ah, another Oilers game at work. Can you think of a better place for me to sit down and jot down some notes for this week's podcast? that's right, I'm doing show prep.
Well, I'm lucky enough to have the long weekend. It's Family Day again, here in the province of Alberta, and as I like to do every day on Family Day, I'd like to reflect on why we celebrate this day.
For ages now, it's been said that Canada needs a holiday in February. The stretch between New Years and Easter is just far too long to go without a government-mandated day off. So, in the grand Alberta tradition of "Screw Ottawa! Let's do it ourselves!" the Progressive Conservative government under Don Getty decided to do something about it.
they chose the third Monday in February to be the new holiday because it matches up with the American holiday of Presidents Day. It's often been speculated that the big American oil companies that have offices in Calgary played a part in choosing that day.
The Getty Conservatives decided on "Family Day," a day for Albertans to spend with their families. Of course, what made that idea highly dubious was the fact that, around the same time, Don Getty's son was busted for cocaine dealing. The popular joke in the media was that Getty just wanted a day off to visit his son in prison.
Because of that fact, a lot of Albertans didn't greet Family Day with open arms. They were all like, "Dude...this is just some thing cuz the premier's feels guilty about his son. This is so lame." Throw in the fact that, with its status as a provinical holiday, that meant the August Long Weekend was no longer a stat holiday. Now, company's choose to recognize either Family Day or the August Long Weekend as the stat holiday. For example, the federal government recognizes the August Long Weekend. that's why all federal institutions - like the post office - will be open on Monday. If you're really lucky - like me - you're with a company that recognizes both as holidays.
Anyway, the early animosity towards Family Day was so great, that one of Ralph Klein's first election promises was to abolish the holiday. But, by the time Klein got around to seriously thinking about it, they day had taken hold, and who really wants to be known as a guy who abolishes holidays?
this is the 17th Family Day now, and it's fully taken root as part of Alberta culture. Communities large and small all across the province have some kind of Family Day festivities. And it's starting to spread, too. Starting this year, Saskatchewan now also has Family Day. So...happy Family Day, Dog River!
Had a little bit of a shock last night as I watched the CTV News with Lloyd Robertson. Every Friday, they do this thing called, "Ask Us," in which they answer any kind of question about anything. One of the questions asked was, "How much are tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver going to be? And when do they go on sale?"
Naturally, as I've been saying for a long time now, I really, really, really want to go to the Olympics in 3 years, and I've always suspected that ticket prices would be the biggest part of my budget. So, I grabbed a pencil and started jotting down numbers. Here's what CTV said:
Tickets to most events will run between $23 and $100.
Tickets to your big events, such as hockey and figure skating, will max out at $500.
Tickets to the closing ceremonies will run between $90 and $720.
And tickets to the opening ceremonies will run between $90 and $1000.
And tickets to the premium events - for example, the gold medal hockey game - will be sold on a lottery system, to make things more fair.
There was a follow-up on CTV NewsNet this morning, in which they said that they're still looking into things like bar code systems, so if you change your mind and don't want to go to an event, it'll be really, really easy to return it, and for them to re-sell it.
Tix go on sale summer 2008.
But forget Vancouver! We all know that BC's party city is Victoria.
Victoria Tourism is getting in a little bit of trouble for their new tourism slogan. The new slogan is....
"The Search for your Perfect Orgasm is Over."
Victoria Tourism's defence is that the slogan is only being used in ads in cooking magazines, and that a lot of ads in cookign magazines are sensual like that.
Crazy thing is, no one is questioning the slogan that Victoria tourism is putting in the gay and lesbian publications;
"Time to Experience that Tingling Sensation."
Man, there's gotta be something in the tea at the Empress Hotel.
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