The main takeaway from the Maru and Janet Brown Public Opinion survey, a headline from both the CBC and the National Post, is that half of all Canadians would not be comfortable living in Alberta, as opposed to the 80 per cent of Albertans who said they’re comfortable here.
This should come as no surprise. Alberta is different from the rest of Canada. We have our own culture, our own strengths and foibles. If not everyone approves of us, that’s fine, that’s good. There are millions of Albertans who disagree and understand how vital it is that Alberta goes its own way.
Other Canadians might also consider the value of Alberta’s distinctness. Canada would be in huge trouble if all its regions had exactly the same values, policies, hopes and fears. We need to test many different ways of running our governments and economies to see which processes have the most merit. ...
It’s also no surprise that the least approving outsiders are in B.C. and the Maritimes. Their cultures arise from a vastly different root than our own. In his brilliant and provocative book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America , author Colin Woodard argues that B.C. and the Maritimes have strong links to northeastern United States, which was colonized by puritanical Calvinist English settlers and has as its own sacred value, the goal of creating a utopian society based on religions and community-decision making. This group, now zealously proselytizing its Woke views worldwide, has never been a big fan of more individualistic and libertarian ways of being. Little wonder many of them look down on Alberta’s “work hard, play hard” ethos.
Especially those pesky petro-dollars.
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