COLLINS: The rom-com world is not the real world

Mar 13, 2025 | 6:00 AM

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BLESSED with a love of reading. And I read everything. From biographies to romance to my favourite author, David Baldacci, and everything in between.

It’s interesting to note that many of the romance stories deal with people from small towns who leave to seek fame and fortune — and then return to those small towns to find the loves of their lives.

Funny, I don’t see that in real life. Populations in smaller towns seem to be stagnant or dropping. There are several exceptions, but often it’s a case of a major industry shutting down, the lifeblood of the community no longer viable in that location. The list is lengthy. But in essence, it’s often harder to make a living. And when you can’t make a comfortable wage, why would you want to stay?

Is that the reason ER departments in places like Merritt, Clearwater and other smaller Interior centres are continuing to struggle to staff these areas? Do people only live there during the week and then vacate to larger centres on their days off?

I don’t have the answers, but I imagine Interior Health has the results of many exit interviews that should give them a clue as to what the root causes of the problem are. It’s obviously not as simple as hiring more doctors, nurse practitioners, and others who are well-trained in emergency care. Somewhere among all that data there has to be something that unlocks the key to the issue, but the result is certainly a lot more complicated than simply crafting a happy ending to a Harlequin novel.