Friday, October 9, 2026

The Only Constant

This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the people whose work keeps Canada moving, even as the world around us keeps changing.

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By Alison Brown, Associate Editor

I am an autumn person to my core.

I grew up in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, which, if you haven’t seen it in October, is about as beautiful as it gets.

There are vineyards and orchards, the Niagara Escarpment rising above them, and long, winding country roads that are made for meandering Sunday drives. I remember riding along the old highway between Grimsby and St. Catharines as the world passed by my window, the leaves vibrant in a quiet riot of colour.

I loved it then, and I love it now. As soon as the air starts to crisp in late August, I get a shiver of anticipation that autumn is approaching.

There is something reassuring about the changing of the seasons, which is funny when you think about it. Autumn is almost entirely about change. The days shorten, the temperatures drop. The leaves change colour and fall, and fields are harvested.

Everything around us changes before that first snowflake hits the ground.

And yet it happens so reliably that the change itself becomes a constant.

Maybe that's why I find autumn particularly comforting right now.

I was born in 1985, which apparently makes me an “elder millennial”—a term I’m not entirely sure I appreciate.

But it does mean I've had a front-row seat to an extraordinary amount of technological and societal change, and one too many “unprecedented events.”

I remember life before the Internet was something most families had in their homes. I remember dial-up Internet on my dad’s laptop in our designated computer room. I remember when getting a cellphone was a big deal (my first was a Motorola Razr), when texting meant pressing the number 7 four times to get an S, and when MySpace was the extent of social media.

Now I can ask AI to do something in seconds, something that would have seemed like science fiction when I was a kid.

And the pace of change doesn't seem to be slowing down.

AI is already changing how many of us work. New technologies are changing entire industries. The jobs people do, the skills they need, and even the way we communicate with one another continue to evolve.

Add to that the seemingly endless string of “unprecedented events” those of us of a certain age have lived through, and sometimes it can feel as though the ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting.

Maybe it is. But every October, the leaves still change.

The air gets cooler. The days get shorter. Farmers bring in the harvest. Families gather around tables. And Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to look around at what remains and say: I'm grateful for this.

This year, one of the things I'm particularly grateful for is the work CLAC members do every day, because while technology changes, Canada still needs to be built.

Across the country, CLAC members are building the hospitals, schools, roads, energy projects, homes, and infrastructure our communities depend on. They're electricians, carpenters, labourers, equipment operators, welders, millwrights, and many other skilled workers whose hands quite literally help build this country.

Canada still needs to be cared for.

CLAC members care for seniors in long term care and retirement homes. They support people in their own homes and communities. They help students learn, get safely to school, and make it through their days. They support people with disabilities and provide care and compassion to people at some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

Canada still needs to be fed.

CLAC members stock grocery store shelves, serve customers, prepare food, and do the countless jobs behind the scenes that most of us rarely think about when we walk into a store and find what we need.

Canada still needs to be supplied.

CLAC members work in warehouses, distribution centres, transportation, and logistics, moving the products and materials that businesses and families rely on from one place to another.

Technology may change how those jobs are done. Some jobs will change dramatically. New jobs will emerge. Some may disappear altogether. That's the nature of change.

But behind every industry, every workplace, every new technology, and every economic statistic are people.

And people will always deserve dignity, fairness, respect, and a voice at work.

That is one constant CLAC intends to keep.

The world around our members will continue to change, and so will we. We will learn. We will adapt. We will find new ways to serve workers in workplaces that may look very different from the ones we know today.

But some things won't change:

We will continue to pursue justice and fairness in the workplace. We will continue to advocate for our members with governments of every political stripe without aligning ourselves with a political party. We will continue to bring workers' voices to decision-makers and push for policies that make their working lives better. And we will continue to stand beside our members through the changes that inevitably come.

Maybe the lesson of autumn isn't that we should resist change. Maybe the lesson is that change can be difficult and uncertain and still contain beauty, that letting go of what was can make room for what comes next. Even when the landscape looks completely different from one season to another, some things remain deeply rooted.

So this Thanksgiving, as the leaves once again turn red, orange, and gold, I'm grateful for change, and for the things that endure through it.

I'm grateful for the people who build Canada, care for Canadians, feed our communities, stock our shelves, supply our workplaces, teach our children, care for our parents and grandparents, and keep this enormous country moving.

I'm grateful for CLAC members.

The seasons will keep changing. Technology will keep advancing. The world will keep surprising us.

And through it all, we'll keep showing up for the people who show up for Canada every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Only Constant

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