It’s hard not to say “good riddance” rather than “goodbye” to a year like 2015.
There were good moments, for sure, but plenty more reasons to make us happy to start afresh in 2016.
Paris figured largely in the world psyche in more ways than expected. The Paris climate spectacular was expected; the tragic murder of innocent people by terrorists there, and in San Bernardino, was not.
It was that kind of year, a tentative step forward followed by two steps back. The first wobbly moves toward world-wide action to fight climate change was overshadowed by the monstrous cloud of ISIS, a hate-filled movement hell-bent on triggering the Apocalypse.
Things were not much better back home in western Canada, largely as a result of international events beyond our control. The once high-flying oil-and-gas industry, which has provided the revenue to keep the country on positive financial footing, continues to suffer deeply from OPEC’s price manipulations. With the price of a barrel of oil south of $40 and an ongoing world glut of oil, no one is expecting a recovery any time soon.
The financial impact on Alberta has been brutal: an estimated direct job loss figure of more than 60,000, a provincial budget deficit of more than $6 billion and stories of lost fortunes and even suicides. With a more diversified economy, the impact on Saskatchewan has been less dramatic.
There are, however, national consequences to the collapse of resource revenues. With the country’s once-richest province in the tank, revenues to the federal government have dropped and the end is in sight for future equalization payments to Ontario. Cold comfort.
Our dollar, meanwhile, is just above 70 cents US and sinking fast, making travel and shopping abroad a bad bet. There is a good side to a low dollar, of course – it makes our products cheaper on the international market, a potential boost to central Canada’s beleaguered manufacturing sector. It has also boosted tourism visitors to our country.
So, there is some reason for optimism as we approach a new year with a new federal government, a basket full of promises and – soon – 25,000 new Syrian refugees who will call our land of ice and snow home. Perhaps it is in this, our collective act of compassion, that we can find the silver lining to year that had a lot of clouds.
This year, Canadians gathered in service clubs, church basements and extended families to turn heartbreak into action. We showed that when we could see a real, concrete path to help people in desperate need we can spring into action with vigour and determination. As a result, thousands of people will learn for the first time what a truly free and democratic society feels like.
There is no question 2015 had some miserable moments. But as we turn our eyes to the year ahead, we can savour the way in which we rose, as a country, above our first-world worries and showed the mettle that makes us the envy of the world.
Let us hope we can use some of that same resourcefulness and determination to get our economy rolling again, too.
– Doug Firby is Director of Communications