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Month: December 2023

In the face of gloom, here are three reasons to be hopeful

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All doom and gloom. Or is it?

It’s beyond cliché to say that the world – and our country along with it – is confronting tremendous and unprecedented challenges. But isn’t that the story of life? Dealing with the new, the unfamiliar, even the horrendous.

To be sure, as we sit on the cusp of a new year, not only is there much to despair, the sanguinity we will need to meet these immense challenges presents a challenge itself.

All that said, here are three reasons to be optimistic heading into 2024:

1. More competitive federal politics. Much of the malaise felt by Canadians has to do with the cost of living and housing. Now, these are real issues but I believe they are getting better for one reason: this government faces a real challenger for the first time in its existence. And just like increased competition in other fields reaps advantages for consumers, this will benefit Canadians.

Pierre Poilievre, unlike his post-Harper predecessors, has exerted meaningful and existential pressure on the government. The result? The prime minister and deputy prime minister are now rolling out and owning major housing announcements, and the federal government is finally taking a role in housing supply, partly through its accelerator fund; a role it hasn’t played in decades.

Sure, the purveyors of doom and gloom will argue it’s too little too late but every house that’s built will make the most meaningful of differences in a Canadian family’s life.

This pressure from Conservatives will continually force Justin Trudeau and his government to perform at their best – a standard that slipped in the face of weak opposition – in other areas as well. And that is good news for all of us.

2. Unprecedented resolve on climate change. This year’s COP28 conference was bound to be controversial and many saw the result as underwhelming. It goes without saying that tackling climate change requires urgent and decisive action, not empty words and domineering special interests.

Of course, there remain significant shortcomings. But for the first time in history, we have commitments from nearly 200 countries to move away from fossil fuels. For young people especially, this seems like the bare minimum. However, for someone with greyer hair who has seen (especially Conservative) politicians for years obfuscate and deny the impact or even legitimacy of climate change, this feels historic.

Wildfires have ravaged our communities in recent years, painfully bringing home the reality of climate change. As the United States Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry noted, this kind of international co-operation is awe-inspiring and sends a strong message to the world. For Canadians, it brings promise that the destructive impact of climate change is no longer up for debate at the highest levels of global governance.

In 2024, we cannot let our politicians and the international community off the hook. But we should be very glad that this major hurdle has been cleared.

3. The promise of Canada’s next generation. Many scrooges are down on this next generation. I’m not. There is plenty of reason to believe that this next generation of Canadians are as capable of meeting the challenges of their age, as those who came before them.

This year, many important people in my life who had made major societal contributions through their selfless service passed away. For me, their lives underlined the burden that falls to the next generation.

But this generation is marked by its resiliency and adaptability. They will grow up with an unparalleled level of education, in a multicultural society with access to diverse wisdom and experience we never had.

But there is the challenge for all of us: Statistics Canada tells us our youth are facing an unprecedented wave of depression. Many had to endure generational hardship and disruption through the pandemic. Despite this, now education participation rates are way back up to pre-pandemic levels. Now is not the time to give up on them.

There you go. Three reasons to feel optimistic about the year to come.

Pierre Poilievre’s wake-up call to Canadian media

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This past week, two developments attracted the nation’s attention.

Pierre Poilievre released a 15-minute video on Canada’s “housing hell” that has, at the time of writing, garnered 4.8 million views. And the CBC announced they would be cutting 10 per cent of its workforce.

What does a politician’s message on Canada’s housing crisis have to do with mass layoffs at our public broadcaster?

Everything.

First, Poilievre’s video. Like many groundbreaking political tactics, it’s less about the message, more the medium. In the 1995 Ontario election that saw Mike Harris win a landslide victory, we (I was part of Harris’s campaign) printed millions of copies of “The Common Sense Revolution”.

The revolution was not just self-styled — nor about the “common sense” message alone. It was also about how that message was delivered. The platform was distilled into a single, accessible brochure. Released a year earlier than was customary, and placed in every mailbox.

Nearly three decades later, Poilievre has managed to do something similar. Not just in this video but through his entire social media strategy.

And, to the astonishment of many, he’s breaking through.

