Editorial - United We Stand, Divided We Fall
Ken Rose, retired educator
All photos/video by Kelly Allard
I’ve been disturbed by how much malice there was during the federal election and how much remains even after the election is over. Everyone seems to want to label people depending on their political views making it appear as if it is a battle between the right and the left. Both sides often label the other as being extreme, there never seems to be any middle ground. The truth is that most people are centrist in their views.
Once upon a time we used to be civil to each other, even when we did not like election results. We were still friendly with our neighbours even after learning which party they supported. This election, people seemed to be voting out of fear rather than hope - fear that the other side would gain a majority and then abuse that power. They might hate the party they choose but they see it as the lesser of two evils. They hold their nose while they vote to keep the other party out of power.
This is not the first election where I held my nose while voting.
It seems that party loyalty has become cult-like.
It seems that if you dare question anything that your party of choice does, you are told you should leave the province /country and “don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out”.
I heard people say “oh they’re one of those” when they hear a certain perspective. Yes, I’ve been guilty of that myself, I’m certainly not perfect.
We are living in an Orwellian world of Thoughtcrimes, Disinformation and Misinformation coming from a proverbial Ministry of Truth. Our party leaders must shoulder much of the blame. They’ve been egging people on, mirroring the nastiness south of our border, blaming their opposition for all the problems in our country. They get us fighting between ourselves so we do not look behind the curtain to see what they are really doing.
Premier Smith was recently asked by CTV News if it was not better to take separation off the table. Her reply was ‘If there isn’t an outlet, it creates a new party.”
It appears as if Smith is worried that another party might take votes away from her, for good reason. The Progressive Conservatives (PCs) had led Alberta for 44 consecutive years until 2015 went he NDP gained power for the first time.
This was thanks to a split in the conservative vote by the creation of the Wild Rose Party (WRP) in 2009 by merging with the Alberta Alliance. Danielle Smith was leader of the opposition WRP in 2014 when she along with eight other MLAs crossed the floor to join the PCs, not one of the nine won re-election. Later the Wildrose Party merged with PC’s creating the United Conservative Party, dropping the progressive appellation altogether.
By “crossing the floor” to join Trump, Smith feeds his ambition to exploit Canada’s resources. She has already blown up one party for her own ambitions, it appears as if her next step is to blow up the province.
Yesterday I covered a protest/rally outside of MLA Justin Wright’s constituency office.
It was part of a province wide protest against UCP policies organized by AB Resistance.
Protestors have been rallying outside Premier Danielle Smiths’ constituency office for the last 12 weeks; this was the 13th week. This was the first one I attended where there were people from the opposite political spectrum in attendance (I missed the other one).
The two people had Alberta flags, one had 51 on it in masking tape. They greeted me by name (many people recognize my hat) and I sat down and chatted with them for a while. The gentleman’s name was Mike, I did not get his friend’s name. (My apologies - I really have to get better with that.) I have spoken with Mike at least once before. Correction - I misidentified the woman as Mike’s wife, her name is Kathy Walker.
Yesterday we spoke about many things
”…Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings …”
(Okay, not really but we did have a good chat.)
Mike is about my age and is originally from England.
He has been in Canada for 34 years, eventually receiving his Canadian citizenship; he has a Canadian wife and Canadian children. He showed me photos from his time in the army including a stunning pic of tanks at sunset. He told me he is on the fence about separation but he does not want to join the US.
(This sign does not belong to Mike, I just happened to catch him in the background. I just like his infectious smile.)
Mike said he was there to learn and he really was. No insults, no name calling, we spoke together like reasonable adults. He asked me what I knew about a certain subject. I said I did not know much but told him what I knew. He never mocked me or told me to educate myself, he gave me a different perspective on it which I will now look into.
He was curious about residential schools. He said something I have heard from others before, about how he was abused in boarding school in England. He thought it was equitable to what our First Nations children had endured in the residential schools.
Instead of telling him I thought he was wrong, I asked him - “Who decided to send you away to school?” He said his parents. I said “So you were not taken away from your parents.” He replied, no, you are right there. He also agreed that he was not forced to learn a foreign language or forced to give up his culture. Our civil conversation gave him a different perspective on the subject. I’m not sure if he changed his view but he learned to look at it from a different viewpoint.
Mike also agreed that education is very important, that our health care is a mess, that the wealthy should be paying more in taxes and that coal mining should not be allowed. Being from England, he remembers having a coal stove and Maggie Thatcher banning coal.
Fact Check - That’s a simplistic way to describe it but it is his recollection. The effect of Maggie Thatcher's intervention - good or bad - to privatize the heavily subsidized coal industry was a shift to renewables, natural gas and nuclear power plants. England has no more coal fired power plants. The last one shut down in 2024 ending 140 years of coal fired power. More than half of Britain’s power now comes from wind and solar.
Mike also remembers the Aberfan (Wales) disaster in 1966 which killed 144 people, 116 of which were school children between the ages of seven and ten. That affected all of the United Kingdom for a long time.
This is a very emotional article about the Aberfan disaster with statements from people who were involved in the disaster and the rescue - people who were children in the school, first responders, parents, etc. Trigger Warning - I could not read this article without crying.
Mike signed the petition against coal mining. That in itself was creating a bridge between the two sides.
I had a good discussion with Ms Walker about the privatization of our health care. We discussed how we have a shortage of health care providers and when they transfer to the private surgical suites (and who wouldn’t want to - better hours, no working on holidays, etc) it deprives the public system of workers.
It seems we might have different views on things but if we agreed on everything this world would be very dull.
I have to say I was a little shocked when some of the protesters came up to Mike and his friend and were a bit adversarial, it was a side of them that I had not seen before. Nevertheless, they were eventually able to discuss things rationally and I think they learned something from each other.
When emotions get high, people get confrontational. They want so much to get their message out that they interrupt people trying to respond. (This happened with Ms Walker - she didn’t let me finish my sentence and I called her on it. She was not offended, she said I was right and she apologized. We had a good conversation after that.)
The enemy is not our fellow citizen, the enemy is the people and organizations that try to pit us against each other. Don’t give them the satisfaction - when we are fighting with our neighbour, we are not watching our leaders as closely at a time when they should be watched very, very closely.
Mike said we need someone to sit down at a table with people and get them talking. I told him that I thought he would be good for the job. He said “Do you know how exhausting it is?”
Thinking back to how many disagreements I had to referee with my children, I said
“Yes, YES, YES!!!!”
We chuckled together.
About the “51” on the Alberta flag - Ms Walker said she did not want to use ink on it. Because she was using tape, making a 51 was the easiest to do. She thought it might aggravate people, get them to react. She was right. Yes, she is in favour of a referendum. I might or might not agree with her; it doesn't mean that we are on opposite sides. Some people might favour a referendum because they might think it is the only way to put the question to rest. It won’t satisfy everybody but a failed referendum on separation might be enough to satisfy the people who are most worried about it.
This is not just about Albertans, it is also about perceived stability to potential investors. If investors are worried about separation, why would they invest in our province?
The people in power have a vested interest in keeping us from speaking with each other in a civl manner. They do not want us united against their toxic policies. As long as we are fighting our neighbour, we are not holding our government to account so they will continue the attack ads and the political posturing.
