spjournal.com: Opinion

EDITORIAL

Where’s the welcome mat?

Journal Staff

Last week’s State of the Town address by Mayor of St. Paul Glenn Andersen offered some valuable insights on where the town is right now and where it hopes to go in the future. Andersen gave the audience some tantalizing tidbits on what to expect with future development in the east end, while not leaking any of the names of companies that might set up shop there.

The audience attending also got the chance to ask questions such as the wisdom of locating a new French school in the midst of major commercial development, and why the tourism information centre would no longer be open seven days a week during the peak tourism season.

Since the Town of St. Paul has decided to take over the operation of the tourism centre, located at the UFO landing pad, from the St. Paul and District Chamber of Commerce, it has also reconfigured the centre’s hours.

In June, the centre was open two days a week, and in July and August, the centre will officially be open five days a week, rather than seven. Town of St. Paul CAO Ron Boisvert has explained that the town is seeking to have someone on the site regularly, but wanted to ensure that the person at the centre would have work to do.

That’s understandable, but when you’re talking about staffing a tourism booth, isn’t the entire point to have someone simply be there for visitors, to encourage and promote tourism?

While closing during winter months, where few visitors drop into town, may make sense, having closed doors during the much more active summer months is much less understandable.

Welcome to St. Paul first-time visitors – here’s a door shut in your face.

One caller to the Journal recently left an irate message about this state of affairs, saying he and his family were visiting from Cold Lake and were at the tourism information centre. They were interested in dropping in and purchasing some souvenirs, but like everything else in town, the centre was closed, he complained.

During what is supposed to be the busy summer holiday season, if there isn’t a place of welcome for visitors - a place where they can get a warm greeting and information on town services - the message is something akin to tumbleweeds gusting down the main street. The message to these visitors is that the town is dead.

Although having the Chamber of Commerce operate the tourism information centre for the town seemed like a good fit for both sides, council chose not to increase funding to the organization and decided to operate the centre on its own.

Having made that decision, the Town of St. Paul needs to ensure that it finds a way to keep the centre open and continue to make a good first impression on visitors; it needs to ensure that the welcome mat is laid out for tourists and the door to future visits remains open.

OUR VIEWS

Canada Day pride

By Janani Whitfield
Around the Bend

I came to this country from India when I was less than one-year-old, but I always get questions from people asking me where I’m from. I understand they want to know my ethnic origins, but I always smile pleasantly and tell them, "I’m from Saskatoon." (It was a lot harder to evade that question when I actually lived in Saskatoon).

Although I am East Indian, I consider myself to be "from Canada" just as much as anyone else who chooses to make a home here. I had the choice to live in England, a beautiful country devoid of frigid, long winters, but I couldn’t do it. Somehow, this barren great white north had a hold on me, and it called me back to what I consider home.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of things wrong with Canada, starting with the never-ending dark pain that is winter. Then there are the killer mosquitoes that can sap your blood faster than any huckster from Transylvania. The country’s massive size is a pain as well – it means we have to drive more than an hour and a half just to get our Tim Hortons’ double-double cravings satisfied.

Our history, though young, has had its fair share of embarrassments as well, such as the internment of Japanese people during World War II, the head tax on Chinese people and of course, the conquest and subjugation of the country’s indigenous people, which still continues to this day. As of 2000 – and the law may still be in effect, although I’m not entirely sure – the Nova Scotia government had yet to strike down a 1756 proclamation that offered a bounty for Mi’kmaq scalps.

It just goes to show you that some of these myths surrounding Canada are fairly weak. Ah, those Canadians, they’re so polite – they’ll take those hard-to-use Mi’kmaq scalps right off your hands!

We’ve never been very dynamic on the world stage either. Among our most recent ‘accomplishments’ is our opposition to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and our failure to honour our Kyoto Accord obligations. The most glamorous moment we’ve recently had on the world stage was when it was discovered that a (former) cabinet member’s busty girlfriend once dated biker gang members. Onwards and upwards Canada, our MPs’ romantic entanglements are finally making other countries think we’re pretty sexy!

But we only have to look at other places in the world to know how good we have it in Canada. Here in Alberta, we complain about inflation, which, last I heard, was running at about six per cent. In Zimbabwe, official figures for inflation are soaring past 100,000 per cent. A loaf of bread costs $7 million in Zimbabwean currency, which is pretty pricey for your average Zimbabwean living in total abject poverty. We complain about long waits for surgeries, but all of us have access to basic health care. And while Canada may be huge, amongst that wide expense is amazing beauty, with rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and valleys tucked away in each of this country’s far stretches.

We have multiculturalism, we have wealth, we have freedom and we have democracy. It doesn’t get much better than that.

This July 1, as we celebrate the 141st anniversary of Canada as we know it today, let’s celebrate how great we are and how much greater yet we can be.

My name is Janani and even though I am an immigrant, even though I gripe and moan about the winter, and even though I’d never drink Molson beer, I’ll still be proud to stand up this Canada Day and announce, "I am Canadian!"