O O Ø O O O O
Bluenoses Choose Less Choice
Sunday shopping remains a crime against the state in Nova Scotia.
This week Nova Scotians voted substantially in favour of continuing to ban Sunday shopping across the province. Results of a province-wide plebiscite were roughly 55% against, and 45% in favour of allowing a limited form of commercial freedom on Sundays. The vote was two years earlier than the government had originally anticipated addressing the issue, but it is now permanently put to rest, at least until such time as a different government with an appropriate mandate is elected.
Bravo, Nova Scotia. Absolutely brilliant.
Champions of the No side have their favourite arguements. I’d like to burst them here.
- “Sunday is my only day off.”
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Good grief. No one is asking you to work seven days a week. The Yes side was simply arguing that companies should be able to offer people the choice of working on Sunday, so that perhaps they could have off Saturday, or some other day of the week.
The prefered bugbear here is to suggest that Wal-Mart and Sobey’s have so much leverage over their defenceless employees that they will be able to strong-arm them into working on Sundays, and apparently all six other days of the week, until they die.
Evidence abounds in every other jurisdiction on the continent that this doesn’t happen. There are countless employers offering low-end retail jobs on Sundays. If employees are unsatisfied by the way one retailer is treating them, they can walk next door to find a better one. (But this belies the common perception that governments are here to protect helpless citizens from the avarices of heartless corporations. Regular pd.o readers (Hi Debbie!) will understand that governments exist to allow elected parties to use the threat of violence to cajole citizens and corporations into benefiting those same elected parties, and their friends.)
By keeping Sundays off-limits to large employers, the supply of weekend jobs (convenient for students and many others) is cut in half.
Government in action: reduced choice through increased legislation.
- “No Sunday shopping is a victory for the little guy.”
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The existing anti-Sunday choice legislation provides a long list of excluded businesses, who are allowed to be open. The list includes any business whose primary customer base is tourism or travel (restaurants, gas stations), or whose square footage is below a certain threshold (convenience stores, knick knacks). Essentially, the only places required to be closed are Canadian Tire and the grocery stores.
So if I discover that I need to replace an ingredient for a Sunday dinner recipe, my only option is to hope it’s available at a convenience store, and then pay inflated convenience store prices.
Why should I have to pay a convenience premium on a product, when what I’m actually seeking is availability? Under normal circumstances I would make a trip to the supermarket. This isn’t a victory for the little guy, this is legislated exploitation of consumers.
Government in action: promoting inefficiency, wherever it might be found.
- “Doesn’t God deserve a day?”
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Which god?
Football? TV? Yaweh?
Oh, I guess we must be talking about that Christian God. You know, from the bible. (Or as I know, from the Picture Bible.)
I guess this was my own misperception about the separation of church and state.
Government in action: picking favourite imaginary friends.
- “The family needs protecting.”
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Protection from what? Convenience? Choice? Limited government?
It’s a good thing the government can save us from defenceless family members who, if given the option, will completely abandon their charges and responsibilities in favour of week-round consumption orgies.
Dude, exactly how weak is your family?
Government in action: restricting freedom to prop-up straw men.
Ultimately, I don’t do a lot of shopping, so I shouldn’t let the issue keep me up at night. As the resident pd.o anarcho-libertarian, however, I do have a responsibility to rail for the cause of liberty.
Boo, Nova Scotia. Boo.
Evan Spence
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
PD DCLXXIV