Breaking ground – How Alberta started Family Day

Alberta celebrated its 34th Family Day celebration on Monday, February 19, with cities and
towns of all sizes putting on fun activities throughout the weekend. When Albertans first
celebrated Family Day in 1990, they were the first Canadians to do so and were also the first
Canadians to observe a statutory holiday in February.
The beginnings of Family Day are traced back to Alberta’s 11th Premier, Don Getty. Long before
he entered the political sphere, Getty was known provincially for his talents on the football field
as a quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos, a career which included two Grey Cup wins. After
he retired from the CFL, an Eskimo alum coaxed him into politics. And who might that alum
have been? None other than Peter Lougheed, Alberta’s 10th premier.
Getty served as premier from 1985 to 1991 and brought forward the Family Day Act to the floor
of the legislature on June 1, 1989. There was a lot of debate on the topic, with politicians
holding wide-ranging views on it, including many negatives. However, his act passed, and on
February 19, 1990, Alberta’s 12th Lieutenant Governor, Helen Huntley, the first woman to hold
the position, proclaimed Family Day for the first time.
To help Albertans celebrate their first Family Day, Getty’s government provided ideas for them.
Ideas included creating a family newsletter, inviting friends or colleagues without family nearby
to dinner, eating at the table instead of in front of the television, writing a family letter with
contributions from each family member and sending it to distant relatives, looking at family
albums together, and developing a Trivial Pursuit game or similar quiz game filled with family
facts. The province also suggested creating a family tree and even provided a printable diagram
to fill in.
Though the day is widely celebrated now and is seen as a pleasant pause between New Year’s
and Easter, a reprieve if you will, from the monotony of a cold, dark winter, back in 1990, not
everyone was happy about it, citing expenses or loss of productivity, among other complaints.
Heritage Day, the first Monday of August, celebrated in Alberta since the early seventies, was
eventually downgraded to an optional civic holiday due to complaints about Family Day.
During a conference, past-Premier Getty said he understood the shared concerns, noting that
Family Day was “breaking new ground.” Getty said they would be nothing but winners in the
long run. “If this strengthens Alberta families, strengthens our province, they will find they are
the winners. It will be a good investment.” From the looks of the weekend event list for
Whitecourt alone, it appears Getty was right.
Fifteen years following Alberta’s kickstart of the holiday, Saskatchewan leaders began taking
steps for their own provincial Family Day celebration and officially followed suit in 2007. The
following year, Ontario joined the party, followed by New Brunswick in 2018. Alberta’s neighbour
to the west also joined the Family Day bandwagon but selected the second Monday of February
instead of the third.
Whitecourtians celebrated with a fun-filled Saturday afternoon at Festival Park for a Winter
Carnival that featured all kinds of activities thanks to the Town of Whitecourt, Woodlands
County, the Rotary Club of Whitecourt, and the Whitecourt & District Public Library. The park
was packed as residents took full advantage of the beautiful sunny weather.

The always-popular ice slide was once again a big hit. Many children, and even some parents,
walked up the snow hill to take their turn. This year’s featured ice sculpture was straight out of a
living room with a loveseat, chair and side table. Nearby, children coloured ice blocks with food
colouring water and then stacked them to make ice forts. There was also a bubble-making
station, tic/tac/toe, and other games.
On Festival Way, Rotary Club members had a barbeque offering free hot dogs and hot
chocolate, while another tent just down the path offered delicious Bannock made fresh on-site.
The skating oval beside the food area was buzzing with activity as families laced up their skates
to give it a whirl.
Just beside it, eventgoers could try cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, with numerous pairs
lined up ready to go. Further back, near the trees, Cactus Patch Ranch provided horse-drawn
wagon rides, giving riders a long trip along a large circular path beyond the trees. Finally, the
Crokinole rink by the splash park pavilion brought out some families’ competitive spirit.
On Monday, the official Family Day, there was free public skating at JDA Place and a free movie
at Vista Theatre, thanks to Amanda St. Pierre at Primerica. Out in the community, some
residents built snow sculptures for a chance to win prizes. One of the creations was a
monstrous shark over at 115 Wellwood Drive, which had drivers doing a double take, with some
even popping out to take a quick selfie.