(Canscene) — One of the less felicitious of media concoctions was the apparent sudden discovery that the recent Ontario Family Day, February 16 was a disaster for small business.
The province suffered from headline overkill.

Yet that same day and the day after, television showed hordes (yes, hordes) of families visiting the Toronto Zoo, the ROM, the Science Centre and other places of interest. It was quite obvious that Family Day was a hit.

Let us not forget that Family Day was conceived out of a wish expressed across Canada that there should be a statutory midwinter holiday. The obvious date would have been February 15, the anniversary of the raising of our own flag in 1965. But according to Heritage Canada there were too many obstacles to such a national holiday.

One can scarcely blame Dalton McGuinty for making a midwinter holiday an Ontario election issue at a time when the follies of the Bush administration had not been fully revealed and the debt crisis hadn’t yet threatened the economy of the whole world.

We may be sure that Premier Mc Guinty will take steps to avoid further suffering on the part of small business proprietors, but it would be sheer madness to throw the baby out with the bath water and cancel the celebration, so long coveted by a nation and finally activated by a government that believed at least, Ontarians deserved it.

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