We are in March. The time of year when spring is justsoclose and yet we are still experiencing cold, unpredictable weather. Do you go outside and get a hit of sun or do you stay home and stay warm?

The weather is always fluctuating, unfortunately getting even more unpredictable with climate change. Since launching in 2011, I have seen a fluctuation in business as well. Some underlying storm brewing. I’ve seen countless people try to launch businesses. Try to fill a gap in the market, a niche, a lifelong dream. And sadly, most did not survive. The pandemic, the inflation, the greed of the powers that be. The loss of community. Businesses, especially local, are struggling. Just as people are struggling.

Why is it that the only people that aren’t struggling are the uber rich that don’t pay taxes?

Then you have really obnoxious donations by the likes of Jeff Bezos, who doesn’t pay taxes yet “donated” 50 million dollars to his fiancee’s good friend Eva for her interests and causes?

Why are we struggling at the local level to find housing, afford food, access healthcare and receive our own tax paying benefits? Why is the solution to the corrupt few rich, a meager basic income for the rest of us at the bottom?

What if our communities around PEI, Canada and the world, what if we looked after ourselves again? What if we focused less on what’s on social media and what we don’t have – and instead, focus on what we do have and what we can do?

How can we, as a community, turn our rich resources of fertile land, wide open spaces, clean air, renewable energy and caring people.. how can we make it our business to help ourselves? Less government bureaucracy, less taxes, more effective, fair and just regulations.

We don’t need another administrator for health, we need doctors, nurses and support staff. We don’t need another standing committee on housing – we need you to kick out AirBNB, regulate rent and remove restrictions on density. We don’t need the government to subsidize the rich, enable corporations to circumvent labour laws by employing foreign worker slaves (and that is exactly what they are – used and abused by corporations, not the villains that racists would have you believe) and pay pittance to the poor – we need you to truly let the markets do their job. If companies can’t find qualified workers at bottom-basement prices, pay them more. Clearly the excuse that the cost of everything would go up has been smashed by greed and record profits these past few years of post-pandemic gluttony.

PEI has an opportunity to thrive. We are the perfect location, the perfect population, and the perfect mix of valued trades and professionally educated people.

What do we need to do to do better? We need to decide that we won’t put up with the double speak and weak convictions of politicians. That we won’t tolerate the injustices of our society. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

PEI – come together, work together, support each other and prepare for the storms together. Because that’s how we’ll survive whatever the weather brings.

Georgina