When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared Monday, Sept. 19 would be a one-time federal holiday to honour the passing and observe the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Canadians coast to coast immediately wondered how that might impact their lives.
The decision for how that day would play out as far as a "day off" was left to each province, and in British Columbia, Premier John Horgan took a controversial middle road approach by declaring Sept. 19, 2022 a day off for provincial government workers and all K-12 schools. All other businesses were left with the option to provide workers with a paid holiday, but it would not be mandated.
The holiday, which has left parents and guardians of school-age children scrambling to find child care for another day off school (with many schools closed to students Sept. 23 for a Pro-D day and the province observing National Day For Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30), has many British Columbians questioning the need to shut down in any way for the monarchy.
How do Vancouverites in particular feel about a paid day off for the Queen's funeral?
V.I.A. polled readers, and found the answers largely divided between two clear camps: "Yes, absolutely all Canadians" should have a paid day off (43.64% of the local vote) and "No, absolutely not" (36.91% of the local vote).
Only just shy of six per cent of Vancouver-based respondents indicated agreeing with what essentially wound up being B.C.'s decision, which is that the day should be a day off for just some people, such as the government and schools.
Have a look at the complete poll results below.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» polled 908 V.I.A. readers and asked the question: Should Canadians get a paid day off for Queen Elizabeth's funeral?
The poll ran from 9/13/2022 to 9/15/2022. Of the 908 votes, we can determine that 401 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Results are based on an online study of adult Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» readers that are located in Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 3.25%, 19 times out of 20.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
