Why so many Albertans are giving up on their country – Macleans.ca
The rally began with a presentation that heavily implied that Canada is on the verge of a communist takeover; that the environmental movement is a front for a communist plot to establish some kind of one-world government.
Ginned up, the crowd chants: “The West wants out. The West wants out.”
The point isn’t to deny that kooks and racists live in Alberta, nor to litigate which province is most racist, but rather to note that the stereotype serves a particular political function. When a reporter parachutes into cattle country to root out a racist wacknut, the outlier and the anecdote become proof of the corrupt and immoral nature of the province and its political culture as a whole.
Albertans must know that climate change is something the world is taking seriously; that demand for the oilsands will, inevitably, decline–and this province along with it if it fails to diversify its economy.