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Will away political correctness

This year I received only one of those jokey "Season's Greetings" e-mails that reads like it was drafted by a team of first-year law students anxious to avoid any potential liability from wishing another person Merry Christmas.

This year I received only one of those jokey "Season's Greetings" e-mails that reads like it was drafted by a team of first-year law students anxious to avoid any potential liability from wishing another person Merry Christmas.

It went on for a whole page something like this:

"This wish is limited to the customary and usual good tidings until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting. 'Holiday' is not intended to, nor shall it be considered, limited to the usual Judeo-Christian celebrations or observances, or to such activities of any organized or ad hoc religious community, group, individual or belief (or lack thereof)."

That message landed in my inbox with a thud of a Christmas fruitcake well past its "best by" date and as such I am happy to officially pronounce the death of politically correct pussyfooting around Christmas greetings.

In fact, I'm beginning to become optimistic that political correctness will once again be replaced by common sense.

A few years ago, there was some sort of tempest in a teapot at Richmond City Hall about trees, or the use of the word Christmas or the decision not to use the word Christmas or some such nonsense. Those days are gone.

Could it really offend anyone to be wished a Merry Christmas?

I

Although many of the cultures that make up the Canadian mosaic have festivals in winter, we have no right as Canadians to a long holiday towards the end of December, no matter that we bravely suffer through long, often brutal winters.

With all due respect to Hanukkah, Pancha Ganapati, Yalda and Festivus, we enjoy that respite only because of Christmas. I'm not a Christian, but I am grateful for the family time we are granted because of Christmas.

Everything slows down. People are nice to each other. Patience and tolerance abound. What's not to like? If you resent the time off or the pleasant atmosphere of goodwill, I expect you to be whistling while you work on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and not third in line at Future Shop.

When I was a kid in the northern suburbs of Winnipeg, our high school basically closed for every Jewish holiday because there weren't enough kids left in school to run classes. At the time, I also would have said, what's not to like?

Meanwhile, in a land far, far away from Richmond, the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens apologised - I'm not sure to whom exactly - for having hired a coach who does not speak French.

If I were a sports columnist, I'd insert a comment here about rather him apologising for putting together such a horrible team, but that would be a digression.

Of the 27 players on the Canadiens roster, three were born in Quebec. So whom does the coach need to talk to in French? It seems the coach's most important job is actually to brief the local press on the team's lack of progress, not to coach the team.

Canada is officially a bilingual country, but French-English tensions are so far removed from our placid shores that what is front page news in Montreal is worth more than a bemused shrug in Richmond.

When it comes to language issues, I've been told that if I want a reaction to this column, I have only to mention the lack of English signage in Richmond's Chinese shopping malls, a topic that's been brought to the attention of city council at least three times in recent years.

Is that our equivalent of a unilingual English guy coaching the Montreal Canadiens? It goes to show how far we've come from the preoccupations of central Canada being issues of importance to the rest of us.

Dr. Joe Greenholtz is a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) and a director of the Premier Canadian Immigration Co-op. He also sits on the Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee.