Opinion

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that taking the time to practise compassion and understand the issues that face us individually and as a society are the best ways we have to overcome what is happening.

Dear Santa: this year we would like to share with you our top 10 future wish list for the future of the communities we call home here in the Bow Valley.

We are living history right now. The COVID-19 pandemic and everything that has come with it has been so unprecedented, that the word "unprecedented" has begun to lose all meaning.

For some of us, getting the COVID-19 vaccine will be the best Christmas present we receive this year. For the rest, the gift is the promise the vaccine brings for better things to come in the new year.

We may still be in the middle of a major health care crisis in Alberta, but that does not mean we should not be casting our gaze into the future of our economic recovery.

According to Alberta Health spokespeople, there are no and have never been any COVID-19 outbreaks in Banff or Lake Louise.

One of my responses to COVID-19 has been to assemble small groups of people for a series of gratitude conversations. The simple daily assignment is to write five reasons to feel grateful, for a total of 28 days.

As a province, there are no pathways into the future with COVID-19 that won't damage the economy and result in the suffering of Albertans economically.