Project Alberta

Dies anyone have any opinions ?

I like the Wild Rose leader. She's cute. She's also a new broom. She'll need a shovel too. What should we do with all the unemployed polititions? They can't be recycled. Landfill I guess.

Watching in wonder --- Dick.

Ms. Smith is, I hope, everything one could wish in a Premier - I know the candidate in my riding and he too appears to be quite good - even if he is an "economist" !

I only hope they don't turn out, like the previous LieCons in Edmonton - big spendeds and bigger liars !

Cute counts, good thing too because the big issues rarely do.

Alberta oil is being discounted from over $100 down to $75, huge profits are being made by some but for Alberta it is huge losses. Our product is being sold at discounted prices and Alberta is still playing nice.

The interests fighting for our oil are not playing nice. We are seeing the results, yet no party is prepared to take a strong stand for Alberta, a stand strong enough to change the course we are on.

It seems that few voters have any deep connection to Alberta. Sure we each have our politics and ideas but no strong opinion on whose oil it is. Many in Alberta actually call it Canadian Oil and appear to care little if Canada or America is able to prevent it's sale globally or control it directly. Many suggest actions that would open resource extraction to the world even while we remain tied to one customer.

edit: never say never

I CARE !! My first winter job (at age 14 ) was in the Northern Alberta oil-patch as a "jug hustler". I have worked as a Machine operator, Base foreman and Superintendent building highways and rail grades to resources. And when I turned to business, my main clients were oil and gas companies. Alberta Resources have provided a living for me, my children and their children . So I CARE !!

Remove the oil, gas and coal from the picture and 95% of all adults in Alberta would be UNEMPLOYED!! That's how important they are. Anyone who lives in our beautiful province MUST understand that. Anyone who fails to has my deepest sympathy.

Look around you --- Is there a better place to live and work ?? I don't think so. --- Dick.

If a person moves to Alberta when he is 14 or has deeper roots in Alberta then naturally they will feel a concern for the province and nation that is Alberta. But for those who move here for work are more likely to have deeper ties elsewhere. Our ideas and culture do not change just because we move somewhere and the older we are when we move the truer that is. There is nothing wrong with that and of course they care but they are going to care based on a life elsewhere.

Longer time line issues, particularly those beyond Confederation, are the responsibility of Albertans and maybe Canadians from other provinces. Canadians, mostly Ontario, will remember, or have as part of their world view, the fact that they purchased most of today’s Canada and all of Alberta so deserve an ongoing ROI. They care little about Alberta as a Nation, no mother country should be expected to.

People do care but they are not going to care as much about the big issues, like long term trade issues and access to all three oceans or Alberta’s increased need for border security and proximity to a superpower who has a pattern of dealing with oil nations, or the billions lost by selling our resources.

Politicians on the other hand clearly do not care about anything other than getting elected. There are few if any great people or ideas in this election and that shows in the coverage and platforms.

Doesn’t mean it isn’t an important vote or that people shouldn’t or don’t care but I’m not expecting any change of direction. The best being offered is a new paint job and fancy dice for the mirror.

And the recent issues about "changing" Alberta and balanced budgets show that.

I think I might have misled you with the beginning of my last post.
Maybe this will set it right!

My PARENTS came to Alberta's Peace River country in 1926 and homesteaded on Strong Creek, a tributary of the Peace River. I was born there in 1935. I don't know how much more "ALBERTAN" you can get.

I have written a book about my early life in Peace River, And am working on a second one about "ATHABASCA", as I prefer to call western Canada.

I am retired to Calgary, now, and still thank God for my Alberta Heritage.

Watching Ms. Smith win --- Dick

I should clarify as well as my attempt to be brief results in it appearing that I do not think First Generation Canadians can care about long term issues and that isn't my position at all. I do think they are not caring as much as multi-generational Albertans would or should but that short post tries too hard to KISS. BTW Books are great. I've often said one has to write one’s own history or it will be written for you by others.

Anyway, I, all of us, have to be careful to avoid others thinking we are suggesting that those who have moved to Alberta or Canada as recently as the 1920's or the 2010's are not as Albertan or Canadian as those of us who have a family line that dates back about as far as recorded history does on the continent and in some cases farther.

Avoiding that suggestion is particularly the case when it comes to Alberta. As Dick almost certianly knows Alberta’s history shows that rather well. Those who moved to Western Canada either before or shortly after it was purchased by Canada in the 1800's really show us how wrong it is to use linage or length of time on the land to determine loyalty or willingness to act to better the future, as does many generations of immigrants that followed.





(Rant warning: this long following bit adds little to the above but may be of some interest)

I make that historical reference because I am currently looking at that bit of history and can see how it illustrates the idea that lineage alone is not a good indication of where ones loyalties or concerns might lay. I can also do a bit of cut and paste which is always easier.<grin> and when it comes to concern for the future of a nation little shows such concern better than open protest or rebellion which I think is an ongoing part of our history.

In Canada’s history of their Western purchase they represent those who resisted the will of Canada as "merely" Indians and Métis. This enabled them to ignore the real and legitimate issues that resulted in Canadian troops being used to force Canadian will in the West. As would be expected the use of troops did not address the fundamental issues which is why those issues still exist, though some might say less so for the Metis or Cree who were most active in military actions.

I suggest the protest and unrest resulting in the rebellions requiring multiple military “solutions” originated, in no small part, with the "settlers” who had little history on the land prior to 1870. That it was the settlers as much as those included in the purchase that lead to Canada using troops. “White” settlers, first generation Westerners played a significant role in the protest and even in the rebellions. I will give some support and search words.

Because this Western Canadian history is mostly written by others the protest or resistance and/or rebellions are not called Western Canadian Rebellions. While terms like Canada are used to discuss a time before Canada as it is today the term Western Canadian is carefully avoided by Eastern Federalists when talking about this period in Western Canadian history. They prefer the term Metis rebellion or North-West resistance or even Riel Rebellion to try and limit the scope. They often limit in time the causes and events by jumping directly to 1885, which they see as the end. Of course it is better to look farther back and at the whole of the protest if one is looking for a more accurate picture and an understanding of the roots of “Western Discontent” today.

Between 1870 and 1885 we have census data which shows the start and effect of waves of immigration and gives us data on the birthplace of people living in the North-West. This data shows that settlers quickly made up a very large part of the population and that most were from Ontario.

This may be news to anyone reading Canadian history books which often represent early Western settlers as being from Europe, sometimes Eastern Europe. The census of 1885 shows that settlers from all of Europe numbered in the hundreds while those from Canada numbered over 10,000. Between sheer numbers and Ontario institutions such as the NWMP it is more than fair to say that Ontario settled the West.

Yet it is that population that rebelled against Ontario and fought for Western rights and representation. Their view, not the Indians, that papers wrote about. Papers that have endless articles and editorials expressing the discontent that led to open protests and even rebellions. It was that first generation that created groups such as the Alberta Settlers Rights Association, who in 1885 demanded “rights and privileges of free men”.

In fact an argument could be made that since then those with the deepest roots have been the most complacent or most willing to compromise, most willing to wait and be let “in”.
I’m not making that argument though I have heard it expressed and would be interested in knowing more about it.

I am suggesting that recent “immigrants” are complacent, particularly those who consider themselves immigrants rather than what many of us wish them to be which is settlers or First Generation Albertans or Canadians. Though I would like to compare the differences between the early settlers or immigrants to today’s settlers or immigrants this post is already wayyyy too long and must wrap up.

Suffice to say that I would be encouraged if all of us would look to a future Alberta when voting. The history of oil rich Nations show us that promises of money today comes at the cost of the Nation itself tomorrow.