But it isn’t just his political foes who should be taking notes. The CBC’s layoff announcement blamed “fierce competition from the digital giants.” In reality, the competition comes from anyone, anywhere.

The fight for precious clicks and seconds is as wide open as it is cutthroat. And the CBC has been losing, and losing badly, for some time.

Poilievre demonstrated last week that he is not only the CBC’s most vocal critic but its direct competitor. He did not appear on their programs to drive his message. Instead, he simply delivered it directly to Canadians. His own way, on his own channels and for a hell of a lot less than traditional advertising.

The financial pressures and job cuts in legacy media extend far wider and deeper than the CBC. We’ve seen wide-scale redundancies across the industry. The pain felt by this nation’s media is endemic. But so too is the sheer intractability of the challenges they’re facing.

Chopping off your leg is a foolish proposition until a doctor tells you it’ll save your life. The problem facing Canadian media is they don’t know if chopping off their leg will save anything. They can’t properly diagnose what’s ailing them. Nor can they see around the corner to the next technological revolution that will blow up their latest strategy. Who can?

While we can’t look into a crystal ball, we can, collectively, look in the mirror and acknowledge that we can’t allow our nation’s media landscape to get much worse. For it to be the next Kodak, Sears or Blockbuster – those who couldn’t, or wouldn’t – change before market changes obliterated them.

Blockbuster is an instructive example. In 2000, the company had the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million. It balked. It could not see the forest for the trees, despite it staring them in the face. Today, Netflix is valued at around $200 billion and Blockbuster is a relic.

Not all solutions present themselves so conveniently. But here is the teaching moment: the signs were there. Blockbuster ignored them. Canadian media would be foolish to make the same mistake.

This past week, many commentators restated what they’ve claimed for years – that Pierre Poilievre is the worst thing to happen to the CBC in decades.

They’re wrong.

More significant than his criticism, Poilievre’s tactics should be the wake-up call the broadcaster needs, a timely sign of how much its model needs to change, and how fast.

But, in their own way, the tactics are also deeply revealing. They confirm that Canadians now depend on social media and want to consume their news in a new way – their way. And, like it or not, technology is allowing them to do just that.

Mainstream media has a clear choice: It can meet Canadians where they are by innovating fearlessly, embracing new approaches, understanding that failure is a price to be paid and really, really working to understand their audiences. Or it can go the way of Blockbuster.

Let’s not have that.

Point of no return

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Businesses need to step in if our cities are to stop rotting from their downtown cores.

 

Downtown Montreal has a lot going for it. In addition to being the economic engine of Quebec’s most important metropolitan area, it is set apart from other downtowns in North America by its seamless blend of functions, combining business, retail, culture, restaurants, entertainment, education, tourism and housing.

The pandemic, however, fundamentally altered the city’s trajectory. Across the world, migration flows, increasing housing costs, hybrid work arrangements, office vacancies and falling transit ridership function as both cause and effect of a pervasive downturn in urban activity. In Montreal, for example, rents have risen by 14 per cent since last year and are set to increase by 30 per cent by 2025; office vacancy rates in the central business district are expected to approach 25 per cent by 2025; and transit ridership remains stalled at 75 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels.

The profound effects of the pandemic have led several observers to predict an “urban doom loop.” They foresee a self-reinforcing cycle of collapse in which a decline in activity downtown results in business closures and tumbling municipal tax revenues. This, in turn, forces cities to cut services, thus speeding the flight of residents and businesses. In this scenario, the cycle repeats until city centres become abandoned to crime, poverty and homelessness. According to some observers, the precarious situation in which downtowns find themselves today is similar to that of “rust belt” cities such as Detroit and Pittsburgh in the 1970s, when waves of technological change eroded manufacturing activity and sent these urban centres into a protracted downward spiral.

