Easter Sunday Shopping.

In Saskatoon you could shop for groceries today.  The Sobeys grocery store nearest to me is open, and I assume the others probably are as well.  The malls were closed.  Walmart?  I don't know, but being open or not wouldn't surprise me.  The websites of Best Buy and Future Shop seem to indicate they're open today.  As I understand it Saskatoon no longer regulates store hours, so businesses can be open when they wish.  With the change of demographics in religious belief, or lack thereof, in Canada it will be interesting to see how much longer Easter remains a largely closed day for shopping, as for many Canadians Easter Sunday is no more important than any other Sunday.

Typical Of The Big Guy.

Prince Edward Island is currently in the middle of a debate about allowing Sunday shopping all year round.  Opposition leader Olive Crane launched a private members' bill calling for ending restrictions that prohibit Sunday opening between Christmas and Victoria Day.  After appearing on a local TV show Monday Crane slipped on the set of the program and hurt her ankle.  During debate on Thursday transportation minister Ron Mackinley implied the accident might be a punishment from God.  If so that would be so typical of the Supreme Being.  He's always doing stuff like punishing people for minor changes he doesn't like and making the face of the Virgin Mary appear in oil spots in parking lots.  Yet he never seems to do worthwhile things like making the entire leadershp of North Korea drop dead for that mess they caused this week. 

Of course if you believe certain religions Olive Crane is doing the right thing.  After all they don't believe that Sunday is a godly day, but Saturday, or Friday.  Perhaps Mr. Mackinley better watch himself in case they're right and good ole arbitrary God decides to punish him for opposing Sunday opening.

Shop 'Til You Drop.

This week Saskatoon City Council announced it will no longer regulate store hours in Saskatoon. This comes on the heels of requests by several stores, including Wal Mart, for permission to remain open 24 hours a day during December in the run up to Christmas. The way things are going the only days the majority of stores will be closed are Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, and I wouldn't count on everyone following this informally agreed upon prohibition for long.

Personally I've long thought the best way to regulate store hours would be to allow stores to be open whenever they want, but mandate they must be closed for a specifc number of days per year. Want to open on Christmas Day? Go ahead, but it means you'll have to be shut up for some other day of the year. Such a method would be fair to everyone as no one would feel pressured to close for holidays they don't follow, and employees would be assured of a set number of days off along with their manditory vacation time.