You can feel it the morning after, can’t you?

Take a look around next time you step out into that crisp dawn air.

TAIT: Elks success mirrors Edmonton's hard-working blue-collar identity Back to video

People stand just an inch taller waiting for their double-double in the Tim Hortons line. Strangers exchange those subtle, knowing nods across the steering wheel at red lights along Jasper Avenue. A northern city shakes off the frost, tugs its collar tight against that biting prairie breeze, and quietly smiles.

University professors might call it “social capital” or the “basking-in-reflected-glory” phenomenon. Fancy words, sure, but the reality is as pure as fresh river snow: when our football team wins, the collective heart of Edmonton gets an overdue tune-up. It cuts clean through the chill of our sprawling postal codes, pumping honest, unvarnished civic pride straight into the town’s bloodstream.

Our best stories don’t live in the box scores, my friends. They never have.

They are born in Section JJ under a yellow rain poncho. They spark inside cramped living rooms where three generations lean forward on the edge of a worn sofa. They pass across the cracked vinyl of........

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