The Rockies – June 2012

Had forgotten that it can be much colder in the mountains – 10 degrees Celsius it says (it was well into the 20s when I left Toronto...)

Surroundings around the Banff Springs Hotel, so majestic – view over the river (Misty River that merges close by with the rueful Bow River) and the golf course, surrounded by snow-cap peaks and conifer-covered mountains – the site has not changed since when the hotel was built more than a hundred years ago – I saw it first in the summer of 1969 – and will not change as long as that place is up (there is no sign either that it is coming down!)

The “Calgary Herald” for breakfast reading. The news of course is the weather (what else?): “Freak snowstorm adds to region’s flooding fears” titled the paper. It’s still spring, even if we are in June, and the weather can be capricious in this part of the world. Mind you, I think the snow was mostly in the mountainous region (there was no trace of it in Calgary when I arrived yesterday), and what we witness is the result of a “magic combination of a heavy snow pack, late melt and heavy rain” to the mind of a quoted expert (it is apparently not over as they say we are going to get some more...)

Sign of time: the paper reports that the last Calgary Liberal MP, Pat Mahoney, has died in his eighties! He was elected to the HofC on the strength of the Trudeaumania back in 1968 – he was trounced at the next election in 1972 by his Tory opponent – more expected from this part of Canada: Calgary, not a pillar of liberalism, to say the least! (The West is not a Liberal bastion: I remember hearing in 1980 in Vancouver what I thought was a very good speech by Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal minister, from Winnipeg – I think that is as far west the Liberals went at that time – to very timid and lukewarm applauds!)

A “think” piece on “entitlement” – front page. The Greeks, students in Quebec (the front page picture – full half-page – is showing students demonstrating in the streets, with the “fleur de lys” flag flying high!), Old Age Security in Canada, etc... Do we live in the “Age of Entitlement”, asks the paper (in this article from Postmedia News, a Toronto-based large publishing company usually associated to the right, issued from defunct Canwest)? I say it is a matter of generations, perhaps? Governments – and the economy – could afford more liberal social policies some forty years ago... Not anymore though (and it has been the case for some time now...) “Adjustments” are required...in Canada and elsewhere...the economy and demography can’t allow anymore! This is complemented by another “opinion” piece on “equalization” – always a favorite subject in these parts! (Referring to a very Canadian thing – no doubt another “entitlement”! – whereby money – some C$15B of it – is transferred, through a federal program, from “have” provinces (Alberta for sure, but also BC) to “have not” ones (Quebec for sure – largest share- but also now Ontario!) The claim is that these transfers don’t help the economy of the “have not” provinces, and they are not legally enshrined in the Constitution... Reminiscent of Trudeau’s call for « une société juste : Un Canada juste, où les provinces riches donnent aux provinces pauvres... » Oh yeah!

Off to the Banff World Media Festival...

Banff, June 10, 2012