On Alberta Separation - so long and thanks for the fish

I'm so tired of hearing about and following the Alberta Separatists movement. I stayed here 35 years longer than intended because I fell in love with a 5th generation Albertan (8th generation Canadian) who could not see living anywhere else in Canada. 

I've always been aware of the movement and I'm sure my view has been shaped by the grade school notion of Alberta being the bible belt (not the bread basket) then a religion course during my university studies that revealed just how hard Alberta residents embraced all the wierd sects that spawned at the beginning of the 20th century. You can see that history with the Mormon Temple. It's telling that during the pandemic, smaller communities responded by self-isolating instead of taking any preventative actions - straight line to being the cause for Canada losing it's measles free status. It's happening again with Prosperity Alberta - ignoring the realities like oil companies enjoying record production, profits and exports due to the TMX pipeline (Liberal project) and recent trade deals (Liberal project) at the same time the Alberta Calling promotion that wooed people from across Canada with a $5000 payment resulted in crushing public services and garnered a high unemployment rate.

Don't get me wrong - it's been great! After a rocky start on graduating from tech school, we managed to be a bust cohort that was too young to be forced offered early retirement yet too old to call a new hire - that golden 3-5 years of experience. And we both did well by the companies we worked longest for, him helping develop one of the most successful chemicals for treating oil and me by helping make a workplace health&safety program easier for workers to participate that was adopted as far away as Poland. Obviously we both had supportive management along the way but we're also collaborative.

And the community we settled in is pretty great as long as you ignore the lack of a view🙂. I know young people get wierd about where they grow up, especially if they haven't moved around so grade one groups can end up being a lifetime millstone, but it was a good move for us. The inability of people to do things outside their clique is annoying but if you just keep showing up, you eventually meet people and make friends. Just like any (Alberta) city - the counsel is juggling services and tax base with little assistance of Alberta municipal support. Luckily our health and education services are through Saskatchewan.

About Saskatchewan. A great province with a diversity of primary resources - Ag, potash and now aluminium. Somehow a better balance of rural independence and community. No one thinks twice about joining the Co-op or using a credit union and TeleMiracle is still going strong showcasing Saskatchewan talent and raising funds.

Here's the thing with the Separatists - they have a grievance held since Alberta was established. The land should have been stolen from the indigenous - as opposed to treatied in bad faith - and Southern Alberta at least should have been a US state. At the kitchen table kids learn how Canada has done them wrong by having accountability for Federal funding. Owning land won't save the farmers as climate change (gasp) results in faster drought cycles. 

Digression - those byo-electricity data centers will not employ many people once built and using natural gas will add to pollution and drive up electricy and natural gas prices for everyone else. Small towns will be hit the worse because they don't have industrial parks to create a physical buffer with residential areas.

Anyway, the home we'd planned on staying in until pretty well death is no longer that. Watching our parent age has shown us it's better to move while we can make that decision than wait until the decision is made for us. We'll be taking our retirement wealth elsewhere - luckily we never trusted boom times and our house is not our primary asset. Will Alberta separate? I think it's unlikely in my lifetime but those separtists will always be there. It's like the Epstein Elite supporters. They'll be working in the background to undermine any progress and be ready to step in once Albertans get complacent about being Canadian.

All to say - hey move here and buy our house when it goes on the market. It has solar panels/EV charger, an urban orchard and green house. But don't get attached if you're Canadian or have Canadian values like accessible healthcare decoupled from employment that doesn't consistently result in overwhelming debt, vacation days as part of employment, over time (Alberta change rules to companies being able to avoid overtime pay but straight time off in lieu), universal taxpayer funded education and an independant judicial system.

Early Morning Thoughts

The other day I was at a meeting. There is always a thought exercise after doing our land acknowlegement. This time it was think of 3 things. One to continue, one to let and one to invite. A lady in my group wanted to invite faith and I asked her if she meant more church attendance or something different. She does amazing work with families...I should let her know of my admiration...so I was unsure. She meant leaning more on God to get her through adversity and using her catholic upbringing for strength. It seems we travelled the same journey of doubt in the RCC version of worship  but ended up in different belief places. 

Or did we.

I decided as a teen that if there is a God there is nothing you can do to sway it in your favour; the addition of God to the Christian commandments and virtues was just a way to make people feel like they're being watched because leaders always look for ways to control behaviour. Risk and chance determine how your actions pan out. There's no genie to pray to and get rewards. Reducing God to a slot machine by throwing money at it's purported representatives seems disrespectful to theology. 

Could God be your personal saviour? Sure but what does that mean? In spite of the Church selling dispensations in the middle ages, I don't agree claiming belief is a get out of jail free card for exploiting others. Growing up in the Catholic sphere for me meant recognizing my life is an example to help each other live our best lives. I can see the point of confession, it's an admission that you feel something lacking in your response to life and provide a focus for improvement. I can see reaching out to God because it can help you focus on a problem and possible solutions as well as give you strength to persist.

