by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
November 16, 2004
as happens every year before Remembrance Day, discussions arise about whether November 11 should become a national holiday across Canada. More attention was paid to Remembrance Day this year because of the so-called "flag flap". Bloc Quebecois MP, andre Bellavance refused to provide veterans in his Richmond Quebec riding with a Canadian flag. according to the rookie MP, he’s a separatist and as such he doesn’t hand out Canadian flags. The most shocking thing about Bellavance’s refusal to provide his constituents with a flag is the shock that it caused. It seems that it is perfectly alright in this country to have a legal separatist party whose goal is the destruction of the country. Canada sees nothing wrong with having its taxpayers pay a group of MPs to sit in the Parliament of a country that they detest. and when the Bloc wins the second most seats in the Commons as they did in 1993, they are referred to as "Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition" without so much as a barely a peep. So it is commonly accepted in this land of tolerance and diversity to have a legitimate political party, whose aim is to break up the country, but when one of them refuses to hand out Canadian flags, well, that’s really going too far. But Bellavance did manage to push the "let’s make November 11 a national holiday" into the limelight.
One of the best reasons to be against November 11 becoming a statutory holiday is that former MP and Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps is for it. In her column last week in the rapidly declining National Post, Copps couldn’t understand why it’s not already a national holiday. Her column came around, as all her columns do, to her. Back in the olden days when she was the Minister of Heritage, she wanted to make November 11 a stat. holiday. But alas, she was told that it couldn’t be done without consulting all of the provinces and besides, Treasury Board had told her the business community would be upset over the loss of billions of dollars in lost business. Sour Little Sheila lamented the fact that she couldn’t impose her "national vision" because of "vested economic interests" and those pesky provinces.
Copps, who undoubtedly spends her days reflecting upon how the shameless conduct of the Liberal Party that she was a part of for so long could have been turned against her, seems to think that a Remembrance Day holiday will allow Canadians to reflect upon what the veterans did for Canada. according to Copps, the holiday will allow Canadians to sit around for the entire day and reflect--yeah, right. We all know how much time is spent reflecting upon Queen Victoria (or is it Victoria’s Secret) during the May holiday weekend. By making November 11 a holiday, it will become just another day off.
although some veterans favour making November 11 a statutory holiday, The National Council of Veterans’ associations oppose the idea. according to Cliff Chadderton, the head of the organization, "I think it’s better to focus on two minutes of silence". He also added that making Remembrance Day a national holiday would mean more people would take the day for granted. Of course it would.
Very few Canadians, if any, will spend the entire eight hours away from work reflecting upon the past sacrifices made by our soldiers. Buying and wearing a poppy and observing a minute or two of silence on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month will allow people to reflect upon the past actions of veterans. Spending the day skiing or shopping at the mall will not.
If Remembrance Day became a national holiday, it wouldn’t be very long before there was a move to make the holiday on a Monday so that those reflecting can have a long weekend. after all, there is nothing worse than having the day off on a Wednesday.
No doubt some people would like to see November 11 become a holiday, not to honour the veterans of war but to have another holiday. This is worse than those who want to keep the status quo for the economic reasons that Sheila Copps so detests.
The important thing about November 11 is to remember the veterans and inform future generations about the sacrifices that they made. It should not be used as an excuse to goof off.