Mountain Guide

In the fourth week of Birds of the Bow Valley, Michael W. Potter looks at the Virginia rail – a colourful bird seen here at the Basin Marsh in Banff National Park. This often elusive species is even found there in winter, thanks to the warm water

“It is challenging, but once you’ve overcome it, you feel proud about yourself. If I don’t ride because I was scared, it bugs me.”

“Everything I say, everything I do, everything that I am, it comes from my community and it comes from my family. Any inspiration I have, it’s the community.”

“I’m a pretty badass person because I went through a lot and I have a lot of stories to share and a lot of obstacles I had to overcome and still trying to get over.”

“We’ve had overdoses for many years, but recently it’s been hitting hard, it’s been one after the other, they keep dropping, and it’s because the pandemic and the dealers are getting brave enough to mix anything and that’s what causing our people to die, almost every day."

“We’ve actually been getting disrespected so many times from the non-Native people and we want respect. That’s how we want it actually with our films, our arts, and with our music.”

"I feel like having a full-time Indigenous arts presence has made a big impact for the Indigenous arts community."

Canadian band The Deep Dark Woods has released its latest album earlier this year, following up on the success of the Juno-nominated album Yarrow .

In the third week of Birds of the Bow Valley, Michael W. Potter looks at the Virginia rail – a colourful bird seen here at the Basin Marsh in Banff National Park.

Canmore's Kelly VanderBeek is excitedly ready to get back to reporting this summer at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.