Editorials

There is something about a New Year that brings hope with it. It is like a chance to start over, a clean slate where all the mistakes, procrastination, failed plans of the past year are forgiven (by ourselves) and a chance to reset is given (again, by us, to us).

Just like consuming news in 2020 felt like it was all about COVID, writing it also often felt exhausting especially when every incident, event, opportunity, funding had a pandemic-releated caveat to it. So when we went through the entire year’s news to compile the Year In Review for this and next edition, that’s when we realized that yes, 2020 was about COVID but also about so many more things.

When the restrictions and COVID-measures rolled out, I heard a lot of people from cities getting upset over cancelled parties and gatherings. And yes, there were these murmurs in smaller towns and villages as well, but what surprised me was just how many people were more upset over how someone else won’t get Christmas, how folks in seniors’ homes won’t get to see their families, how kids won’t get their toys under their trees or how families won’t unite over the holidays.

With talk around the possibility of vaccines becoming available soon, I feel it is time to reflect on some of the things that the pandemic brought upon us that could and should stay the same in a post-pandemic world.

Juno and Umbrella Academy fame Canadian actor Elliot Page, revealed through a social media post last week that he is a transgender person.

When social media usage to take political stands first became popular, a lot of people, news outlets started quoting these as a way of reporting. I used to think it was lazy reporting and unnecessary to give some of these opinions a plaform, until I joined in and actually witnessed first-hand just how important it is to take note of what goes on in the virtual world.

When the pandemic was just starting, the lockdowns suddenly seemed like a boon for earth where there were fewer vehicles on the roads, very few flights polluting the skies and hardly any ships disturbing the waters. There were surges in rare bird and animal sightings out in the open and it felt like the earth was getting some time to heal while us humans healed ourselves by staying indoors.

While the US Election is a hot button topic right now, there is more written on it than we have the time and energy to consume and so I want to focus on something different, more local today.

Last week, Democracy Watch, the non-profit that works on government accountability and reform in democracy, filed a lawsuit against John Horgan’s call for snap elections. In the words of the organization’s co-founder Duff Conacher, “By calling a snap election instead of waiting for the fixed election date a year from now, Premier Horgan acted like an old dictator not a new democrat” and this is despite agreeing to a fixed election date in 2001.

On Oct. 21, NASA astronaut, Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin returned to earth after spending 196 days in space, living and working in Earth’s orbit on the International Space Station.