Despite all the complaining that goes on regarding sunshine tax and the insane cost of little things such as food and housing, we still have it all. Well almost. If you don’t count low wages, lack of low income housing, and a town growing so large it goes straight up its mountainsides. No this writer does not work for the tourist bureau. That probably requires math skills. It is true however that this town appears to have it as close to the mighty all as any town will.

Brief domicile on the Prairies, during which time Red Adair was busy with that city’s oil spill, brought concern regarding how the sky could stay up with no mountains to hold it in place. A person really notices the trees when there are no hills behind those. Good things include the transit system with which you could go anyplace at any time although you had to walk through the dark and sometimes empty tunnels of some LRT stations in order to get there. There are however gorgeous ancient homes and buildings to soothe an atavistic yearning for a quieter era.

A longer haul at a west coast city was certainly different to this kid from a tiny coal bucket in the mountains. People tend to behave differently in a large city, in a manner wary and indifferent, not so strange considering the high crime rate. Nevertheless you could and still can go anywhere and get anything you need, such as medical treatments, resources, and other things not always attainable in a smaller area. They do have a startling street which throws back to the 1800s and includes houses with widow’s walks and long driveways where you swear you can still hear coach wheels turn. Of course, modern huge ugly houses continue despite city bylaws to be built among the mansions of old brick.

Between those two was a long stay in a small city whose population has over the past four and a half decades moved consistently up and down. It stays small enough to send people falling out their windows when they hear a siren, and large enough to have some impressive resources. People still have to go to the large centres for more serious medical treatments, among other things. And they can always go over to the next town to ski. It is quiet there and you can sleep hard and long without the traffic of a larger city. There are mountains, forests, trees, and fishing holes and hunting grounds and you can walk through city centre in about ten minutes.

Those are great places to visit, certainly. They have their share of tourism and so they should as they have lots to offer. They have their respective uniqueness and points of interest. It is great to wander a place that is in any way different from what you are used to day in and day out. In fact when we go somewhere else we do not see the other stuff, the things that those who live there experience every day. Things like sunshine tax, high prices, low wages, and crime.

Funny thing happens right about then. As soon as we live in a place, obstacles are all we see. The uniqueness, the all season playground, trees, forest, mountains, fishing, hunting, sports, old buildings, parks, and tons of shopping, just to mention a few, drift away after a few years. They go out the window and all we see is petty stuff and call it capital.

We need to walk around with the expectant open eyes and ears of a tourist.

--lmg