Joy to the Winnipeg

Every year we make resolutions, top to-do lists, and predictions for the New Year. This year, it feels more necessary than ever to hope for a year better than 2016.

Personal faults and triumphs aside, most of mankind witnessed historic moments we wished we hadn’t. I’m not just talking about the new President of the United States, the state of Aleppo, or our dependence on social media as our main news source.

Winnipeg has experienced some major and minor downers in the past year that have accumulated into big hurdles for us to jump over. The list of worst and terrible reputations grew.

Winnipeg is still seen as Canada’s most dangerous city, according to the Mainstreet poll. It’s a safety stereotype perpetuated by over 7,000 cases of missing people in our province, or the recent break-in at seasonal downtown pop-up shop Friday Knights, giving people a reason to why “we can’t have nice things.”

But 2017 will prove Winnipeg’s and the world’s resilience to terrible times and reputations. With Canada’s 150-year celebration, Winnipeg will be a major part of the Canada Summer Games.

Travel Manitoba just released its 150 Things to do in Manitoba in 2017, and although the classics are listed like visit The Forks or Oak Hammock Marsh, these sites have been revived and renovated for a new generation of fun.

However, the true dreams and predictions I have for Winnipeg in the New Year will be the positive groundbreakers. I would love to see the development and growth of downtown, giving small businesses and young entrepreneurs free range to open up more shops, craft bars, and businesses. But these entrepreneurs are people that represent Manitoba’s diverse population.

I want to see the attitudes inside and outside of our city reflect Winnipeg’s true loving spirit and to break the stigmas we have of communities we don’t truly know or understand.

I hope that people can begin put- ting social media aside to spend more time on themselves, their partners, and things they care about that don’t involve a glowing screen.

My predications, hopes, and desires for the New Year are that my classmates and I graduate healthy and with happy lives, and that the world won’t feel the repercussions of 2016.

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