holiday

There’s something about Family Day that sets it apart from other holidays. 

No religious affiliation. No nationalism involved. No pressure to give gifts or to cook a turkey with all the trimmings. No wild celebration. Just a day to spend with those closest to your heart, if you’re lucky enough to have them. 

The idea of a holiday on the third Monday in February first came about in Alberta in February, 1989.  With a provincial election soon to come, then-Premier Don Getty delivered a throne speech that stressed family values and promised a battle against drugs via the start of the Alberta Family Life and Drug Abuse Foundation.

Jumping on a proposal by the opposition New Democrats, Getty went on to announce a statutory holiday called Alberta’s Family Day that would begin “provide an opportunity to celebrate the strength and vitality of families” starting in 1990.

It took a while, but other provinces followed. Saskatchewan celebrated its first Family Day in 2007. The following year two other provinces put a unique spin on a new holiday to be recognized the same day. Manitoba named its new February holiday Louis Riel Day, while PEI celebrated its heritage and geography by calling the third Monday in February Islander Day. 

Shortly after his reelection in October, 2007, Ontario’s then-Premier Dalton McGinty announced that the new statutory holiday would also be celebrated for the first time the following year. 

That was great news. After all, who wouldn’t want another statutory holiday

But I remember thinking that first year that the name Family Day was kind of strange, maybe even a bit weak as far as the name for a holiday. The Americans called their February holiday Presidents Day. Why couldn’t Ontario come up with something along those lines?

Looking back now, I realize that the name was perfect, because it prompted our tiny family of four to plan something together. 

That first year our kids were seven and four years old. We planned an overnight trip to Toronto with the highlight being a day spent at the Ontario Science Centre. We checked into a hotel Sunday afternoon, picked up my sister Jo-Anne from her apartment in Toronto, and brought her back to the hotel for a swim and dinner. 

The following day we explored the Science Centre, a place I hadn’t visited since a school trip some time in the 1970s. It was, of course, packed with other families, but I vividly recall the wide-eyed wonder of both of our children as they learned about dinosaurs and laughed as their hair went wild while touching the Van de Graff machine, a.k.a. the static electricity ball. 

My memories of subsequent years aren’t quite as vivid. Other Family Days were spent tobogganing at Fort George and going out for a special dinner as a family. One February holiday I remember us exploring the ice cave phenomena at Crystal Beach. 

This year marked our first Family Day without all of us living under the same roof. Our son Sebastian is currently attending Sir Sanford Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario. Until he informed us on Friday that he was coming back to NOTL to spend Monday with us, we assumed we would not all be together for the very first time. 

It was a great surprise. 

We played it by ear, though, and didn’t make huge plans. We considered a trip to the Niagara Parks Power Station, maybe seeing a movie in those amazingly comfortable chairs at Landmark Cinemas at the Pen Centre, and maybe a dinner out. 

In the end, the four of us decided to enjoy a sunny afternoon walking with our combined three dogs through the trails at Woodend Conservation Area. We weren’t the only ones experiencing nature Monday, either, as we encountered many other families walking together. The weather was perfect and the dogs were in their element. 

We capped it off later with some takeout from the Sand Trap before he made the journey back to Lindsay. 

It was perfect, and just as memorable as that February, 2008 Monday at the Ontario Science Centre. To me, that’s what Family Day is, and should be, all about. And I hope your holiday Monday was as enjoyable as ours.