This is the Canada Day weekend, a time when we can look fondly at the formal formation of a collaboration of colonies that has now grown from coast to coast to coast.
It even falls on a Saturday! There is a mood to celebrate also since what happened 150 years ago now in Charlottetown, P.E.I. It's a chance to reflect on who we are and what we're about.
And with that celebration, most people can be trusted to turn responsibly to alcohol.
But for some reason in Saskatchewan, we have a bit of a drinking problem. Maybe not so much a drinking problem but a drinking and driving problem. We top the country in drinking and driving convictions.
It's not just a trifle more than other provinces. It's a significant total: we had 575 drinking and driving collisions per 100,000 incidents versus second place Alberta's 314/100,000 in 2015. Since 2010, more than 350 people have been killed in collisions. We're aware of this and yet continue to do it. It's frustrating because it's such a preventable way to die.
We've had ad after ad coming at us on TV and radio and newspapers, reminding us of the stats and we're aware of all of this and yet...
Last year, we had the provincial minister responsible for alcohol be arrested for drinking and driving, with him pleading guilty. He went through a construction zone at twice the legal limit. This ought to have been a wake-up call for many people who think they may be too big to get caught.
SGI recently came out with some very effective advertising about the people who have died from the affects of drinking and driving. People universally thought it was striking to see people suddenly removed from family photos and in one case, an entire family was removed.
We see this frequently and yet still...
Canada Day is a great holiday that many families and individuals enjoy responsibly. Kids go to parks and get their faces painted. People go to the lake and fish or sit on a dock and catch up with friends and family from far away.
This all happens again this year as it has for decades, except for those families who have lost their neices and nephews, their dad, their kids or their grandparents because of drinking and driving.
When is the tipping point? What will it take for people to stop doing this? We live in a small city, near a few small towns and it's so ingrained that I have no doubt people will continue to do it regardless of how long they lose their licence for or how big the fine is.
It's not about the consequences, clearly. People are still turning a blind eye to the idea that their drinking and driving may in fact have that kind of effect on their neighbours.
It's clearly a provincial problem, this drinking and driving problem we have, but more than that it's about individual responsibility. It's about when you decide to get behind the wheel and drive after drinking. If the stories of those who have families left behind because of one person's thoughtless and heartless decision to drink and drive don't sway you then you really put us all in the kind of danger that the old British and French fellows responsible for Confederation would not be happy with.
It's a personal choice that's unacceptable. Now that (I assume, at least) you're sober, take a few moments to look in the mirror and ask yourself if you want to be that person who takes someone's life or your own because of drinking and driving. Keep that in mind as you travel around here this Canada Day.
