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I'm from Alberta and I'm quite concerned about this topic. This recent HN comment[0] has been on my mind lately. I've lived here my whole life and while I hav

by Teever 1y ago

I'm from Alberta and I'm quite concerned about this topic. This recent HN comment[0] has been on my mind lately. I've lived here my whole life and while I have some level of sympathy for the sense of western alienation I feel that it's more of an identity thing that's been fomented by bad actors over the decades for their own personal political agendas and now that it's embedded into people's sense of self from birth it has become hyper-real and a great threat to me and the economic stability of the place that I call home. Nefarious people can really take advantage of these sentiments and get the people who truly believe them to eagerly do some fantastically bad things that are against their self interest. I don't know what can be done about that. Like what's the "Ape together Strong"[1] counter to this divisive bullshit? Alberta has a highly educated population, and one that has robust blue collar abilities, pretty good infrastructure, A shit load of natural resources, enviable geographic advantages in terms of security and isolation, and overall a very good quality of life. What Alberta needs is to be honest with itself and recognize that so many of our issues are caused by ourselves and our inability to coordinate as a people against internal and external forces. Separating won't change that, it'll only make it worse. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43487443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43487443 [1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/apes-together-strong https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/apes-together-strong

BJones12 1y ago
> I've lived here my whole life and while I have some level of sympathy for the sense of western alienation I feel that it's more of an identity thing that's been fomented by bad actors... As someone who grew up in Ontario, there is a real "f*ck Alberta" mentality in the central provinces.
- AlexandrB 1y ago
  I grew up in Alberta and now live in Ontario and in my mind it's less "fuck Alberta" and more "I don't give a fuck about Alberta". Most Ontarians don't care about Alberta, its well being, or what its citizens want. Perhaps this is inevitable in a country as large as Canada. A good parallel is America's "flyover country".
YZF 1y ago
I'm from BC. Seeing Alberta and the US as some sort of parallel to Russia and Ukraine feels like some new level of paranoia. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Alberta is not going to separate from Canada. The US is not going to invade Canada. This is just noise. There's plenty of things that matter that we need to focus on instead of this nonsense. I guess Brexit shows us that the public can vote for stupid things. > What Alberta needs is to be honest with itself and recognize that so many of our issues are caused by ourselves and our inability to coordinate as a people against internal and external forces. Separating won't change that, it'll only make it worse. Can you expand on this? What sort of issues do Albertans cause to themselves?
- Teever 1y ago
  I'm a bit busy at the moment so my comment will be in point form. * Tying personal identity to a commodity which has a price that experiences guaranteed and radical fluctuations. * Being the only province that doesn't have a provincial sales tax to provide some sort of stability to the provincial budget. * Perpetually voting conservative at a provincial and federal level regardless of what that those policies those parties propose and enact, or the corruption that they blatantly practice. * Embracing an 'us or them' mentality in all things, being unwilling to compromise or work with people viewed as outsiders. Any push back from outsiders leaders to Albertan leaders feigning moral injury in a way that would make a soccer player at the world cup blush. * Letting oil companies act with impunity (orphaned wells, policies to hobble wind and solar) * Always reactive -- never proactive. “Please God, give me one more oil boom. I promise not to piss it all away next time.” * Bizarre centre of the universe thinking that ultimately stems from an insecurity of realizing that it's not and never will be and not being able to accept that it's okay. * Head in the sand mentality w.r.t. climate change and therefore no planning for long term water sources for southern Alberta.
  - pcthrowaway 1y ago
    I find it interesting that one of only 7 NDP MPs elected in the last election was in Alberta.
  - YZF 1y ago

by Teever 1y ago

BJones12 1y ago

> I've lived here my whole life and while I have some level of sympathy for the sense of western alienation I feel that it's more of an identity thing that's been fomented by bad actors... As someone who grew up in Ontario, there is a real "f*ck Alberta" mentality in the central provinces.

AlexandrB 1y ago
I grew up in Alberta and now live in Ontario and in my mind it's less "fuck Alberta" and more "I don't give a fuck about Alberta". Most Ontarians don't care about Alberta, its well being, or what its citizens want. Perhaps this is inevitable in a country as large as Canada. A good parallel is America's "flyover country".

YZF 1y ago

I'm from BC. Seeing Alberta and the US as some sort of parallel to Russia and Ukraine feels like some new level of paranoia. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Alberta is not going to separate from Canada. The US is not going to invade Canada. This is just noise. There's plenty of things that matter that we need to focus on instead of this nonsense. I guess Brexit shows us that the public can vote for stupid things. > What Alberta needs is to be honest with itself and recognize that so many of our issues are caused by ourselves and our inability to coordinate as a people against internal and external forces. Separating won't change that, it'll only make it worse. Can you expand on this? What sort of issues do Albertans cause to themselves?

Teever 1y ago
I'm a bit busy at the moment so my comment will be in point form. * Tying personal identity to a commodity which has a price that experiences guaranteed and radical fluctuations. * Being the only province that doesn't have a provincial sales tax to provide some sort of stability to the provincial budget. * Perpetually voting conservative at a provincial and federal level regardless of what that those policies those parties propose and enact, or the corruption that they blatantly practice. * Embracing an 'us or them' mentality in all things, being unwilling to compromise or work with people viewed as outsiders. Any push back from outsiders leaders to Albertan leaders feigning moral injury in a way that would make a soccer player at the world cup blush. * Letting oil companies act with impunity (orphaned wells, policies to hobble wind and solar) * Always reactive -- never proactive. “Please God, give me one more oil boom. I promise not to piss it all away next time.” * Bizarre centre of the universe thinking that ultimately stems from an insecurity of realizing that it's not and never will be and not being able to accept that it's okay. * Head in the sand mentality w.r.t. climate change and therefore no planning for long term water sources for southern Alberta.
- pcthrowaway 1y ago
  I find it interesting that one of only 7 NDP MPs elected in the last election was in Alberta.
- YZF 1y ago