As I stare out my office window this week, I can't help but feel a tad jealous of my friends and family in Alberta and Saskatchewan who had the day off on Monday. In those provinces, Monday was a stat holiday, but not so in beautiful B.C. In fact, B.C. is one of the few places in North American that has no public holiday between New Year's Day and Easter.
That could be changing, thanks to a call from the BC Federation of Labour for a February holiday in B.C.
The BC Fed has called on the Liberal government to institute this change, and in the past week, called on all the leadership hopefuls to endorse the idea. So far the only one expressing an interest in making it happen is Christy Clark.
BC Fed has been urging this holiday for the past three years. Since their original call, Manitoba introduced legislation and celebrates Louis Riel Day. In Ontario, government has established Family Day. Family Day was already celebrated in Saskatchewan and Alberta, while the U.S. celebrated President's Day on Monday.
I'll have to admit that I've never really agreed with much the BC Fed does. I'm not a huge fan of labour unions, but I have to say the idea and the background documentation they have come up with sure makes for a compelling case for a February stat holiday.
A Statistics Canada study has found that Canadian workers in 2005 were working longer and, as a result, were spending 45 minutes less each day with their families on work days than they did in the 1980s.
Similarly, Stats Canada reported that in the last 20 years, Canadians on average are working an extra 200 hours a year. That equals 25 eight-hour days or five work weeks each year.
Since 1996, the average annual hours worked by B.C. workers has risen to about 1,500 a year, but for the poorest families, the lowest 10 per cent, the average annual hours increased by a further 800 hours to 2,300.
Between 2002 and 2006, total employment (excluding those self-employed), increased by 11.2 per cent, but the number of people working more than 40 hours a week increased by 19.2 per cent; the number of men working more than 40 hours per week increased by 15.1 per cent and the number of women by 24.2 per cent.
So what do all these numbers and statistics mean? We're all working harder and longer - and it's high time we get another paid vacation day.
So come on, powerful politicians in Victoria - once we have a new premier and a new leader for the New Democrats, it's time to start thinking for the people. Let's give us a little break in February. It's time for a stat holiday.
