Minority Report 2

I originally wrote this post in July 2020. I didn't have the guts to post it. So now, July 2024, here it is.

A year after the Alberta election, I wrote a rosy post about how I felt about not being in the minority in terms of my political views in Alberta. I knew at the time I was being naive.  I knew I was still in the minority. 

Sure, I'm not in the minority in terms of my race or employment status or income level or religion. I am a woman, so historically I have had fewer rights, less earning power and less control over my body. But I don't think of myself as "marginalized". 

But in my small town, I AM in the minority in terms of my beliefs about a lot of things.

Yeah, I think climate change is real. I think we should all reduce our environmental footprint.  If a carbon tax encourages people to turn down the heat, turn off their lights, carpool, bike or walk, that's a good thing. I think a five percent tax on fossil fuels is a small price to pay to make people think about their energy use. For those who think the carbon tax forced them into poverty- those who say "I can't afford to pay more taxes"- I say to you, the lowest taxed people in Canada, bullshit.  AND I don't think oil and gas production is as clean or safely produced as people would like to believe. Yeah, I think fracking causes earthquakes. I hate seeing one logging truck after another cruising down the highway so people can send yet another tonne of disposable diapers to the landfill.

I don't think it's right to mock someone for how they vote, as a school administrator did at a party I once attended. I don't think it's okay for people relying on a mandatory public service to be subjected to religious tracts like the ones in our local registries office.  I don't think it is okay for an all-candidates forum to be held in a right wing fundamentalist Christian church owned by a UCP constituency association president. I don't like hearing that my friends won't display a lawn sign out of a valid fear of repercussions.

I don't think it is right for a teacher to promote one ideology, as several of my kids' teachers did when they sang the praises of self interest and conservatism. I don't think it's okay take students to a political rally for a provincial conservative candidate or bring in a conservative MP without also bringing in alternate views, as has happened at my local high school. Yet it's the NDP who stand accused of "indoctrinating" kids?

I don't think it is right to support a party who runs racist, misogynist, homophobic candidates who oppose women's guaranteed legal rights over their own bodies. This attitude emboldens others who share these views. People who have no problem defacing lawn signs with racist sentiments. People who threaten female politicians. People who say they have to "take Alberta back"- as if those with other views don't deserve to be here or have a voice.

I understand that some people have lost their jobs and had their hours cut back. That is what happens when a province has built it's hopes and dreams on a single resource in a global economy and it is naive to hope any political party or provincial government can magically get a pipeline built and increase the price of oil. Or that giving a huge corporate tax breaks and saying "Alberta's open for business" is going to give laid off oil and gas people their jobs back.

I hate the “fair deal” crybaby attitude. Albertans have consistently had the highest paid jobs in the country, the highest rates of unemployment, and no sales tax. All the while running up debts, both private and public while whining about injustice. “ Nobody works harder than we do,” I heard a woman moan the other day. Bullshit. Now the province needs to pivot, and we refuse to consider alternatives?

Come on people. California just announced they are phasing out non-electric vehicles. All over the world people are looking at sustainability. The tide has turned. 

I am tired of the fight. I am tired of the ignorance.

And that is one reason why the most recent sign on my lawn was a "for sale" sign. Yes. I could have stayed. I could have continued to promote my ideas. And I lost a lot of money by selling. But I got a taste of feeling like I wasn’t in the minority and I liked it. 

I am done.