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A day just after Canada Celebrates 60 years Since Maple Leaf was embarized on our flag this weekend, the millionaire annual visit to Rideau canal skateway will occur since it was opened on January 11. It can be a skating parent that shoots a stroller. It can visit conference guests on rented skates. Or maybe there will be a retired rider who chooses the walkway along the ice, just anxious to be out among the crowds.

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Whoever it is, they will not only testify to an incredible and joyful season on the world’s largest skating rink, but will participate in a shared Canadian ritual that has come to define our winter capital, and in some ways, the country at large, since it First opened 55 years ago.

While others in different countries can close indoors on a sharp and sunny day with a high -16 Celsius, 15,000 visitors had other ideas one day last week when they laced their skates. These riders are young and old, rich and poor, in all colors and creed. The main point is skating ability. There are the graceful, sniffers, the speeds, the evil, shuffles. But no one assesses; They are too busy enjoying this uninterrupted corridor of ice and snow.

This year the experience seems particularly special. After skateway Did not open in 2023And had a short and interrupted season 2024, facial expressions from this year’s visitors seem to not only contain happiness, but relief and gratitude. Seasons like this are more likely to be exempted than the rule as the planet heats and the temperature fluctuates.

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… We do not want to lose this incredible asset that separates Canada’s capital from every other.

For this reason, the National Capital Commission team is doing three things. First, we have engaged Carleton University researchers to understand how our skateway handling can be adjusted to take into account climate realities. Secondly, we have established a formal walkway along the ice, both to allow non-speaks to experience the channel underneath and to keep it open sometimes when the ice quality is poor. Third, we start exploring the feasibility of long -term alternatives (admittedly complex and expensive) as pipe installation and other technology.

We do this because we do not want to lose this incredible asset that separates Canada’s capital from every other. There is no imitation rideau canal skateway. It requires a winter city in a winter country where parents register their children from a young age in skates. It requires a population that believes that a sunny, double-digit-Below zero day is perfect, not scary. It requires a culture for community, collectivity, security and affiliation that looks north of 50,000 people who choose to spend a Saturday simply sharing the experience of moving along the ice together, convinced that fried flat dough dipped in maple sugar is a miraculous delicacy .

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At a time when our identity is being questioned, our sovereignty challenged, our history diminished, I would like to believe that Rideau Canal Skateway stands as an important and lasting symbol of shared Canadian values. In a world of increasing polarization, the simple act of gathering with its citizens becomes free, accessible, public space on a cold winter day both a unique resistance to the idea that we have nothing to separate ourselves – and a Canadian ritual of happy unit .

Tobi Nussbaum is the CEO of the National Capital Commission.

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