Let's face it, if the world is ending in a few months, Canadians had best acknowledge that the year 2012 has given us a unique national identity before we (and the Earth's seven billion inhabitants) are unable to throw another curling rock over the hog line. Without waiting for the world to end or the NHL season to start, let's begin.

It is the role of parent to provide, protect, and nurture our children to grow to be thriving young citizens within the community. How can a parent of a two-year-old allegedly harm a child to the point that they are placed on life support? If they are proven guilty it demonstrates a lack of reason and for this no abusive parent should decide the next chapter of their child's life.

With word of the NHL lockout reaching the public ear last week, a lot has been said. We hear from both sides. We hear from the commentators, the pundits, the "experts", and the fans who suffer the most from this needless squabble. But what do we hear from the people who work behind the rink? You see, I'm gainfully employed by the Calgary Flames - specifically, I wash dishes for the all the fine diners lucky (and rich) enough to enjoy the fine foods served up at the 'Dome.

Peter Lougheed's grace, class, and dignity should be an example to current and future political leaders in Canada. His life and service to his country showed that great things could be accomplished for the common good with a mixture of intelligence, daring, principle, integrity, humility, and an understanding of the power of compromise. Canada owes much to the statesmanship of giants like Lougheed. He was a nation-builder. His passing is a reminder to me of how much we so desperately need people like Peter Lougheed in our public life today.

The former Alberta premier and Tory leader was, unequivocally, a titan. He was an Edmonton Eskimos alumni, with a masters degree from Harvard, and with the kind of family and political pedigree the likes of which you don't see in the public arena any more. But never mind that. Lougheed was a politician who redefined a province, who empowered Western Canada, who laid the foundation and turned Alberta from a rural bread basket into the engine that today fuels one of the world's most stable economies.