Joshua Hart: Has Alberta forgotten its heritage?
More than a century after Alberta joined Confederation, a basic question lingers: what exactly is an Albertan?
What is an Albertan?
That is a question as old as the province itself. On a superficial level, Canadians outside Alberta have strong views as to what a stereotypical Albertan is. The myth goes that we are essentially the rootin’ tootin’ Texans of the North, and with recent waves of the province’s separatist movement, that stereotype is proving itself true in the minds of many.
Like most stereotypes, the image contains a kernel of truth. After all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing politicians annually descend on the Calgary Stampede outfitted in cowboy hats and boots? Yet it obscures far more than it reveals.
Alberta is no monolith, and its people cannot be reduced to a caricature. But then, what is it to be Albertan?
Natural resources have undeniably shaped the province’s development. Writing in 1937, the Canadian humourist and political commentator Stephen Leacock observed that “the whole province seems more or less bedded on minerals and oil.” No one yet knew how great Alberta’s latent resources might prove to be, but there was little doubt about the “vastness of its unused heritage.”
Nearly a century later, that prediction has been vindicated. Albertans transformed their natural inheritance into one of the most prosperous economies in the Western world. The province has long stood as a symbol of opportunity within Canada, where ambition and hard work could still produce remarkable results.
Yet resources alone do not sustain the identity of the province. This point has become particularly relevant in the current political moment. As Alberta separatism has been a hot topic of late, many have turned their minds to the home of Canada’s most distinct provincial identity, Quebec.
In a comment that many in Alberta would find highly debatable, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, proclaimed that Alberta has no values or real distinct culture. “I am not certain that oil and gas qualifies”, remarked the separatist leader. Many Albertans bristled at the remark. Yet Blanchet’s provocation raises a necessary point. If Alberta’s identity is not to be found solely in oil and gas, how should it be envisaged?
Part of the difficulty lies in a broader Canadian problem. Writ large, Canadians barely know their own history, let alone the histories of the many local areas which together constitute Confederation.