Whether or not this turns out to be true, the effects of the confluence of trends we are seeing today are not only worrying for their impact on cities, but also for their impact on businesses and the economy as a whole. According to Statistics Canada, in the six largest metropolitan areas — Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal — downtowns cover only 0.1 per cent to 0.3 per cent of the land area, but account for 15 per cent to 24 per cent of jobs and 13 per cent to 24 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. Indeed, dense and complex city centres create a clustering of talent, ideas and knowledge that companies need in order to innovate and grow. The concentration of leading sector jobs attracts highly skilled workers, who then offer more opportunities for companies to develop specialized products and services. In Montreal, this has led to rich ecosystems of expertise in aerospace, artificial intelligence, software development, fintech and other sectors that have powered the economy.

As the long-term effects of the pandemic on our living and working habits gradually became apparent, governments at all levels have implemented programs and committed funds to revitalize downtowns. Although this is necessary, governments alone cannot realistically muster sufficient resources to kickstart a revival of downtown cores. Instead, revitalization requires a comprehensive solution involving all stakeholders. Therein lies an opportunity for businesses from all sectors to determine where public and private interests overlap, and to pressure governments into being part of the solution. The benefits that come from having dynamic downtowns, as demonstrated by Montreal, should be enough to persuade them.

 

From serene to extreme: a survey of Canada’s best escapes

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Risk your life or kick up your feet? Canada offers both possibilities in abundance. Here we review the finest

 

Some differences we overweigh.

I claim to care about many of them.

I actually don’t.

If you prefer cats to dogs, that’s your prerogative (let’s be honest: a bad one). But then again, there are choices we don’t weigh enough. Like this one: free from work and worry, one decides how their hard-earned free time is spent; the difference between those who choose to risk their life and those who opt for a luxurious massage is unquestionably profound.

The American columnist Jonah Goldberg said that “conservatism is comfort with contradiction” — that multiple things can be true at the same time. I rarely vouch for the conservative view, but it’s about as wise a stance on this issue as you can take. In fact, I urge readers not to dwell on this contradiction. I did and it made me extremely uncomfortable for several days. Just let it be that for enjoyment, some people choose to teeter over the abyss, while others, including me, cannot even conceive of deriving a sense of enjoyment from such an activity, from taking that risk.

Fortunately, no matter your disposition, Canada offers both possibilities in high quantity and remarkable quality. Here I explore the best of the best — the most life threatening and the most tranquil.

Dancing with Gravity: Heli-skiing

Heli-skiing was moulded in the heart of Canada’s wilderness, specifically in the vast expanse of British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains and the snow-covered peaks around Revelstoke and Whistler. This high-octane sport, in which experienced skiers take helicopters to the most pristine backcountry slopes, has seen its popularity soar in recent years.

Paving the way for Canadian excellence in the sport is Greg Hill, a celebrated Canadian ski mountaineer and heli-skier hailing from Revelstoke, B.C. In 2010, Hill set an astonishing record by skiing two million feet in a year, maintaining an average of 5,500 feet daily while conquering 71 mountains and 1,039 runs. (Not bad. But I’ll have my readers know I once made it down a “double black diamond” run with all my limbs intact. Candidly, though, I quickly retired to the chalet to call my mom and let her know I loved her.) Hill’s accomplishments in heliskiing have attracted advanced skiers and snowboarders from across the globe to Canada’s backcountry slopes, establishing them as premier destinations for those seeking the ultimate downhill thrill.

Rainforest Retreat: Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort

If you’re not keen on your heart beating out of your chest but still want to appreciate the natural majesty of British Columbia, then the Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort is the place for you.

From its origins as a quaint fishing lodge in the 1980s, Nimmo Bay has expanded into a world-renowned wilderness resort. Its nine private chalets offer guests extraordinary access to the beauty of the Great Bear Rainforest. If you feel like venturing away from the floating cedar sauna or the hot tub after enjoying a fresh-caught lunch, you can enjoy whale watching, heli-hiking, fine coastal dining, beachcombing, kayaking, paddleboarding, mindful hiking, glacier trekking, wildlife viewing and much more.

No Ropes, No Limits: Free Soloing

Ever get a feeling of unease just watching someone else do something dangerous? Me too. But what makes these viewing experiences bearable, even conscionable, is the awareness that there’s some form of safety measure in place — a net to catch the trapeze artist, a backup parachute for the skydiver, a nearby lifeguard for the big wave surfer.