I struggle with feeling too fortunate in a world with so much sorrow and have never understood people who revel in other's misfortunes. 

My let go was to recognize when there is nothing I can do.

Thoughts on Turning 65

 

I've hit that last landmark year for our culture! Growing up it was 5 for starting school, 16 for driving, 19 for being able to drink. Then there's the informal ones like 21 for drinking in the States and 26 for getting lower insurance rates. 

Being shuffled into the seniors box has been a drawn out process; anywhere from 50 for golf, 55 for restaurants, 60 for municipal discounts. In spite of being assured there would be no CPP for me after paying into it for my entire working life, here I am on the cusp of getting it deposited into my account every month. We are very fortunate to not need any of the low income or disability supplemental funding. 

So did I/we get here as intended? Definitely on the financial end. We made a "Freedom 55" plan in our early 30s and hit that mark due to a lower key lifestyle. I retired at 58 (spouse at 55) to a debt free life. I think we pretty well hit our health goals. We have all our teeth😁and I'm on no daily medications but I do have mild tinnitus and annoying eye floaties. I did regain activity levels after my accident although I shifted away from impact and ankle twisting sports - a convenient out for pickleball.

What now? We've been watching neighbours and family navigate their 80s so we're looking ahead there. We'll be moving out of our house eventually but where is the question. In the mean time I'm looking for more volunteer opportunities. I like to have an anchor activity most days. 

I started this blog when I was 45, in spite of being a very poor at journaling. Life has actually changed very little here although the population has gotten more diverse. Income inequality is more visible as there are lots of high end vehicles like BMWs and Cadiallacs but like everywhere, there's homelessness that long term residents are trying to shuffle away. The City has tried to maintain free/low cost activities to build community as it goes through boom and bust times as an O&G town. I feel like truth and reconcilation is progressing as schools include indigenous liasons and activities, Treaty 6 and Metis fly along side Canada and provincial flags and city events include smudging ceremonies. How does this translate? I don't know. 

Post Election Vibes

Our super short election season is over and we unfortunately did not get a majority government. I say unfortunately because then we wouldn't have to deal with the possibility or another election for 5 years which gives the party leader to show their stuff.

Over all I'm ok with the results. I like the Liberal policies enacted in the last 10 years and the direction they're going. Theyre making plans, and unlike Conservatives, putting money behind their words. Immigration got a little out of hand but with all the complaints, AB and SK are still traveling overseas to try to attract workers so which is it while schools are closing programs because of lack of students. We'll see how it goes. I got the Conservative MPs I expected. I've seen them at Canada Day celebrations and they're not nearly as divisive as their leader. I plan to write them to elect a different leader at the next party review.

It's not that I'm wedded to a party. The most content I've been as a voter was in 2015 when Trudeau (Liberal), Notley was premiere (NDP) and the Starkey (PC) was my MLA even though they didn't really benefit me personally as a solid middle-income voter. Before that I had voted for Leon Benoit (CPC) because I respected Joe Clark (PC). I get the dislike for Carney coming in like a white knight because I hated Ignatioff as the Liberal leader because he parachuted in after living in the US for 20 years while being a prof. But I REALLY hate the small mindedness and divisiveness that Harper and the CPC brought to the table at the end of his Prime Minister-ship. Muzzling scientists and appealing to "old stock" Canadians. And it was obvious all through Poilievre's tenure as leader as he supported the clownvoy and refused to work with the Liberals to at least temper the refugee/immigrant influx. Emphasising his anti-woke rhetoric along with Harper coming back just cemented it for me.

Dealing with affordability will be interesting as I think it does start with housing. Trudeau was right in that crashing house prices suck for existing home owners because it means the economy has crashed and their morgages could be underwater. Someone was talking about how they're being outbid on homes when they meet asking because other buyers are offering 5-10% over asking. It's a tale as old as time of people pulling up the ladder after they go up a level so they can make more money.

I guess lenders could refuse to mortgage offers over the property assessment value or CMHC refusing to insure them. Wooing builders would be slow because they still have to make a profit. The government funding a bunch of housing with available long term leases that replace purchasing just might do the trick. Most units as 2 to 4 bdrm, 1 1/2 bath at 750-900 sq ft (70-85 m^2) units and some assisted living/senior units. Rent control on those units along with income qualifications to move in would ensure an affordable supply. Federal crown land so people living in cities in Alberta can still benefit as the UCP is busily clawing back all the Federal benefits they can (dental, disability etc.).

Interesting times. 

