Suddenly, kindness is the word.
After weeks and even months of acrimony on the provincial political front, the angry rhetoric has been muted.
The furor over Bill 6 has subsided, given over to acceptance that rural Alberta can finally move forward with a notion, maybe even a conviction, that farm and ranch employees deserve the same legislative protections afforded to all other workers in the province.
Of course matters helped greatly that the provincial NDP government did not hammer the oil and gas industry with the long and nervously awaited royalty review. Instead, the end result was a full-scale retreat from the left to set the mood and tone right. Nice became the operating word from that. The Wildrose Party and the still floundering Progressive Conservatives were forced to mutter things that were almost kind. Thankfully the vitriol that boiled over from Bill 6 had vanished.
And how about last week with the visit from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau? It was all good, a real lovefest that had an unmistakable puppies and kittens feel. When big oil reps praise the outcome of a meeting with a Trudeau, the name forever linked with the National Energy Program, you just have to know a corner has been turned.
Locally, it's all good too. When Mayor Brian Spiller shakes my hand after a council meeting the scribbler definitely knows something is up. We recently traded stories on our recent getaways to more tropical environs and it was all smiles.
And now we are about to enter the first long weekend of the year where the typical bitterly cold Central Alberta winter has taken its own holiday. Family Day is set for Feb. 15, and while most want the unseasonably nice weather to hang around, there are still many who look forward to shedding all worries and stresses over the lousy economy to experience the snow and chill for true Canadian wintry fun on a badly needed holiday. Best of all, the pocketbook does not have to take a beating. There is no need to head to the mountains. Fun on Family Day for Innisfailians is right around the corner.
And there will be plenty of kindness. The Innisfail Kinsmen will see to that when families arrive at the Innisfail Arena.
Every year for as long as anyone can remember the service club revs up the kindness on Family Day, a holiday that nicely coincides with its own Founders Day on Feb. 20. Kinsmen have now made Feb. 20 their annual National Day of KINdness, which of course is a vehicle to be on nice overload that day through acts of kindness in the communities they serve.
Yes, the Kinsmen will be nice. They will be overflowing with kindness.
Let that spread. Buy someone a coffee at the Tim Hortons lineup. Give the neighbour's cat or dog plenty of pets. Tell your councillor what a great job he or she is doing.
Consider Feb. 15 a nice big time out from the gloom seen and heard on the news.
Kindness can indeed be the word, even for just one day.
