Good afternoon, Edmonton and surrounding areas! Happy Friday!
Mainly sunny skies hold through today with a high near 24C, a great one to be outside. Marathon runners chasing a Boston qualifier just got some genuinely good news, WestJet has been ordered to fix its wheelchair policy, and the clock is now ticking toward a Saturday deadline on tariffs. Closer to home, a familiar grocery name is back in Parkview and Edmonton's downtown core is sounding the alarm on business closures. Here is what is making news across Edmonton and the surrounding areas today.
This weekend's event list ran long enough to earn its own issue again, so keep an eye out for a separate Weekend Events roundup covering everything happening Friday through Sunday. We are also launching Community Story Corner today, our new home for real, reader submitted stories about Edmonton and the surrounding areas. Scroll down for the details on how to share yours.
🛒 A Familiar Grocery Name Returns to Parkview
Ever wonder what happens when a neighbourhood gets its grocery store back?
Valleyview IGA reopened Thursday in the Valleyview Shopping Centre along 142 Street, bringing the IGA name back to the Parkview neighbourhood after the short lived L'OCA Quality Market closed this past March.
Store manager Stuart Trenchard says customers have been knocking on the doors for two months waiting for opening day.
About 45 to 50 people have been hired, including former L'OCA staff and students from the neighbourhood.
A welcome return for a community that missed its corner store.
🏙️ Nearly 20 Downtown Businesses Have Closed This Year
Ever wonder what it takes to keep a downtown core alive?
The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce says almost 20 downtown businesses have closed so far this year, with a member survey finding 58 percent do not feel safe operating downtown, as longtime spot GRETA Arcade Bar and Street Food announced its own closure this week.
Chamber president Doug Griffiths says nearly 20 closures in the core is a city problem, not just a downtown one.
GRETA co founder Chris DeCock says years of construction access issues played as big a role as safety concerns.
A tough read, but worth knowing what is happening in the heart of the city.
🏃 Marathon Runners Might Still Get Their Boston Qualifier
Ever worry good news might get taken back before it feels real?
Edmonton Marathon organizers confirmed this week that Sunday's courses really were 674.7 metres too long, and while Boston Marathon officials first said no adjusted times would be accepted, they now say runners who hit the qualifying time can still use it, extra distance and all.
Boston Athletic Association media director Chris Lotsbom says official, unadjusted results and times can still qualify.
Runner Brittney White, who qualified in 3 hours and 25 minutes, says the news brought real relief after a stressful week.
A good outcome for runners who trained hard and deserved a fair shot.
🚴 Sherwood Park Olympic Champion Back on Track at Edmonton's New Velodrome
Ever wonder what brings an Olympic champion back to the sport?
Kelsey Mitchell, the Sherwood Park sprinter who won Olympic gold in Tokyo, is training again just 30 minutes from home at the new Alberta Velodrome inside the Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre, and says she is not sure she would have returned to cycling without it.
The 250 metre hardwood track is one of only three UCI sanctioned indoor velodromes in Canada.
Mitchell hopes to hit the national standard time on August 31 to rejoin Canada's team ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Worth cheering for a hometown champion getting her groove back.
🇨🇦 Tariffs Race Toward a New Saturday Deadline
Ever watch a deadline just keep moving?
Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says Canada and the United States are very close to a deal after a three hour meeting in Washington, with the clock now reset to Saturday before fifty percent tariffs on twenty billion dollars of Canadian goods would take effect.
Sources tell CTV News reductions to steel and aluminum tariffs are part of the tentative deal, though the exact scope is still unclear.
Prime Minister Carney has asked provinces to return American alcohol to store shelves as a sign of good faith.
Still moving, we will keep you posted as it lands.
♿ WestJet Ordered to Fix Its Wheelchair Policy
Ever have to leave part of yourself behind just to catch a flight?
Canada's transport regulator ruled WestJet must scrap its 300 pound weight cap on power wheelchairs before July 2027, after finding the limit created an undue barrier for travellers with disabilities.
The case was brought by Winnipeg's Steven Fletcher, a former federal transport minister, after he was turned away from a flight with his own wheelchair.
WestJet is directed to use spreader plates to better distribute weight in the cargo hold in the meantime.
A meaningful win for accessible travel across the country.
👑 Prince Harry and Meghan Reportedly Heading Back to Britain
Ever wonder what brings someone back home after years away?
Prince Harry and Meghan are reportedly planning an extended stay in Britain starting this fall, moving into a private, non royal residence outside London six years after stepping back from royal duties.
Their children, Archie and Lilibet, are reportedly enrolled to start at a British school in September.
Harry has said he hopes for reconciliation with his family, especially his father King Charles.
A quieter kind of homecoming story, six years in the making.
Edmonton local Weather
Day ⬇1° higher than historical avg. Night ⬆7° higher than historical avg.
Edmonton Weather: Friday, August 21
Mainly sunny skies hold through the day with a high near 24C, staying clear into the evening. Calm and mainly clear overnight with a low near 17C.
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COMMUNITY STORY CORNER 📖
At Kinistinâw Park this weekend, a grandmother named Mei has been teaching her nine year old granddaughter the same lion dance steps she learned from her own mother, back in a community hall that no longer stands. She says the footwork came back to her hands before it came back to her feet, muscle memory from decades ago surfacing the moment the drums started.
Mei was about Lily's age the first time she stood inside a lion costume, holding up the head while her mother worked the tail behind her, both of them stumbling through the same drumbeat count her own mother had passed down years before that, all the way back to a village outside Hong Kong. The hall where Mei learned is long gone now, replaced by a parking lot, but she says she can still picture the exact patch of floor where she finally got the lion to blink, a small tilt of the head timed just right to catch the light without losing the rhythm underneath her.
Now it is Lily under the head, small enough that Mei has had to shorten the straps twice already this summer, and quick enough that she picked up the blink on her second try, something that took Mei most of a season to get right at that age. Most evenings they practice in the driveway, a pot lid and a wooden spoon standing in for cymbals so the neighbours can still get some sleep, Mei calling out the count the exact way her own mother once called it out to her.
At the Dragon Festival this weekend, surrounded by drumbeats and a crowd thick enough that Mei has to keep one eye on Lily at all times, she says watching her granddaughter pick up the moves faster than she ever did feels less like teaching and more like handing something forward. If you catch the lion dance this weekend, that is likely three generations moving together under one costume, each one carrying the last one's steps, and Mei somewhere just outside the ring, mouthing the count right along with them.
This is a new space for you. Do you have a true story about a person, a moment or a tradition here in Edmonton and the surrounding areas that deserves to be told? Send us a few lines at [email protected] and it could be featured in a future Community Story Corner.