Unfortunately many people in Alberta are living in a time warp. The look for a simple time when things were black and white, good or bad, whatever terms you want to use.
Well many have become victims of their own greed, and sence of importance. I've lived in Alberta three times in my life and each time I left, as it was like living in hell.
I should be careful here, I have a lot of friends, and my sister lives in Alberta, and no I am not saying that Albertans are league with the devil.
It is just that they seem to have a political pac mentality,
they all vote Social Credit for thirty years, then one day they vote for a different label, the Conservatives. No they didn't change their views, broaden their horizons, or discuss the issues, instead they voted Conservative with a different name.
Things will soon be changing for Alberta though, people are moving their from other parts of Canada, and for that matter the world. People with differing ideas, and political labels of their own. The rural vote will lose its power base within the next decade and city voters will in fact have more power. As urban voters become the majority, the Conservatives will gradually break down.
I don't know if it is so much, bigotry as it is living in a political vacume for so long.
I look at my friends and in some cases famaily and I hesitate with a couple of exceptions, to call them bigots,
they just don't seem to understand that Canada is made up of a much bigger region than Alberta. They want the country to be conservative and the rest of the nation wants little to no part of Conservatism.
Has anyone considered, the New Democrats, with fewer seats have more of a national composition that the Conservatives?
For far too long, the Alberta vision of Conservatism has dealt more with the issues of gay marriage, and social issues rather than the things that really matter, like hungry children living in poverty, the environment, and a host of other concrete issues.
The reason is they have made money the centerpiece of their existance. You ask a serious question and the answer is, look how rich our province is.
They are isolated for two or three important reasons.
l They leave the rest of the country with an image that
they are backwoods people with unchanging views.
2 Albertans believe they are so important that they can
use their money and influence to direct the nations
political agenda
3 The other provinces are resent the fact that Alberta is
oil rich, and that they try to push their way around in
a manner bigger than their size.
This of course is not true of all Albertans, the same as it is not true for any other region of the country. It just appears that way. So the question then becomes, is the country no more than a bunch of bigots for suggesting that all Albertans are bigots and backwoods? Interesting question isn't it?
I think we should consentrate not on labels, but on issues that impact us all day to day. What is true, is what people believe is not always what is true.
