Urban Paternalism

I was walking along the Peace Bridge in Calgary this week when I ran into something that perfectly sums up the disconnect between urban activism and rural reality in Alberta.

Standing on the corner was a senior collecting signatures for Corb Lund’s “Water Not Coal” citizen initiative petition, which seeks to ban new coal mining in Alberta’s eastern slopes, including Northback’s proposed Grassy Mountain project. 

At first, I walked right by him without saying a word.

But as I continued my walk, I could not stop thinking about the irony of the scene.

There he was beside what looked like a $5,000 to $7,000 e-bike, sipping a $5 latte from Alforno Bakery and Café, collecting signatures to shut down economic opportunity in communities he clearly did not understand.

The longer I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to go back and talk to him.

So I did.

I asked him why he was supporting the petition.

“Well, it’s our water,” he told me.

I asked him, “But is it?”

Because here is the reality many people in Calgary either do not know or do not want to hear: The proposed Grassy Mountain mine is not in Calgary’s watershed, or High River’s. It drains into the Crowsnest River, then joins the Oldman River at the Oldman Reservoir in southern Alberta, not the Bow River system that supplies Calgary drinking water.

That is not opinion. That is geography.

Then I asked him where he got his information.

His answer stopped me cold.

“I was trained on what to say,” he said.

Trained by who?

That is the question Albertans should be asking.

Because this campaign is increasingly looking less like a spontaneous grassroots movement and more like a professionally organized political operation.

Recently, the Western Standard reported that Corb Lund’s anti coal campaign had ties to Point Blank Creative, a BC based media and organizing agency the publication described as having connections to labour backed third party political campaigns and NDP aligned organizing efforts. The article raised questions about the supposedly ‘non partisan’ nature of the movement and detailed what it described as links to professional campaign infrastructure. That matters.

It matters because many Albertans are being led to believe this is simply neighbours talking to neighbours over concerns about water.

But when canvassers are trained, messaging is coordinated, advertising is professionally run and outside organizers are involved, people deserve transparency about who is behind the campaign.

The conversation became even stranger when I told the man I was from the Crowsnest Pass.

“Great,” he said. “I’m sure you want to sign this.”

He genuinely believed our community opposed the mine.

He honestly thought the support shown in the Pass was somehow manufactured by Northback. He believed local people had been manipulated into supporting development in their own backyard.

I did not even know how to respond.

How disconnected do you have to be from rural Alberta to believe entire communities have been “hoodwinked” into supporting jobs, investment and economic opportunity?

The people of the Crowsnest Pass are not stupid.

They understand mining because many of their families built this region through mining. They work in mining. They understand the risks, the regulations and the realities better than people standing on the riverside pathway.

What frustrates many in our region is not debate itself. Debate is healthy.

What frustrates people is the constant assumption that rural Albertans are incapable of thinking for themselves if their views do not align with urban activists 

There is also an incredible amount of misinformation and disinformation surrounding coal development in Alberta right now.

People are being told Calgary’s water is directly threatened. They are being told communities in the Pass oppose the project. They are being told any support for mining must come from corporate propaganda.

Meanwhile, many of the loudest voices against the project do not live here, do not work here, and do not understand the economic realities facing southwestern Alberta.

That does not mean environmental concerns should be dismissed. Of course, they should be discussed seriously and transparently via the legal regulatory process, not petitions and social media.

But Albertans should also question why professional political style campaigns are presenting themselves as purely grassroots movements while pushing simplified and incorrect narratives that often ignore local perspectives entirely.  It’s Urban Paternalism.

What is concerning is that after the conversation, he shouted, “Wait, you’re her!” 

I’ve been blocked from most anti coal discussion sites because I challenge their narrative, so it was clear he recognized exactly who I was.  

He believed what he was told.

He had been trained on the message.

But he had never stopped to question whether the people living in the region might know something he did not.