Everyone who knows me is quick to learn that I wear the Drayton Valley banner liked I owned it. I love this community and spend my days trying to make it an even better place to live. But when I am out of town the first question I hear on meeting someone is almost always the same thing; “Where are you from?’ I always hesitate for a moment because I want to honour the great community where I live but almost without exception I respond, ” I am from Moncton, New Brunswick, but live in the great community of Drayton Valley, Alberta. I have dual citizenship you see.” Anyone who travels with me has heard me say this. And these past few days have reminded me of the community that was my home for the first 19 years of my life. I’m a proud Maritimer; particularly a Monctonian which means I come from among other things the only officially bilingual city in Canada and the home to the Tidal Bore. Moncton has been determined by Readers Digest in two separate polls as the most polite city in Canada and the most honest city in Canada. It offers one of the best qualities of life in the country and darn it Moncton is ‘where I’m from’. I’m proud of that and no one messes with it. There are no six degrees of separation in Moncton; maybe not even three degrees of separation. It’s a city but maintains the feeling of a small town.
What happened in the past 48 hours will not change that feeling. ‘He’ is not who we are! Who we are is a community that over the next several weeks, months and years will honour the incredible loss suffered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; particularly with the loss of life of Const. Dave Ross, 32, from Victoriaville, Que., Const. Fabrice Georges Gevaudan, 45, who was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France and Const. Douglas James Larche, 40, from Saint John. We will of course raise money for their families and have memorials for them. But what we will do to truly honour the sacrifice these men made is to be a little more honest, a little more polite and a little kinder. Because that is what Monctonians do!
Nancy's Notes 