I've been thinking a lot about housing

Blind spot - I thought there wouldn't be much of a homeless/housing problem here because this is a pretty transient town (oilfield) and most people would just leave. This was confirmed when oil collapsed in 2015, 3 families I knew just sold up and moved away. I wanted to leave on retirement but our home devalued by 25%, which it has barely recovered 10 years later, while the places we wanted to move skyrocketed in value. Not homeless but immobile. 

Now that I've been retired for awhile I've started volunteering. Did you know volunteering is a great way to meet likeminded people AND find out about issues you have strong feelings about? Like affordable housing and homelessness. My eyes were opened - people do stay here or are from around here! We have at least 250 unhoused people (pop~ 30,000). Like everywhere, 5% prefer to be unhoused but for the rest - there's nowhere for them to go other than the streets. There are months to years of waiting lists for affordable housing. People come out of rehab with nowhere to go and - surprise - relapse more easily. NIMBY is strong along with the rumours that homeless are being bussed in to take advantage of ... what, volunteer served free meals? I'm still in the information collecting phase where I participate in fundraiser but I do want to commit time as well.

Naturally, with a federal election coming up, I'm interested in proposed solutions by the 2 major parties.

One wants to remove GST on  housing costing under $1 million. The other wants to build A LOT (500,000) of new low cost housing to flood the started home market enough to stabilize housing prices rather than push them down and open up existing rental units. 

The latter seems like a reasonable solution. I was working in construction surveying in the early 80s when the Feds had their last housing push. The crew I was on surveyed 500 homes in 3 months and there were several apartments and condos built at the same time in one small city so the goal seems doable if the capital is opened up. The Feds have released crown land, in cities, for housing so there's somewhere to build. They are talking modular housing which is quite common where I am. A wide range of houses are built on a common site then moved to their final location. When we were looking to move, one of our "problems" was we couldn't agree on how much we were willing to downgrade to enter a new housing market - it turned out to be very little and I'm sure we're not outliers.

I would like to see some caveats like a 99 year land lease or coop purchase structure and purchasers cannot own or co-own any other property in Canada and limited ownership in their home country. Futureproofing utility costs with good insulation, 3 pane windows, heat pumps and solar panels on all units. If more rentals are built, they should be rent controlled. If I can think of all these things, I would expect policy makers serious about increasing affordable housing stock to do even better. 

The key is flooding the market with low cost housing with investors prohibited. What do you think?

The curse of interesting times...

I retired from a US mulitnational operating in Canada and live in the most US of provinces🙄 Now I'm reading a CMV on Reddit  about how long it will take for relationships to normalize once the Trump administration is in the past.

I remember the first time a US colleague said something about the US protecting Canada with their military. As a poite person I didn't laugh their face. How big would our military have to be to go up against the country with the largest military in the world? More than our population for sure. Perhaps Canadians aren't really aware that the purpose of protecting Canada is simply to prevent military fallout on US soil in the case of a threat via the north pole. Or maybe I'm just cynical.

I am surprised just how active Canadians are being - and I don't think it's simply that only Canadians can harass our political reps. I hope it's us standing up for us and seeing the yellow vest->freedom convoy->CPC movement for what it is and recognizing the things being Canadian gives them. The Buy Canadian movement seems to truly be grassroots. Some people are hard core, canceling services. Some are medium buying only Canadian made products and cancelling US vacations but I think most of us will just be more circumspect in our purchases, buying US goods only if they are unavailable from anywhere else in the world.

I don't think the US will ever have the same soft power they had. You could say it's the aged politicians holding onto power but it's been shown their constitution is not robust and their checks and balances are meaningless should the leader choose to ignore it as he is. Canada also has gaps that relies on the politician "doing the right thing". I think we're all seeing that the "right thing" is like "common sense" - it needs defining.

A holiday gift for you🙂

With the new year comes retirement as I resigned from my part-time gig. I've found volunteering to be a great way to meet people and keep things real at a time when SM is really intent on making people feel alone in their challenges. 

The gift is an easy pattern for a gnome! If you are new to crocheting you can follow tutorials from Easy Crochet. I chose this site because it has directions and video links. I've included direct links for the stitches used.

This is a blend of a few patterns I tried. I like making the body first with the hat brim then joining the hat and working to the peak which I tried with this pattern from Passionate Crafter. This is a spiral style so use a marker so you know when you're starting a new row. The nose is separate. I used a 5mm hook with cotton yarn and got a 12.5 cm gnome. 

 

MC - magic circle

SC - single crochet

INC - increase

DEC - decrease

BLO - back loop only

FLO - front loop only

 download a PDF.

I can complete a gnome in an evening and plan on doing some summer colours. Enjoy and I hope they don't take over your space like they have mine. I've stuffed one with a cat toy ball even!