The Other Alberta: Decoding a Political Enigma, and: False Expectations: Politics and the Pursuit of the Saskatchewan Myth (review)

Both of the books reviewed here are centennial reflections on the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, respectively. Each tackles the fundamentals of the political and social cultures of the new provinces as they were in 1905, and both suggest continuities and discontinuities. These are works of synthesis, based on existing literature and not primary research.

Doreen Barrie has two largely complementary, although sometimes contradictory, goals: first, to demonstrate that Alberta’s reputation as a redneck paradise is overdrawn; second, to explain why Albertans have rallied around leaders who treat most federal government initiatives as efforts to subordinate western Canada to central Canadian interests. Her first goal is achieved easily enough. Before the Social Credit stampede of 1935, Alberta was the birthplace of One Big Union and the CCF. Even Social Credit in its early years was reformist, and, though the Manning government preached conservatism – as have subsequent administrations – their actions rarely matched their rhetoric. In recent years, organized reformist forces caused Ralph Klein to move at glacial speed with plans to increase private medical care. Edmonton had demonstrations in 2003 against Canadian participation in the American war on Iraq that were, proportionately, second only to those in Montreal, amongst Canadian cities. Surveys regarding Albertans’ views on abortion and gun control, among other issues, demonstrate only a minor gap between the views of Albertans and those of other Canadians.

Barrie suggests, with abundant evidence, that a combination of provincial elites and the national media have created the image of a monochromatic Alberta. Local elites have been able to limit popular interrogation of their agenda by presenting themselves as the protectors of an embattled West. For the media, both national and provincial, the creation of a certain stereotype about Albertans has made the task of describing Alberta’s one-party dominance, a complicated issue, seem simple.

Barrie suggests that, while Albertans share similar social values with other Canadians, their history makes them easy prey for right-wing elites who are willing to turn elections on the emotional issue of Ottawa’s alleged subordination of Albertans, by having their leaders cite a long list of historic injustices that have created a discourse in which the federal government is an enemy. Ottawa’s disallowance of hare-brained Social Credit legislation in the 1930s created a sense of injustice that has never gone away. ‘Albertans began to develop a sense that the province was singled out for political humiliation. Thus antagonism towards the federal government was almost bred in the bone.’ (117)

In this instance, I doubt that Barrie is on firm ground. Even if one believes there is a zeitgeist connecting generations of born and bred Albertans, it is necessary to recognize that post-Leduc Alberta is largely a province of migrants. A minority of today’s Albertans are descendants of Albertans of the 1930s, and yet it is clear that, when Alberta-Ottawa conflicts arise, migrants from other provinces are often the most strident opponents of the federal government. Who are these people? And how do they reconcile their views on the nation with their interests as migrants to Alberta? Research in this area would help us better understand why Alberta has become a province where perspectives on social issues differ only slightly from other provinces, but where voting behaviour is decidedly more right wing. My anecdotal observation is that new Albertans, having migrated largely for economic reasons, quickly come to regard the energy industry and its ally, the provincial government, as their protectors. They provide a wide berth to the local political elite, even when they are uncomfortable with their positions on social issues, because they fear ‘killing the goose that laid the golden egg.’ So, for example, former Atlantic and Quebec residents who denounce their regions of origin as homes to...