2018 has come to an end and there were some stories that touched the Foothills and rippled through the country.
The arrest of Edouard Maurice on firearm charges on Feb. 24 while protecting his property — he was alone with an infant child — rocked the Foothills and the nation.
His court appearances in Okotoks drew hundreds of supporters and there was jubilation when his charges were dropped in June.
The soft-spoken Maurice and his wife Jessica have become the poster couple for rural crime.
They have handled it well.
The couple spoke at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in Ottawa in October. They also spoke in November along with Foothills MP John Barlow about rural crime on the footsteps of the Okotoks RCMP detachment, where Maurice spent a night in jail.
There’s no doubt it was the top story in the Foothills in 2018 and it will be an issue in 2019, especially with federal and provincial elections on the horizon.
Okotokians were also staggered by the death of 16 people — the majority of them players the same age as the Okotoks Oilers — when the Humboldt Broncos bus crashed in April.
The whole country wept as one. The Oilers held an emotional ceremony before their playoff game with the Spruce Grove Saints — players from both teams side-by-side for the fallen Broncos.
That game raised funds for the Humboldt cause, it was one of many fundraisers in Okotoks.
It was the top news story in Canada.
However, 2018 ended on a high note as one-year-old Lukah Mitchell received a life-saving organ transplant.
The family’s struggle and Lukah’s courage helped put the woes of 2018 in the past.
And it is giving all of us hope for 2019.
