And We Can Do So Much Better. Never Mind the Old Normal. Let’s Create a New Normal With a Fairer, Healthier, More Prosperous World For Everyone
A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Posted January 3rd, 2020 on Niagara At Large
I was standing in a line at a grocery store this past Sunday with a few items I needed to get for the home when I looked over at a magazine rack and saw one of those special editions of Time Magazine with a cover headline that read; “2020 – The Year In Review”.
Chuckling for a brief moment, I found myself saying out loud; “Who would want to get a magazine reviewing a year like that.” A young lady behind me quickly concurred; “I think we have had enough of that one. I say we move forward.”
Then I came home from the store and checked my email, where quite on the same theme, someone shared a copy of the following image – some very timely beach art, produced along the shores of Lake Erie this past New Year’s weekend by Wainfleet/Niagara area residents Kelly and Patrick Robson –

A most timely message for the New Year, produced and photographed on the beaches of Lake Erie, courtesy of Kelly and Patrick Robson and family. A Better New Year to them and to all of us.
Amen!
And Thank You Kelly and Patrick for sharing this spot-on creation.
Let’s hope as many of us as possible resolve to re-imagine and reshape a healthier, more sustainable and prosperous future for ourselves and our children as we emerge from these dark and difficult times.
With enough will and wisdom, we can and we must do better that simply – as some of our current business and political leaders want us to do -“go back to (the old) normal.”
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
I think we can all agree Doug, to put 2020 in the rear and hopefully look forward to some better news in 2021 but you really have to shake your head when you hear that the former Conservative Premier of Ontario was awarded the province’s highest honour.
Mike Harris and his common sense revolution who was responsible for the tragedy in Walkerton back in the 90’s received the Order of Ontario. This should spark outrage especially amid the Covid 19 debacle because of the suffering that is taking place in our long term care homes and his current position as board chair of one of the largest operators, Chartwell Residences. What we see today is the result of his common sense revolution and the privatization of long term care.
This is truly an insult to the people of Ontario.
A quick reply from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – You are so right about Mike Harris, the premier in Ontario in the late 1990s and early 2000s who oversaw the gutting of so many public services that led to environmental disasters like Walkerton and the death of a young pregnant woman, placed under house arrest – her crime? Desperately trying to take advantage of whatever social assistance was out there to get a college education and better herself.
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