Month: October 2025

• I spent years living in big cities and then chose to move to a city with under 30,000 people.
• It’s nice living in a smaller, friendly community where everyone seems to know each other.
• I was happy to trade our proximity to shopping malls and hockey arenas for parkland and sheep.

About 12 years ago, my husband and I decided to leave the traffic and crowds of Edmonton, Alberta, and settle about 20 minutes north in the small city of Fort Saskatchewan.

Before moving to our little community, I spent over a decade living in big cities; most recently in Edmonton, and before that in Calgary, where my husband grew up.

He and I both enjoyed city life … until we didn’t.

Over the past few decades, the populations of both Edmonton and Calgary have grown significantly, pushing both of Alberta’s largest metropolitan centers over the 1.2 million mark.

They lost the small-town feel we’d once enjoyed, so we headed to a city with fewer than 30,000 people not too far away.

Our community feels incredibly connected and special

In many ways, it’s easy to really feel like part of a community when it’s smaller — and our home has its quirks.

My dentist and eye doctor are siblings, which feels unlikely in a large city. During my last eye exam, I got to hear about their trip to see Taylor Swift in Vancouver, which Dr. Colin’s sister had told me about a few months before when I had my annual dental check-up.

Years ago, when my partner and I were searching for someone local to officially marry us, I saw our city’s mayor, Gayle Katchur, listed as a marriage officiant.

I didn’t actually expect her to respond to my email asking if she was available for a quick service, but she was in. Our ceremony took place on a Wednesday evening in her home, and the mayor’s husband and son were kind enough to be our witnesses. It was lovely.

Fort Saskatchewan really is the kind of tight-knit place where neighbors come together to donate their bottles and cans and fundraise so that a local family can pay for their beloved dog’s surgery instead of having to surrender it to a local rescue.

What our town lacks in amenities, it makes up for in personality

We may not have a Costco or as many restaurants as bigger cities, but we do have sheep and goats.

Every summer, a herd of about 50 sheep graze in our downtown park areas like living lawn mowers. When our nieces and nephews have visited from out of town, they’ve enjoyed seeing the friendly sheep and feeding them snacks like apples and leaves.

The first time I encountered the goats on the paved river trail. I was excited to take a break from my bike ride to pet some of them. However, unlike the sheep, the grazing goats are all business.

I soon noticed the signs asking residents to give the goats space. Turns out, they’re part of the area’s weed-management program.

There’s also a rich culture here. When my sister-in-law came from New Zealand a few years ago, she enjoyed driving around to take photos of the bronze statues scattered throughout the city.

They tell the story of Fort Saskatchewan, including its beginning as a North-West Mounted Police fort in 1875. She also loved the colourful murals downtown that represent what our community is today.

Living here has been lovely — and the big city is never too far away when we’re craving it

Living not too far away from North America’s northernmost city of over 1 million people gives us the best of both worlds — proximity to big-city amenities and the joys of living in a smaller, friendlier place.

We’re just 20 miles or so from Edmonton, so my husband and I drive there whenever we want to enjoy its NHL hockey games, shopping malls, and international airport.

All in all, we love living in a welcoming community that’s just close enough to a big city. After all, where else can you get married by the mayor, in her living room?

• A Dutch F-35 has a new kill marking after the jet shot down Russian drones.
• The stealth fighters were involved in intercepting Russian drones that breached Polish airspace.
• It was the first time NATO aircraft had downed a Russian aircraft of any kind in alliance airspace.

Dutch military photos showed an F-35 stealth fighter sporting a fresh drone-shaped kill mark after the advanced jet was used to shoot down Russian drones that violated alliance airspace.

The images from the Netherlands’ defense ministry show the marking on the fuselage, just below the cockpit. The marking, not displayed on other F-35 fighter jets, distinctly resembles the triangular Delta-wing one-way attack drones Russia uses.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense told Business Insider that the marking was added “after taking out multiple drones in Polish Airspace in September.” It said the marking was only added to one F-35 that took out multiple drones, but it said that it was not disclosing anything about the number of kills.

Markings are added to jets to indicate victories. The tradition started in World War I with the emergence of military aviation and still continues today. American Super Hornets, for instance, were spotted last year with these kinds of markings during Red Sea operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Taking down cheap drones far below the kind of high-end hostile threats that the F-35 was built for has raised questions about sustainable defense. Meeting inexpensive threats with high-value platforms and munitions puts the defenders on the wrong side of the cost curve, making the development of low-cost defenses increasingly a priority.

Western aircraft, including Dutch F-35s, have been scrambled multiple times in response to Russian air assets operating in or near NATO airspace since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The incident over Poland, however, was the first time that NATO jets destroyed Russian aircraft within alliance airspace.

The F-35s were only a few days into their new patrol along NATO’s front — its border with Russia.

Russia said the drones were not in Poland intentionally but had veered off course. Poland’s defense minister categorically rejected the claim and instead said Russia had deliberately targeted its sovereign airspace.

Many Western leaders and defense officials called Russia’s actions a test of NATO’s air defenses, which is an area that the alliance has acknowledged is lacking. Many have also painted Russia’s actions in NATO as a test of the alliance’s resolve.

Through probing maneuvers, Russia is able to gather intelligence about NATO responses, identifying which systems react, from where, and how quickly.

Other recent Russian violations of NATO airspace include three Russian MiG-31 jets that breached Estonian airspace for over 12 minutes a few days after the drone incident. NATO aircraft were scrambled to intercept and escort them, including Italian Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters. There were, however, no air-to-air engagements.

NATO has warned Russia to stop its provocative moves, but the alliance is walking a fine line when responding militarily. Though it doesn’t want to appear weak, it also doesn’t want to escalate.

NATO militaries, worried about Russia, have hugely increased their defense spending, including on air defenses, and are building stronger border defenses.

The Netherlands’ defense ministry said in a post that by having Dutch F-35s stationed in Poland, it was demonstrating its continued readiness. The ministry said its F-35 fighter jets will be in Poland from September 1 to December 1. Other allied nations have committed jets to Poland as part of ongoing air policing missions.

It also said that the Netherlands, starting in December, will also station combat systems like the US-made Patriot air defense system in Poland to strengthen air defenses as well as to protect what is a key logistics hub for support delivered to Ukraine.

The defense ministry said that Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans visited the Dutch F-35 detachment, where he described NATO’s eastern border as also the Dutch security border.