A recent discussion I had with someone regarding their labour day plans was met with a large amount of disdain - “Why would we wait for Labour Day?? We do work all year long”.

While I can admit they have a point about not waiting for a special day to undertake projects, it seems they also missed the part where Labour Day provides a willing source of volunteers to assist with projects allowing for perhaps even larger scale projects to be accomplished.

Sure people should be volunteering to help out communities and other groups during the year. No question about that. But the truth is many of us don’t. And Labour Day provides an opportunity for organisations seeking help to get some higher level attention and draw volunteers to them. It could provide a good recruitment starting point - suck in those helpful souls that show up to labour for you.

It works even at home. Should we wait for one day a year to do stuff around the house. Hell no! For most people all the stuff can’t possibly get done in one day. But, again, Labour Day is a good time to rally your troops to get to a project that may be larger than the usual.

My house project was emptying the washroom, cleaning the walls, stripping some of the damaged paint (water damage from hurricanes) and painting the walls with new bright cheerful paint including some more water-resistant paint in one area. Something that needed doing but not likely to get done on our average weekend day.

So let’s not discount the value of a dedicated Labour Day.