Dear Editor:
Drawing inspiration from Deb Meissner’s musings for a better Canada (May 12, 2022), I want play the “what if” game too. Instead of starting with the Government of Canada or the Province of British Columbia, I’ll start where it matters most to me and where I see powerful potential for strategic wins for all of us! If we want a better Canada, we need to nurture, strengthen and reconcile our relationships within the communities we live: Smithers for me.
What if Smithereens had an opportunity to co-create a vision for a safe, just, sustainable and prosperous future—for ourselves, our families, our community.
Through this lens, what if we embraced common goals for democracy, human rights, indigenous rights and security to clarify and secure common interests (public interests, community perspective) and hold governments accountable for protecting what matters most to us.
What if we had agency—as a community, with community—when we want to engage in problem solving initiatives that affect us.
What if governments invested in the science and other resources we need to wisely inform decisions that drawn from the wealth of scientific, traditional and local knowledge we collectively hold.
What if governments and corporations invested in problem solving processes that help our community to secure the integrity and resilience we need to effectively respond and adapt to a the growing snarl of crises, ranging from local to global in extent.
What if we collectively embraced our community and the ecosystems that sustain us like our lives, our families lives and future generations lives depend on our success.
Now, imagine a world realizing the dependence of civilization on the integrity and resilience of Earth’s systems and remembering that we are indeed greater than the sum of us—community-by-community, community-to-community and beyond.
Deb Wellwood, Smithers