Lisa and I had eye exams in Cranbrook. We also had a service on the truck.
Cranbrook is a small city with a Walmart, mall, superstore and other box stores. I visited the garden centre even though I didn’t need anything.
It is not the nicest city. A large strip of businesses leading to a downtown that tries to hide the dilapidation. Much different then the tourist trap we live in. Not many Alberta plates.
I did notice the people. They were hardened. Overweight, limping; many I could tell were homeless. A homeless camp is behind the garden centre. Invermere would quickly run these folks out of town, ‘bad for business’ the higher ups would say.
Every small city across Canada is the same. In Invermere the people are tourists. They are the wealthy from Alberta. They are fit and healthy.
A store clerk once told me they can always spot a tourist, because they look healthier than locals.
Locals making minimum wage and living in overcrowded staff houses just don’t have the same resources. No matter what we pretend as Canadians.
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Lisa and I will eventually be pushed out of our home to make way for more tourists and second home owners. It is inevitable as we will not be able to afford the escalating assessments and taxes. We will probably head to Cranbrook and join the good people.
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It’s funny, Invermere is actually becoming a small city and will eventually lose its charm with tourists. We are already busy building our own strip with box stores and polluting the lake.
Perhaps we will get lucky like Cranbrook and be abandoned by tourists so we can limp around, overweight, getting by on minimum wage, sickly and drunken in the place we love the most.
Palliser Pass 
larry
God forbid this should happen to you. When I worked in the Sudan, the locals were sickly looking the fit ones were the refugees from Ethiopia who were on the move, many came to Canada.
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underswansea
Maybe the Albertans look so healthy because they are on the move back and forth over the provincial border and beyond. However, I think more likely is that they are the wealthiest people in Canada and can afford the luxury of good health. Take care.
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mountaincoward
Yeah it’s similar here – only here, the tourists are generally fat and extremely unhealthy. They sit around all day like huge red blobs in the sun eating rubbish, drinking rubbish (and tossing the residue all over the countryside) and playing loud music – yuck! I like loud music myself but through headphone at home…
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underswansea
The tourists here are some of the wealthiest people in Canada and can afford the luxury of good health. It is said Canada has a one tier health system, but nothing can be further than the truth.
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mountaincoward
Ours could afford it too but there’s a huge cult of laziness and junk food eating over here now
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underswansea
Ours is the opposite. If you are poor the only food you can afford is cheap, processed food with plenty of empty calories. It is also difficult for poorer people to have access to proper healthcare.
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mountaincoward
I don’t think processed food works out cheap really as, like you say, it has empty calories and no real bulk so you’re not full after it. I always think fresh fruit and veg are cheapest. Anyway, the way things are going with the cost of living, I think everyone is going to have to grow their own in future!
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