Editor: Stereotypically Canadian, I am passive-aggressive even in my most angry moments, but sometimes there are commonly held beliefs that are so completely bereft of sense that they need to be called out.
Someone needs to take a step back, slow the crowd down, and educate them that what they are holding as true is actually false, even bordering on socially irresponsible on a global scale. I’m going to illustrate with a number of stories.
Some weeks ago my wife and I were out at Boom Lake hiking slowly with our dog. It was a pleasant enough walk, and on our way back we were caught up by two visitors from another country who had just arrived the day before in Banff.
Our conversation was harmless enough, about the weather, the beauty of the mountains, our good fortune of being able to live in such a wonderful part of the world. When they complained about the crowds in the grocery store in Banff the day before, my wife and I chuckled and agreed, and we were thinking the same thing. I’ll come back to this.
Earlier in summer there was a letter to the editor from a doctor visiting from another country. It was a complaint to the town of Banff because he felt he had unjustly received a fine for unknowingly parking in a bus stop.
He admitted his guilt, but was offended because he didn’t receive a warning, and the stiff penalty of a $75 CDN ticket could only be fought by appearing in court. Since he was in a rental car, he felt he should have been excused from the fine, that a warning would have been sufficient, and that it was a clever scheme of the town to collect on fines because tourists are likely unable to appear in court when they don’t live here.
Last week, another letter to the editor was from a woman incensed because the Bow Valley is so insanely busy. There were people everywhere spoiling her visit to Lake Louise, Banff, and even Canmore. She could only find the peace and solitude she sought by going to Kananaskis Country; apparently the last bastion of these things in Alberta.
From these stories, you might think that I’m going to go on about how the valley is glutted by tourists, or about the apparent ignorance and selfishness of those visiting here – for a day, a season, or years – congesting our streets, filling our grocery stores, polluting our forests and behaving in ways that lead to the death of our valley’s wildlife.
But my point is so much larger than this. I’m not going to argue whether or not these impacts of tourism are true, but what I will argue – and we are all guilty – is that this behaviour, these beliefs that the events of the world are happening “to” us, that we are the victims in any giving situation, is epidemic.
We have been individualized to the point of being oblivious that our actions, all of them, have an effect on those around us.
So to the doctor who felt that Banff was completely inhospitable because he received a ticket for breaking the law, you need to understand that you are one of hundreds of visitors that have done that very thing, you are one out of dozens of people that have parked in a bus stop on a daily basis, causing the bus to stop in traffic, causing traffic to stop, causing someone that lives here to be late to work, to serve you dinner, or late to pick up their child, causing the daycare to stay open, causing the daycare worker to be late for their once a month dinner date with their partner, causing them to be angry and treat their wait staff with disrespect.
This happens over and over, and accumulates. There is no stopping this until you and others like you, tourist and local alike, stop doing what you are doing. Your illegal actions had a negative impact on the lives of many others, so shut up and pay the ticket. Banff isn’t inhospitable, you are being self-centered and arrogant.
To the tourists that are inconvenienced by the crowded stores and roads, by the fact that they can’t visit the iconic Lake Louise, you are as much a part of the problem as the others you complain about.
I remember seeing a meme on the internet a few years ago. It was a picture of a gridlocked highway and read You aren’t stuck in traffic, you are traffic.
And that is the heart of the matter. To visit Lake Louise and complain about not being able to enter the town because it’s too busy is madness. It isn’t the locals making it busy, they reside there quite comfortably most of the year, able to drive in and out. It’s you, the visitor, who is inconveniencing those who live there.
To the visitor who simply felt the valley is too busy, I have no words. I refuse to believe that you don’t see the irony.
But again, these are only examples. This isn’t about the rash of tourists that are filling the valley, this is about a collective habit to feel that the world is all about us, that other people are only inconveniences and objects that are in our way, that we ourselves don’t contribute to the congestion and ills of the world.
The fact is, we are all complicit in what happens in our day-to-day lives, both good and bad. You have a choice to make, whether to be aware and cognizant of others around you, or whether to be ignorant and blissfully self-centered and, as a consequence, angry.
We all have the power to overcome this busy-ness that offends us, and that power quite simply is the acknowledgement that we do not live life in a self-worshiping bubble, but that everyone around you, even those against whom you simply brush up against walking down the street, are all in this together and what you do does matter to someone else.
The world is not placed in your way, it is there to love and explore and appreciate, even if it is filled with people. You are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic.
Kevin Dyck,
Canmore
