In any other country, life would screech to a halt with the more than 30 cm of snowfall blanketing the streets and plunging temperatures to -30 degrees Celsius the area saw last Friday.
But in Canada, winter is an obstacle but not an insurmountable one. We break out the snow blowers, plug in our cars and shovel our way into work. Elk Point Extravaganza? It’s still on. St. Paul Canadiens game? It’s never too cold for hockey. Weekend sales? Hey, the stores are still hopping – that Christmas shopping isn’t go to do itself.
Several of us grumble about the filled-in roads as our vehicles puff and heave on square wheels to work, but without the hard work of Town and County of St. Paul staff to plow the way, we wouldn’t be going anywhere (although maybe that wouldn’t be so bad either). Our municipalities and their staff deserve a lot of credit for working to hold back the worst of winter that would otherwise grind everything to a halt.
In this part of the world, snow and cold can’t stop us. Extreme weather is a fact of life – one likely to be more and more common in the future – and for those of us who make northeast Alberta our home, we go about our daily day. After all, we are Canadian. We are snow and ice.
