In less than a month, I’ll be turning 25 years old. My family has lived in Calgary for 23 years.
I am not a born Calgarian. I am originally from British Columbia, Warfield, to be more specific. A town that is so small it cannot even be legally considered a town, but is a village.
Like many, my story is not a unique one. I have heard different variations of the same story for years, my parents moving here to give myself and our whole family more opportunity, a better life.
Despite what it says on my birth certificate. I’ve lived in Calgary practically my whole life, I feel more Albertan than felt British Columbian
My father quipped the other day “You sound like such an Albertan," as I complained about the heat that is only now grabbing us this summer.
I laughed, because he was right! For all intents and purposes, I am an Albertan, which of course comes with its own connotations.
Though truthfully, there was a time, earlier on, that I was really butting heads with this notion of being Albertan. Yes, I lived in Calgary and Alberta, but I had spent many summers in British Columbia, and I loved it there. I still do.
I often look back to a time where I would often rail against the idea of living in this city to both friends and family, that some sort of quixotic journey to New York of all places would be right for me. There is no way in hell I could live in this place, I wasn’t made for this city that seemed to worship at the altar of its energy sector. I scoffed at the idea that it was somehow the beating heart of anything, this city was the monument to a bygone era just waiting to be put down.
But truthfully, I look back and cringe.
I was brash and naive, and the image I held of Calgary was almost comical and stereotypical and exactly how others view Calgary.
Dr. Jared Wesley and other political scientists (including some in our very own department) are a part of a research group, Common Ground Politics, at the University of Alberta who are conducting research on what being an Albertan means.
In their research they ask participants to draw an Albertan, their idea of what that looks like, and it was that stereotype; a white-male, truck-driving, tim hortons drinking cowboy or oil and gas worker.
Yet their own data shows participants don’t necessarily agree with this very image, showing a high level of support from net zero to renewable energy as discussed by Dr. Melanee Thomas at the panel hosted by Re.Climate.
Even now, under the looming backdrop of this upcoming October referendum, that asks us to pick between our province and our country, a poll completed by Janet Brown for CBC showed that 67 per cent would vote against separation.
When I first heard Dr. Wesley speak about how Albertans drew other people, the only way I can describe it is comforting? This idea of how I may have viewed this city and this province, I wasn’t alone in that feeling.
I can’t remember what moment there was or if there was even a moment when I had accepted to love this city, but there was this fleeting feeling where I accepted that to properly love this city, I had to stop fighting it.
This city and the people in it are complex, that at the end of the day are going through their own shit, that have their own hopes and dreams, failures and aspirations.
This notion of what kind of city I live in was ultimately up to me to decide, and now more than ever ultimately up for us to decide what kind of city we live in. I have seen this city rise to the occasion in the best and worst of times, it has always been this community that has come together with open arms and a helping hand, not this image we sometimes paint of ourselves.
We are far from perfect, but that isn’t the goal, nor should it be. But we can always strive to be better.
In the coming months, there will be a lot of people (including leaders) telling us what this city is, and what this province is. Telling us that somehow we are broken beyond repair, and frankly I don’t buy that argument.
Don’t make the same mistakes a brash and naive kid made, this city, this community is what we make of it.
There will be a lot more said in the coming weeks and months of what this city and what this province means to us, from myself, my staff, and our brilliant volunteers.
I hope that you will listen and see yourself reflected in these stories.
