Thursday, December 20, 2007

Calgary Council Irony - Holiday Edition

Nation, not one to spend a lot of time whipping the dead horse that is Calgary's city council accountability, but...

As most Calgarians know, the city council decreed in mid-2007 that yellow "Support the Troops" decals would not be permitted on city-owned vehicles, owing to the fact that some citizens and employees of the city would be offended by the sentiment. Mayor Dave Bronconnier went so far, on the record, as to call the yellow ribbon movement the "flavour of the month".

Seen today on the electronic messageboard on several city-owned buses:

ROUTE (whatever).
[flash]
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Greeeeeeat... they'll manufacture something as being "potentially offensive", but forget that most of western civilization has decided, for better or worse, that "Merry Christmas" is verboten to spare the feelings of groups that have ACTUALLY been offended in the past.

Good to see the fresh blood at Silly Hall has abandoned all common sense at the door.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thing is, that, although right-wingers like to crow about the "War on Christmas", about 5 people in the world are actually offended by references to Christmas. I know this Muslim isn't, and none of my Muslim friends are either.

Enlightened Savage said...

I don't consider society's trend towards inclusiveness as a "War" on anything except ignorance... that said, I'll admit that none of my non-Christian friends (which would certainly be the majority of them, actually) have ever expressed offence at being wished a "Merry Christmas".

It just seems odd to me that, while most government departments on all 3 levels of Canadian governance have, in recent years, tended to stay away from faith-specific holiday wishes, Calgary has bucked the trend - which, considering the mayor's stance on Yellow Ribbons on city vehicles, seems all the more inconsistent.