Happy New Year, Calgary — there were days we worried you were gone for good. But you can’t keep a great city down forever. So, yes, we’re back and ready to roll into 2026.

It won’t be smooth rolling, of course. There are serious headwinds ahead, mostly on the financial front.

The Alberta government will awaken Jan. 1 with a doozy of a headache — energy prices are sliding down a cliff, and the piper will have to be paid in the year ahead. As this province’s biggest city, Calgary won’t be immune from the resulting tune played on that dusted-off austerity fiddle.

But, for now, let’s celebrate good news — after a decade of what seemed like deliberately induced division from on high, we’re finally back on track.

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And make no mistake, this change of fortune arrives in the nick of time. Some of those we previously elected citywide — who should have been the biggest, most enthusiastic boosters of Calgary — instead seemed to take joy in constantly denigrating the very culture and history of the city that gave them power.

Thankfully, in the past few months, we have witnessed a return to reasonable civic governance under the stewardship of a new council and mayor, elected by fed-up citizens in October.

In the relatively brief time since the planned 2026 budget rate increase for homeowners — approved by the previous council as some sort of insulting final farewell — was reduced from an eye-watering 5.8 per cent to a

© Calgary Herald