Peter Shokeir | editor@fitzhugh.ca Don’t be fooled by the flurries. Spring is here, meaning Jasper is starting to get ready for the summer wave of tourists. This isn’t an exhaustive breakdown but rather a taste of what this mountain community is doing to prepare for a safe season. Parks Canada is launching campground reservations for Jasper National Park starting April 9 at 8 a.m. Reservations will open for ...

Peter Shokeir | editor@fitzhugh.ca In the 2000 film Finding Forrester, the protege of the reclusive and titular author questions why his mentor is sullying his mind by reading the National Enquirer and not, say, the New York Times instead. “I read the Times for dinner,” Forrester replies. “But this… (chuckles) this is my dessert.” This exchange touches one of the main problems with media consumption today, ...

Peter Shokeir | editor@fitzhugh.ca Although readership for print books has waned over the past decade, physical books are refusing to go away so easily. According to Statista, book consumption in the United States still lends towards print with 65 per cent of survey respondents in 2019 saying they read at least one print book in the past year. This is 40 per cent more than those who had read an ebook in the ...

Peter Shokeir | editor@fitzhugh.ca As the Fitzhugh is updating its media kit, we requested updated website statistics from our IT people, which yielded rather odd results. Our old statistics were about four-years old so some differences were expected. However, when it came to what devices readers are using to read the Fitzhugh online, the new percentages between desktop and mobile were practically reversed ...

Paradise has a cost, and that’s more than evident when it comes to housing. Since at least 2014, the town has had a 0.0 per cent vacancy with approximately 37 per cent of residents overpaying for shelter, according to the municipality. A 2021 analysis by Parks Canada also identified that 46 new housing units have been constructed in town since 2017, but 63 units were converted to condominiums through the sa ...

Peter Shokeir | editor@fitzhugh.ca We all have our share of deep-freeze stories, and I’m sure plenty of Jasperites can top the one I’m about to describe. But for me, this one was a doozy. Back two winters ago in Grande Prairie, the temperature had dipped to -40 C over the course of a weekend. My own car was among the first to go kaputz that Saturday as I had forgotten to plug it in the other night. For a re ...

Following weeks of public backlash, the UCP government has decided to reinstate Alberta’s 1976 coal policy. The blowback had been strong indeed but not atypical, at least for this government. The policy protects the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountain, and while the Jasper area was safely nestled within a national park, local councillor Jenna McGrath had voiced her worries about the possible impact to the ...

How long until the world returns to normal? Well, we still have quite a ways to go before humanity beats back the scourge of the coronavirus, perhaps another year or two of restrictions. It seems to all depend on the vaccine rollout, which has already hit a few snags.  The positive side is that new vaccines are coming out every day, with Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine appearing to be 66 pe ...

Some realities are inevitable but bitter nonetheless. Last week, Jasper Municipal Council decided to implement paid parking. There are a few caveats though. It will be a pilot project that can be adjusted based on what works and what rubs too many people the wrong way. Administration also needs to first present a plan for the pilot project along with one for public consultation. In short, don’t expect parki ...

Over the last five years, the downsides of social media have become apparent. What downsides am I talking about? Take your pick: doxing, hate speech, fake news, conspiracy theories, censorship, data harvesting but perhaps worst of all is the near-total degradation of social discourse. This unnatural means of communication has few of the social cues we so rely on. It does not require you to look someone in t ...