Some readers will be familiar with the story about then-Premier Don Getty’s son getting arrested for possession and trafficking of cocaine and his father creating a holiday to celebrate family values in response. It sounds like a cynical take but it’s a big part of the story.
The idea to create a mid-winter holiday had been around for some time before it was announced in Alberta’s 1989 pre-election Speech from the Throne.
A foundation chaired by Canadian historian Pierre Berton had been calling for a national mid-winter holiday called Heritage Day since the early 1970s. And just one year before it was announced in the Getty government’s 1989 Speech from the Throne, Alberta MLAs debated creating a holiday when Vegreville NDP MLA Derek Fox proposed it in a private members bill.
