Opinion

There is a fire burning and it is too close to home. Just two valleys over, in Verdant Creek, a lightning-caused wildfire sent a plume of smoke into the air on Saturday (July 15), a concerning harbinger of possible disaster.

Everyone makes mistakes. It seems like such an odiously obvious statement to make.

Let’s not get carried away here … Yes, grizzly bear 148 made one of her semi regular appearances in Canmore, and yes, she turned up in the ever-popular Quarry Lake area, and yes, the lake and off-leash dog area were all evacuated.

If it’s true that a picture is worth 1,000 words, and if you didn’t stop on page 4 en route to this page, please check it out as a prime example of what’s wrong with the whole wildlife corridor/wildlife closure issue in our valley.

It’s a little like the old joke where ‘dog bites man’ is reversed to ‘man bites dog.’ In this case, though, and it illustrates the situation well, a black bear bit into a vehicle tire, flattening it.

In casting an eye about on Marten Street in Banff on Tuesday, one could easily see how the Banff Canmore Community Foundation’s SHINE Awards project had caught people’s imagination.

Those who regularly peruse the pages of the Rocky Mountain Outlook (and thank you for supporting community journalism by doing so) won’t be surprised that the topic of affordable housing goes all the way back to the newspaper’s beginning in 2001.

This week presents a couple of real Gong Shows – the kind that really make you scratch your head. Producer and host Chuck Barris’s original The Gong Show, that is, not the upcoming remake with Mike Myers.

How unfortunate that a trio of incidents on the May long weekend in Canada have drawn attention to the issue of water safety across our country.

So, as it turns out, Banff has not gone to hell in a handbasket as many comments made in public hearings, open houses, forums and council meetings would suggest. That’s a relief.