In Spite of What You Heard May 18th 2023

 I don't think I have ever denied that I have been every bit as lucky as I have been deserving in my life.   That is simply a fact.  I have eluded to my good fortune and privilege many times to you my online therapists so there is little need to detail just how good my life has been.   I live in a corner of my home and native land where we work and play and plan and dream  over top of a huge glut of oil.   Oil that has produced fuel and plastics and numerous products on which our global society relies upon heavily.   And although many locals believe differently of me,  I am very proud of the contributions our Province and my family and friends have made to modern improvements of the globe.  

These people,  my people work hard.......and I am talking very hard to provide the globe with the substance that has changed the world for the better in so many ways.   My dad came out to Alberta in 1953, shortly after I was born to work for a winter in the wilderness that became my home town.  Carved out of the "bush" after the discovery well on my great uncle's farm started the first of many many oil booms that became the modern history of Alberta.    Dad's story is so much the same as the hundreds of thousands of people that came from across Canada and the States to drill and lift the black gold.  

There was plenty of pay for people like my father who up t that point worked hard their whole lives just to get by.  And there was room for advancement in a brand new industry where there was little experience.  When I was a youth in the town that was incorporated the year I was born,  I remember conversations young men had.  A little bit about the Leafs,  a fair amount about the local girls,  but mostly about how long they worked.....every day.   Long long hours.  Long long days,  weeks without a break.   Enough to pay the rent on the company house,  or the trailer,  and then often,  a break away at the local tavern.   There was little in the way of arts,  or entertainment.   There was limited sporting facilities.  

This is where I am starting to get to my point:  Although it often appears to the rest of Canada that Albertans resent being the economic engine of the country, it is actually that they feel the country doesn't respect what it takes from so many to lift the product from the the depths of the planet to the gas stations on the corner.  That feeling of being resented for producing the very product that has been so important to the development of the globe and contributed to the well being of so many who have never spent a winter outdoors covered in crude oil for hours at a time has created an "in your face" angry attitude.  And as I have also eluded to many times in the past anger is THE EMOTION most easily played upon by those who wish to control.  

So,  allow me to cover some of the things those of you who do not reside in this corner of my home and native land do not often hear about the Albertan.   Our Province is on fire.  And my home town was in the thick of things.  Walls of flames, and choking smoke.  Two weeks ago in the middle of the night,  my home town of seven thousand people was evacuated.  My brother and his wife left the family farm with a quick stop in town to pick up her elderly parents and strike for Edmonton where an evacuation centre was set up.  After a few hours of bumper to bumper traffic they reached the tiny village of Tomahawk.  The parents were in dire need of a bathroom break,  and in Tomahawk my brother found the local church open and the locals providing a place of refuge for a short break for evacuees.  The local minister spoke briefly with my brother and noticed the elderly people in his vehicle.  He opened his house to my brothers in laws and provided them with a bed and privacy.   

My brother found refuge in his brother in law's holiday trailer until yesterday.    Well my brother, his wife, her parents, and four cats found refuge in a holiday trailer.  Now you may be thinking "well of course,  that's family."  True enough.  My friend from another area evacuated from a wild fire found a hotel in Spruce Grove outside Edmonton,  where they were given a 30% discount on a room and meals.   Everywhere you turn local companies are showing up with heavy equipment and other necessary fire fighting materials and labour.  A local with whom I attended school way back when actually suffered a heart attack while building a fire break in thick smoke. There are sacrifices being made by many in order to help their neighbours.  

Fact is Albertans are exactly what you would expect from your everyday average Canadian.  When the going gets tough,  Alberta gets going.  They are kind and generous people who represent families from all over Canada and the world.  But they are not Rodney Dangerfield.   Rodney Dangerfield made a very good living off his comedy routine.  His line?  "I can't get no respect."  He claims he was never invited to his twin brothers birthday.  Albertans don't find a lack of respect all that funny when it comes to their contributions to our nation.   And therein lays the opportunity for which politicians are looking. 

The fire season has fallen upon us during an election campaign.  You're gonna hear about everything from reducing taxes, to new professional sports venues, to grand give aways to families already making large incomes.  Leaders will accuse one another of how corrupt and inept they are.   You won't hear much about the people who have opened their homes to neighbours.  About the small businesspeople who have provided what they can out of pocket to fight fires.  About the bravery of those fighting fires.  About how much we care about one another and how much we appreciate  Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and other Canadian and American areas giving us what we need to get the job done.  

 When this is all over?  Come see for yourself.   My people are as wonderful as our land is beautiful. In spite of what you may have heard.