Why doesn't N.L. have a February holiday?

In much of the rest of the country,Mondayis a holiday.

In some places it's known as Family Day, P.E.I.calls it Islander Day,andNova Scotia has Heritage Day,but in Newfoundland and Labrador,it's simply known as a regular work day.

The rest of the country has acknowledged that it's a long slog to go from New Year'sDay to Good Friday without a break, and thus lightened the burden with a February holiday to break up a rough time of the year.

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There's a light at the end of the dark tunnel, and it's a long weekend.

In Newfoundland and Labrador,the idea seems to have had zero traction with politicians. We just went through an election campaign and none of the three parties promised a February holiday.

Why not? It seems like a guaranteed vote-getter. After all,it's one of the reasons more and more provinces have added it to the calendar.

Not everyone thinks so.The Canadian Federation of Independent Business warned several years agothat adding a holiday would hurt the provincial economy to the tune of $90 million.

No 'concerted representation' for a holiday

Officially,the line from government is that there isn't a holiday in February because you didn't ask for one.

"There has not been any concerted representation to add a paid holiday in February by provincial stakeholders," HughDonnan, adirector of strategic communications in Executive Council, told me in an email.

But what Liberal staffand the Progressive Conservatives who pre-dated themwill say quietly is is that another holiday would hurt the government's already strained bottom line.

Government already gives most of itsworkers 14 paid holidays a year, a lot more than the six paid holidaysthatbusinesses are legally required to provide.

Don't forget your Georgemas cards!

I'm betting very few of you can list them all off. Alot of them are holidays you may have just heard in passing. Take St. George's Day, a day to mark the patron saint of England (don't worry,it'sApril 23, you still have plenty of time to get yourGeorgemascards in the mail).

Not even workers in England are given thatday off.Newfoundland and Labrador did it to balance out the twoIrish (and sectarian) holidays of St. Patrick's Dayand Orangemen's Day.

None of these are holidays that are apparently important enough to give to all workers. Businesses don't have to close. The actual holiday is rarely even the day workers actually take off.

For instance, instead of shutting down onApril 23, government moves the day to the closestMonday(this year,April 25is the holiday) in order to give workers a long weekend.

Moving the holidaycan confusepeople about what day you're actually supposed to wear a red rose in your lapel or put up your garland of St. George's crosses.(Be honest:you had no idea how to properly celebrate the day.)

Swap out a holiday, anyone?

So if you're ticked off that your friends and family elsewhere in the country are off work, it's time to tell the government.

You can suggest we swap out a holiday few people actually get, and even fewer understand, with a break that all of us can celebrate.

Besides, nothing brings a family together quite like spending the day digging out from yet another storm.

If we need a name more imaginative than Family Day,may I suggest Sir Robert Bond Day, in honour of the prime minister who was first to governthe Dominion of Newfoundland, and whowas born onFeb.25, 1857.