REGINA – The once thriving industry of paid hugs in Canada have all but disappeared over the past few years due volunteers who are offering their services for free.
36-year-old Aiden Gregerson is one of those employees facing tough and uncertain times as a skilled embracer.
“I can do any hug for my clients; the bear, the one-armed, or my patented Saskatoon Squeeze,” said Gregerson while trying to solicit pedestrians for his services on Main Street. “$5 hugs! Come and get ‘em while they’re warm!”
Gregerson explained that free huggers are taking away his business and he’s having trouble providing for his family of five.
“Back then, you used to be able to charge $20 a hug. Now, some people give you a dirty look for even thinking of the charge thanks to these unpaid scabs. Four generations of hugging in my family, and I think I’ll probably be the last one to embrace strangers for a living.”
In 2005, paid-hugging employed over 20,000 Canadians and produced 126 million hugs for the year according to Statistics Canada. However, these jobs have all but disappeared with the outsourcing of the service to volunteers.
“It’s real bad out there,” explained Professional Association of Huggers and Joke-Tellers Local 203 President Svita Belanger. “So many people admire these so-called ‘do-gooders’ with their free services, but these unskilled, bleeding-heart altruists have put so many out of their jobs. They don’t pay a business license and they’re not inspected for body odor by a public health inspector.”
The industry has already lobbied provincial and federal governments for a bailout similar to Bombardier arguing that, unlike Bombardier, professional huggers have actually produced something in recent years.
