Feeling Grateful

Merry Christmas Sherwood Park! I hope you have a safe and relaxing holiday season to get powered up for 2026.

The holiday season can be full of joy and wonderful memory making moments. I know it can also be a time when we miss some of our favourite people from our life too. In all of it, the happy and the sad, I hope you can find things to be grateful for in your life.

I try to live my life in gratitude. For sure, there are moments and times when I get frustrated and worry about the future. But when I focus on what I am grateful for, I can bounce back from down times and focus my energy on building a better Alberta for those of us here today and the future generations not here yet.

I am grateful for modern comforts like a hot shower and a cup of coffee. Some of my best thoughts come to me when I am in the shower. Some of my favourite conversations happen with other people over an energy inducing cup of coffee. Sherwood Park is blessed with a lot of great locations to meet up for a cup of coffee. I wonder if we have the most per capita in Alberta.

I am grateful that I have a home here in Sherwood Park connected to the reliable utility services of modern life: pressurized potable water, electricity, natural gas and data. I am also incredibly grateful for the team of people that come by my house once a week to remove my garbage, compost and recyclables. Life would be so messy, stinky and cluttered without them.

I am grateful that in 1927, Stanislaw Kasawski arrived in Quebec City on a passenger ship from Glasgow. He was sponsored by his father and brother who were already landed immigrants in Canada. From there, he rode a train to Alberta, where thanks to Treaty 6, he was able to buy a quarter section of homestead land near Flatbush for a $10 fee. It was the start of life for my family here in Canada.

I am grateful for the treaties that opened Canada to immigrant families like mine and the relationship with indigenous people whose ancestors have been here since before written history. When we acknowledge a treaty, it is an act of reconciliation with First Nations, and it is an acknowledgement that our life here in Alberta was made possible because of the treaties between the Government of Canada and the First Nations. We are all treaty people in Alberta, and I will forever be grateful for it.

I am grateful for the newcomers and immigrants that make our community stronger and contribute to a better Alberta. Data from Alberta Treasury Board and Finance reveals immigrants are net economic contributors to our province. I am grateful for their historical and ongoing contributions to our prosperity.

We are stronger and better together and I am looking forward to a better 2026 together with you.