A city councillor in Victoria, B.C., has been called a Grinch and far worse for questioning whether the city’s public Christmas decorations could be an unnecessary promotion of Christianity.
Coun. Ben Isitt said the city should take a look at its funding of Christmas trees, poinsettias and other displays he considers to be religious symbols.
He convinced a majority of his fellow councillors to agree with him, as city councillors voted in favour of launching a review of the $64,000 Victoria spends annually on seasonal decorations.
Isitt told CTV Vancouver Island that he was not available for an interview on Sunday or Monday. He has not made any statements on social media about the issue.
Another councillor, Charlayne Thornton-Joe, said she doesn’t mind the city looking at ways to increase the cultural diversity of its festive displays – as long as there are still Christmas decorations as well.
“Being more inclusive doesn’t mean that then we have to take some things away,” she said.
Isitt received a much harsher reaction on Twitter, where dozens of users called him everything from “worse than Scrooge” to an “imbecile” to a “stupid little creep” for suggesting that public money not go toward a celebration of a Christian holiday.
“I think he needs to move to a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas,” Deanna Waters tweeted.
