The Canadian Dream is increasingly being realized in smaller areas For decades, Canadians moved to the larger cities (census metropolitan areas, or CMAs) with their economic opportunities. The latest estimates indicate that CMAs have 72 per cent of the nation’s population. Yet recent data shows Canadians are moving away from the CMAs, to smaller communities.…
May even be destined to become an Olympic sport one day Pickleball, kind of a combination of tennis and ping pong, is the fastest-growing sport in the United States. The state of Washington, in fact, has declared it the state sport. Based on different reports, there are somewhere between five million and eight million pickleball…
Pandemic has accelerated the flow of people fleeing cities, especially among young people
It’s no secret the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many Canadians to move from cities to the suburbs and even the countryside. According to Statistics Canada, the phenomenon led to a record loss of population in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in 2020. Vacancy rates are skyrocketing in many urban centres across the country. The same phenomenon…Our store of creative capital, entrepreneurial risk taking, peacekeeping and a welcoming attitude rooted in our small-town history
For the past year, I’ve been living in a small town. It has about 20,000 residents counting the ‘highway people’ – those few thousands of us who live along Highway 101, which stretches about 30 km north and south of town. We’re seasonally augmented by a few thousand ‘island dwellers’ who essentially show up for…
Our summers were a collage of friends, exploration, interaction, self-discovery. We were doing everything. Our kids deserve the same
Millions of Canadian children are no doubt thrilled as summer holidays begin this week, after months of classrooms, tests and teachers. Most of us remember the long and lazy days of summer – an entire two months of winding down after a structured 10 months of schooling. For many of us raising kids today, summer…
Amidst the turmoil, simple acts of kindness: feeding a homeless man, art classes for apartment kids, and Wood Camp with Steve
My wife and I had dinner with old friends last month. One continues to work in the final year of distinguished academic service as a professor; the other has recently retired from a career in planning and consulting. In these situations, I find that our conversation tends to focus on the partner who has made…
Big cities were going to be nirvana for artists, designers and technology freaks. But high costs are leading them to happy lives in rural settings instead
Way back in 2003, urban planning guru Richard Florida was in Calgary to lecture on creative capital, the emerging millennial wave and the new cool concept of Bohemian index. Big cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal were going to become the new nirvana as a wave of musicians, artists, designers, architects, writers and information technology freaks swarmed…