Does Alberta have a culture?

This morning I death defyingly ventured out into the blustery blizzard conditions that had descended upon my little corner of Alberta. As I stiffly crumpled into my car, I accidentally brushed the ‘Search’ button on the radio console, causing it to skip from the ruminations of Rutherford on QR77 to CBC Edmonton, 740 on the AM dial. As I reached down to rectify the error, the preamble of the episode to be broadcast on ‘The Current’ caught my attention.

“Twenty years ago Preston Manning and the new Reform Party declared “the West wants in”, ” declared co-host Anna-Maria Tremonti. “Now, his successor Stephen Harper leads the country. Some joke there are more Albertans in the federal cabinet than in the Edmonton legislature.”

Yes. We joke about it all the time here. Anyway, the topic piqued my interest, and I continued to listen as some guy named Paul Brown picked up the script…

“In the wake of the Quebec ‘nation within a nation’ motion, we’re going to examine whether there’s a need to recognize a New Alberta in Canada as well,” he continued.

“Alberta has seen staggering growth and wealth over the last few years. That means it pays a hefty share of the nations bill. Does Alberta deserve a better deal in Canadian confederation? And does its political clout need to match its economic clout? ”

By this point I already knew where the discussion was going, but being a glutton for punishment, I headed back inside and continued to listen from the comfort of my porcelain recliner.

What ensued was an “outspoken” panel discussion “to debate the role of a New Alberta in Canada” involving SRD minister Ted Morton (cast as the angry redneck) , the Canada West Foundation’s Roger Gibbins (level-headed federalist academic type), and former associate editor of the Calgary Herald and author Catherine Ford (defender of all things progressive, Trudeaupian and CBC-like).

Morton steered clear of the nationhood debate throughout, calmly repeating his demand that any special status and “side deals” doled out to Quebec also be given to the rest of the country, which happens to include Alberta.

Catherine Ford unloaded on Morton the first opportunity she had, offering the opinion that arguing about “airy-fairy stuff” like Alberta’s place in Confederation was ’silly’, and so on.

Later on the participants were asked about whether Alberta had a distinct culture.

Morton rejected suggestions of linguistic and ethnic nationalism, stressing the province’s political culture, distrust of Ottawa and the lesser degrees of anti-Americanism that mainstream-types here seem to exhibit as evidence of a distinct culture.

While Gibbins cited Alberta’s openness and multiculturalism (not coincidentally, the same values he ascribed to the rest of the country), Ford’s answer took the cake.

“The simple answer to the question does Alberta have a culture: No. Not as we understand it.”

Pardon?

While Ford waxed on pretentiously about the wonders of Playwrites Festival in Calgary, she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that life exists beyond the Calgary Tower.

Now, it isn’t that I felt Ford didn’t make some good points. She was bang-on for admonishing the Klein government for its lack of preparation and vision for handling Alberta’s non-renewable resource boom.

However, when she began playing to the crowd, trotting out the same tired old lefty stereotypes of Albertans as “redneck, Tory, neo-con … stuffing money in his pocket and smoking cigars ” (To use her words, and judging by her tone, I think Ford even realized how ridiculous she sounded at one point), her credibility as an authorty on the existence of an Alberta culture was, to say the least, compromised.

The fact that she went on to talk about windmill farms at Picture Butte betrayed an extreme ignorance about the province she claims to know so much about.

I have to say I have never understood the attitude of the cosmopolitan crowd in this province who are constantly denying the province’s distinctive rural roots and character, and the pioneer experience which has influenced our music, art, literature, cultural icons, mannerisms, speech and lexicon, not to mention our sport, politics, economy and manner of dress.

While Ford and others in the Canadian cultural establishment have fallen over themselves to celebrate Québecois, Maritime and Aboriginal culture, Western Canadian culture is written off as some kind of backwater redneck U.S.-style hybrid that is not culture, and is certainly not Canadian.

I don’t understand how it can be said that East Coast culture– which is based on distinctive historical, literary, linguistic, social, economic and political traditions and a rural way of life– is unique; whereas Albertan, and a broader western Canadian culture which is based on distinctive historical, literary, linguistic, social, economic and political traditions and a rural way of life is not.

When you get down to it, there isn’t much original about either Québecois or Maritime culture. What makes them different from the founding French, Scots or Irish populations is the regional twist, the addition of local variations to long-established musical, literal, architectural, cultural traditions.

In the global picture, there is very little to distinguish Quebec or the Atlantic cultures from other western cultures. A resident of Trois Rivieres could easily be mistaken for a French citizen in Australia, while a resident of Sydney could probably pass as an Scottish, Irish, even an Australian citizen in Germany. However, within the context of the Canadian nation, both people are very much unique.

The same can be said for Albertans.

Alberta is unique within Canada. Albertans do have a distinct culture, along with other western Canadians. It is a culture heavily influenced by the pioneer experience and the contributions of founding populations from Great Britain and eastern Canada, the First Nations and Metis, Eastern Europe and most significantly, the United States. Take a trip to Longview, Cardston or Vegreville, and you will see people dress differently, listen to different music, even eat things that are different than the rest of the country.

It’s all out there in the open to be seen. The thing is, you have to venture outside the ballet to see it.