“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”—George Bernard Shaw
For years people were leaving rural areas for big cities in search of entertainment and jobs and lifestyle which urban living offers. And those who went mostly for well-paid jobs had to venture into nature over weekends to find what I really call the LIFESTYLE;-). Not any more. The COVID 19 proved to us that technological advances such as cloud computing with its live document sharing and remote video conferencing enable upper and middle-class families to relocate to small attractive towns and not change their jobs! Canmore is becoming a destination not only for tourists to enjoy the surrounding endless sport and beauty but also for day to day high standard of living. It is the trend which you can find across the whole of North America and Europe, including the Czech Republic, where till recently Prague was the beautiful Mecca, but you can now see a lot of middle-class families moving into the surrounding small towns.
Obviously, the action of the happy and eager migrants is raising a strong reaction of those who are already residing in those attractive towns. Sometimes the fear of change brings with it attempts to mask the real concerns with something politically correct. But some of the concerns are real and have to be carefully considered! In my opinion, the migration trend will get stronger at least in our lifetime. Human nature is to resist the change. Let’s work together, anticipating the change and challenge the status quo in a constructive, positive, and reaffirming way rather than a rough, confrontational way that would undermine confidence, competence, and compromise.
I would like to welcome all excited newcomers (in 1997 I was one of them) and congratulate them on their choice by “I found my perfect home in Canmore, now let’s find yours!”
