New Year's is a time for both reflection and speculation.
Reflection on the year just past. The highs and lows. The good and bad. And speculation on the year to come. What might 2012 bring us?
Reflecting on 2011, one could say that it was definitely a watershed year. Many major events happened - indeed with such frequency that it is hard to separate them out.
I mean, consider that the Canucks made the Stanley Cup finals! Yeah, they lost but for a brief period, for seven games, there was the hope that this might finally be the year that long suffering Canucks fans have waited so patiently for.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things, whether or not a team wins a trophy is of little importance.
Consider that last March - yes, it was only last March - the Tohoku Earthquake wiped out thousands of lives and miles of coastline. The earthquake was one of the five strongest every recorded. It generated tsunamis as tall as 40 metres (about a ten story building) that travelled as far as 10 kilometres inland.
It damaged the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant leading to an ongoing disaster that held headlines for a month after. The threat of a meltdown and/or nuclear explosion, along with the dispersal of radioactive elements, seemed to hold the public's attention in a way that the dead and the homeless didn't.
For some historians, the Tohoku earthquake would be enough to mark 2011 as "special". However, other earthquakes - of a political sort - were already clamouring for the world's attention. Collectively, they have been christened the "Arab Spring".
Technically, one could argue that the months of civil unrest started on December 18th, 2010 and belong to 2010 but the "Arab Spring" played out during much of 2011. Indeed, judging by the news out of Syria, the Arab awakening continues unabated.
The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt saw the demise of governments that had been in power for a long time. The civil was in Libya not only saw the government fall but the death of Muammar Gaddafi after over 40 years in power.
Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Oman, and Jordan have all seen uprisings or protests. Indeed, the Yemeni Prime Minister was forced from office. And Syria is still in a state of unrest with ongoing accounts of soldiers both attacking and defending civilian protesters.
The structural rearrangement of the political map across northern Africa and throughout the Middle East could be enough to consider 2011 as a year of note. However, the structural rearrangement in Europe might have a more significant impact.
I mean, what do you do if a country defaults on its loans? Send in the repo man? And, for that matter, what does it mean for a country to default?
The prospect of Greece reaching a state of insolvency and other members of the European Union following suit have kept financial markets in a state of panic for much of the year. Indeed, this is not exclusively a "2011" story as it has its origins in economic policies that date back many years.
Still, the crisis seems to have reached a proportion that has seriously threatened the stability of international markets. The run into gold has been impressive. The price has increased a further 10 per cent over the past year.
But the financial crisis is a multi-year story. It's not going to be resolved soon - partly because no one really knows how to fix it.
Closer to home, we had our own "quiet" revolution. The minority government of Stephen Harper was brought down over a vote of non-confidence despite the best efforts of the Conservatives to be defeated on their budget. Still, the net result was the same - a trip to the polls.
The result surprised political pundits and hacks across the country. That Mr. Harper formed a majority government was not too surprising even though his party collected on 39.6 per cent of the popular vote. (Or about 24 per cent of the voting age population.)
No, the surprising thing was the emergence of the NDP under Jack Layton to the position of opposition with 103 seats and the demise of the Bloc Quebecois to a miniscule 4 seats. The Liberals were also relegated to "third place" with only 34 seats. And both the leader of the BQ and Liberals failed to win their seats. Clearly, the next four years of federal politics will be anything but boring.
Indeed, if the latter half of 2011 is any indication, the Conservatives are going to make good on their promises regardless of what is best for the country.
On the whole, reflecting on 2011, it is a year that will be truly memorable. But not anywhere near as memorable as 2012 will be if the Canucks finally win Lord Stanley's Cup!
