If you’ve got family or friends in Ontario, Alberta or Saskatchewan, odds are you’re a little jealous that today, while you sit in the office working away, they are off celebrating Family Day.

Alberta was the first province to introduce this holiday when then-premier Don Getty launched the day off for families in 1990. It has since spread to Saskatchewan (in 2007) and Ontario (in 2008). But other provinces also get a day off in February. Manitobans celebrate Louis Riel Day on the third Monday of February each year and those in Prince Edward Island also enjoy the day off that same day with Islander Day. In 2013, British Columbia will be joining the Family Day festivities.

Getty said he felt it was necessary to introduce a day-off during the dreary winter months. From an interview with the Edmonton Sun:

“I thought to myself that if we could get some kind of a push back against the family disintegration, we would have families happier and healthier and we would actually start to slow down the process of family break-up, if it worked… I consider family to be the rock on which we build our communities. It’s important.”

According to the Ottawa Citizen, Canada placed fourth out of 29 developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of work hours.

Here in Quebec, employees have to wait from January until Easter in April for a break from work outside of the weekend. The idea that Quebec should also have a day off (distinct to Family Day) is not a new one.

In 2008, Claudette Carbonneau, then president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux, called for a paid day off of the employee’s choice. A petition also began asking the government to introduce a Family Day of our own.

Photo: Phillip Cho via Flickr (http://opnfil.es/A9VcSk)