Take that feeling and intensify it by an order of magnitude when it comes to the death-defying art of free soloing. The most hazardous style of rock climbing, free soloing beckons daring thrill-seekers to achieve what seems unimaginable: scaling steep, imposing rock formations and mountains devoid of any lifesaving security — no ropes, no harnesses, just the climber and the wall. While Canada boasts legendary landscapes for free soloing, there is no such thing as a perfect climb or environment: unpredictable variables can influence every inch of an individual’s ascent.

Some of the most extreme climbs in the world happen right on our doorstep. In Alberta, climber Geoff Powter undertook what the bouldering community believes to be one of the “boldest free solos in Rockies history,” on Mountain Yamnuska.

Another standout destination is The Stawamus Chief Mountain, fondly known as The Chief, situated in Squamish, B.C. This mountain boasts a towering granite monolith with a range of bouldering routes suitable for climbers of all skill levels. The Chief, along with much of the West Coast, is renowned as a must-visit destination for avid boulderers from around the world.

The next time you’re feeling the itch to take your life into your own hands, know that you don’t need to travel far abroad. The thrill, the majesty, the madness is all just a flight to Western Canada, several bus rides, a light 30-kilometre hike up to base camp and one hell of a gruelling ascent away!

Reviving the Spirit: Relaxing in Kananaskis Country

If, instead of attempting to climb mountains, you prefer simply to look at them, then the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge is the perfect place. Located just a one-hour drive from Calgary, this is an accessible alpine paradise.

Spend your day enjoying the nearby Kananaskis Nordic spa encompassing 50,000 square feet that features a relaxation lodge, five outdoor pools, five steam and sauna cabins, an exfoliation cabin, fireside lounges and massage treatments. Spend your night in a room with stunning mountain views and wake up to the beauty of the rolling Kananaskis Valley.

Whether you choose to soak in the outdoor hot pools while gazing at the northern lights or unwind in the tranquil relaxation areas, the Kananaskis range offers a sanctuary for those seeking a peaceful escape in the heart of the Rockies.

Exploring the Unknown: Caving

Canada not only offers beauty at high altitudes, but also at subterranean depths, and the select few brave enough to practise the extreme sport of caving can access it.

One of the densest concentrations of caves for adventurers to explore is in Vancouver Island’s Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park. This park offers a range of caving experiences from beginner-friendly excursions to more challenging spelunking adventures.

Take it from Christian Stenner, one of Canada’s most prominent cave explorers and a participant in some of the country’s most daring expeditions. Stenner is renowned for his discovery of new passages within Canada’s longest cave, the 21-kilometre Castleguard Cave in Jasper National Park, Alta., and the Bisaro Anima cave near Fernie, B.C., which descends 683 metres along its 5.2-kilometre route. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to find my way out of my local grocery store’s parking lot. Over his ongoing 17-year tenure as a caver, one thing has consistently fuelled Stenner’s passion: “To know that you are the first human to ever be in a place is an amazing experience.” That is the allure of caving here in Canada.

A Coastal Gem: Fogo Island

While caving showcases some of the best Mother Nature has to offer, the Fogo Island Inn offers the best in human architectural ingenuity and design. Perched on the rugged shores of Fogo Island off the coast of Newfoundland, this remarkable inn showcases a breathtaking fusion of contemporary design and traditional craftsmanship, blending effortlessly into its natural surroundings.

The inn’s striking geometric structure, designed by renowned architect Todd Saunders, pays homage to the island’s rich heritage while embracing modern luxury. Its floor-to-ceiling windows offer panoramic views of the North Atlantic Ocean, providing an ever-changing tableau of sea and sky.

Inside, the inn exudes warmth and hospitality, with each of its 29 guest rooms uniquely decorated and adorned with handcrafted furnishings created by local artisans. Guests are greeted with a cozy ambiance that perfectly complements the untamed beauty of the island. The culinary experience is equally exceptional, featuring a menu that celebrates the island’s bounty of fresh seafood and locally sourced ingredients. Guests can also explore the island’s dramatic coastline, hike its pristine trails or simply unwind in the inn’s rooftop hot tubs, all while being enveloped in the awe-inspiring natural beauty of Fogo Island.