City Notebook: Here we go again, again – stay safe out there

By COLLIN GALLANT on April 19, 2021.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Things are getting bad out there, again.

Medicine Hat is over 100 COVID cases again, a level that put this city on high alert before Christmas and should again.

The national news is focused on Ontario, which is seeing a serious legitimate lockdown compared to the measures in Alberta that everyone is complaining are too stringent or too lax.

A “super spreader” party in Maple Creek has beget 67 variant cases alone and now outbreaks dot that region.

Never mind the weather, this spring seems awfully inhospitable.

And facing a 14th month of raised alert levels and foregoing the niceties of normal life, it’s hard not to wonder what the point of it all has been.

Some answer comes from a perhaps aggravating news from Havre, Mont.

Cases there fell to zero on Friday, which will no doubt fuel outrage at Canada’s vaccination rollout.

But, consider though that this comes after one in 10 residents fell ill from the deadly respiratory disease.

They have one quarter the population of Medicine Hat and have recorded about three times the number of fatalities.

As of Friday, 17 Hatters had died, which is sad on its own.

But if we’d taken the virus as seriously as some would like – those who currently point to the United States as a beacon – the local death toll would likely be over 200.

It’s no small feat that an appalling number has been avoided.

If you’ve read this far without crumpling up the paper and screaming “fake news!”, then you already know that doing the right thing works and you’ve probably been doing it.

Keep it up. Good for you. Spread the word.

Royal Visit

Prince Philip had deep ties with the military of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, but the Duke of Edinburgh’s most famous visit to CFB Suffield was due to his position in the World Wildlife Fund.

Philip, whose funeral will be held today, was on hand in March 1992 when two Canadian ministries signed the agreement to create the National Wildlife Area.

“It’s a very important piece of land,” he told the News reporter Louise Smith in a rare, albeit brief, comment to the press at a reception following the signing of the accord.

Philip was president of the WWF International from 1981 to 1996, and president emeritus until his death last week.

Comings, goings

– Kerri Sandford ended her tenure as the publisher of the Medicine Hat News when the whistle blew on Friday. She moves on after a career that started as a reporter, took a long trip as city editor and wound up in the corner office.

– Another former News editor is making waves on the provincial political scene.

Sherri Murphy-Wright who managed the bullpen here in the early 2000s, is now a school trustee in St. Albert and is leading a charge against the province’s changes to education and curriculum.

– Bernie Pascal will join the CFL Hall of Fame as a broadcaster this year, it was announced this week. That’s a few decades after the legendary West Coast sports caster cut his teeth as a dashing man on the sports scene in Medicine Hat at CHAT television in the 1960s, Hatters of a certain vintage will recall.

Slightly younger Hatters will remember him as the host of FunTime, which was the locally produced children’s show.

A look ahead

City council meets Monday to hear a COVID-19 update from local emergency managers, accept the 2020 financial statements and present an outline of the city’s recent corporate reorganization.

The federal budget also comes down Monday.

100 years ago

Women could put an end to all war at the ballot box, suffragettes at a mass meeting were told in Cleveland, the News reported in April 1921.

Parties should bend to the wants of a new and massive block of women voters.

“We’ve waited too long and we’ll get another war by waiting further,” said speaker Carrie Chapman.

Local scouts planned a parade to honour the visit by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Canada’s outgoing governor general and wife, during their farewell tour stop in Medicine Hat.

In regional news, the Schuler local of the United Farmers of Alberta would move ahead with a local cold storage facility for use by members.

Fair and even auto races might accompany horse races staged at this year’s agricultural society event, according to local rumours.

The Eastern Crow Line baseball league would consist of entries from Bow Island, Winnifred, Whitla, Burdett, Grassy Lake and Foremost, promoters announced with fanfare.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com