You can always trust a farmer.

My family has been in Alberta for five generations–and a core thing that has been shown to me by my family is that the people of rural Alberta, the farmers and the ranchers, is that they can be trusted.

Mind you, “trust” isn’t in the same vein as being able to trust them with a secret or some other simple thing. It’s bigger than that, and with having a wider definition. Much wider.

My family still engages in honoring verbal agreements. No legalese, lawyers, or anything of the sort is done when we promise something. That promise gets fulfilled. It gets done. The relationship between people is prized and the trust gained from it sacrosanct. It’s this kind of trust, of not only being true to one’s word but also keeping firm in the way one acts.

My family in the city of Calgary still operates under the small-town mentality where you’re friendly to everyone and expect friendliness in return. They expect a level of respect from one another.

There’s also a hardiness in Old Albertans. Those multi-generation families that have been here for a while have a whole different outlook on Alberta and on life. It’s a type of personality that can withstand the floods that wash out half of their seed like a week ago, that can team up with one another during drought or famine as per the dirty thirties, and that can be tough, yet kind when things are tough. It’s the kind of attitude of knowing that, in the end, there’s a silent burden that nobody in the cities or towns know—of being the backbone of the Canadian state and the root of what built Canada into what it is today.

It’s also a quiet hardiness. There’s an expectation of hard work that’s just done and without the blathering of those who enjoy the sound of their own voices until the cows come home. There’s a philosophical outlook of staring things down the road from a few years out—and working towards that goal… which is completely alien to the business and political world of today with quarterly reports and a constant, barraging, war-like tribalism of modern politics. Old Alberta has this slower pace coupled with a long term view of the province.

Personally, the thirty to forty year reigns of parties in Edmonton; First Liberal, then Farmers, then Social Credit, and now the Progressive Conservatives, are built on this quiet hardiness, and this long term view of Old Alberta.

This has changed, though. Although I have nothing other than personal anecdotes and my experiences, I think the long term vision of Old Alberta has been maliciously swapped for instant gains and spoils from these prairies of ours. Rather than caring for your neighbor we’ve been blindsided by a ravaging intensity to pursue private gain at any cost. And that’s bad. The merciless charge toward profit and to exploit runs counter to the long term needs of Alberta.

The usage of the oil sands needs to be tempered and slowed, with a firm handle on it by regulations and by industry to generate a sustainable (both in terms of the environment and long term existence) industry. My great-grandfather wrote about the oil sands (then called the tar sands). He wrote on how it was important to safeguard the environment, albeit he termed it in protecting water and in human lives rather than the fixation most have now with climate change, and the need to have a guiding hand with business so as to encourage but not overheat the economy. It was a call for balance from a gentleman farmer.

A long time ago Ralph Klein said he wanted to create an Alberta Advantage. Recently, the Wildrose Alliance and Ms. Smith spoke about ‘bringing it back’. I don’t think either had it right. The Alberta Advantage was never a set of financial reforms or rampant cutting of expense or jumping into debt or relying on some ideological principles. The Alberta Advantage has always, always been its people, old and new Albertans, contributing to a better life for all in Alberta.

The Alberta Advantage isn’t in letting the economy overheat or in changing fiscal measures in Edmonton. It’s allowing the gentleman farmer, the cool headed rancher, and Old Alberta have a seat at the table again.

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