In a last minute decision, I left work on Friday and, with a couple of friends, drove overnight and arrived in Ottawa the next day to spend the long weekend in sunny 21-degree weather instead of the forecasted weekend of rain and low temperatures in Halifax.

As the Ottawa Senators won the hockey game against Buffalo yesterday, I was treated to a unique display of solidarity and city pride. Thousands of Ottawans took to the streets in a frenzy of celebrations. The city closed a major downtown street (Elgin Street) and assigned it for exclusive pedestrian use to accommodate for the hordes of excited fans darting between the bars that are lining the street on both sides. With their horns, jerseys, painted faces, and replica Stanley Cups, people of every age, color, and nationality were united yesterday, as Ottawans.

Here was an example of a city and people working together to everyone’s benefit. A fan started a movement to transform Elgin street into Ottawa’s ‘Sens Mile’ version of Calgary’s ‘Red Mile’. With the support of other fans, and utilizing the popular online social network ‘Facebook’, the city agreed to close Elgin street for celebrations. Simple. No excess of red tape, no prohibitive frowning eyebrows on the potential of excessive alcohol consumption, and no nay-sayers seeking a more ‘established’ (old boys club) organizer of such an event to push the idea up the food chain. Just a city in touch with the needs of its citizens and responding to them. Ottawans celebrated, local businesses profited, and city officials basked in good karma. Everybody won yesterday.

I watched the cheerful joy sweep the city and wondered to myself: is this what many Haligonians long for as they struggle and lobby for facilities that would hopefully lead to the establishment of a national sports team? Some hearts were racing with the Halifax bid for the Commonwealth Games and the proposed plans for new sports facilities that included an international-standard stadium. We all know how that ended.

At first I did not give the Commonwealth Games issue much merit, since I am not a die-hard fan of any particular sport myself. However, I can now see that the issue has a number of irrefutable social and economic dimensions that must be considered in future deliberations by the city of Halifax. A Halifax CFL team, for example, will have less to do with the need to compete on a national level and more in terms of lending Haligonians, and Nova Scotians, a focal point to rally around that will hopefully see them shed the geo-social divides that perpetuate the slow progress of the city and, ultimately, the province.

When rural vs. city politics keep vital decisions in limbo, someone has to step up and fight for change. Living in silos is a dangerous long term strategy for the progress and prosperity of any people. Solidarity, commonalities, and joint pride are elements of unity that are much more productive to a people’s future, as they foster an understanding of needs that may lead to favorable considerations of initiatives that require political backing (in terms of votes). When people understand each other, they are more able to consider each other’s varying points of view.

Nova Scotia can not afford to maintain the status quo of mainstream thought that has governed its decision making for decades. As Canada’s overall economy grows stronger with the performance of other provinces, the dollar is getting stronger, and foreign companies (that utilized cost savings by operating in Nova Scotia) are closing at an alarming rate, sending thousands of workers on unemployment. Unemployment, combined with an aging populus, cause a strain on budgets. Taxes that feed the budget are threatened with the province’s young professionals fleeing the province to seek more exciting opportunities elsewhere.

This situation spells disaster for Nova Scotia if action is not taken, don’t you agree?