BLOCKHOUSE, NS-With the prospect of a plebiscite on Sunday shopping during Nova Scotia municipal elections this fall, a group called "Save Our Sundays” (SOS) is fighting to keep retail stores closed.

SOS, primarily using the Internet to publicize its message (http://saveoursundays.tripod.com), has an online petition against Sunday shopping that has gathered 795 names so far.

Tony Lohnes, spokesperson for SOS, works in retail industry. He is angered that Nova Scotia tourism is planning to spend millions to promote Sunday shopping.

Nova Scotia Kings North Tory MLA Mark Parent also supports SOS. Parent and SOS intend to recruit contact people throughout every riding in the province to spread the word of the importance of their vote during the shopping plebiscite.

"Our opposition to Sunday shopping is based on three issues,” says Parent. "Protection of service workers, often the lowest paid and most marginalized of workers, preservation of family time and quality of life and protection of small business owners…the present ban on most Sunday shopping is an eloquent statement that life is more than the consumeristic mentality which some would like us to believe.”

On its Web site, SOS claims, "the Nova Scotia Tories promised no Sunday shopping until 2005” and then "officially broke its promise to Nova Scotians by allowing stores to open six weeks prior to Christmas as a trial run in 2003 with the promise of a plebiscite in 2004.”

The Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (TIANS) argues for de-regulation.

"Nova Scotia is the only province not to have some measure of Sunday shopping,” says the TIANS Web site. They maintain the current laws discriminate against certain businesses and religions, and places Nova Scotia at a competitive disadvantage to other provinces.

Sunday shopping plebiscite questions will include: "Should there be Sunday shopping [in retail businesses not now permitted to be open on Sunday]? If there is to be Sunday shopping [in retail businesses not now permitted to be open on Sunday], should it be on every Sunday or on only the six Sundays immediately before Christmas?”

Meanwhile, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord has decided to allow municipalities to make their own decision on Sunday opening, removing all obstacles to Sunday shopping at the provincial level.