I've been experiencing a lot of contentment lately with where my life has ended up, and with where it's still going. With that contentment in mind, I'd like to present my 10 favorite things about my new(ish) home province, as well as 5 things that still bug the hell outta me.
(Things like my wife, kids, friends, and band which are ALL Albertan obviously come first. I mostly want to address the quasi-universals here. [How does one express the universal provincially?] Oh, and this will have something of a Calgary-centric, Southern flavour.)
1. The Mountains. Being prairie farm-boy stock, I still look out the window at the Spine of the West with my jaw dropped. Daily. Though I have no desire to live where the sun goes down at three and winter starts in the summer, I visit them as much as possible. That ready access to the world's greatest mountain range should not be taken for granted.
2. Calgary venues. Saskatoon will always be my frame of reference for city experiences. Everything is compared with there. Calgary is bigger, Red Deer smaller; Regina colder, Edmonton comparable. Though I'll always love Toon town best, and defend it to its critics, cities of 200,000+ get overlooked a lot when it comes to music and sports. Having access to one of Canada's biggest centres has given me all the concert, big-venue culture, NHL and CFL I can handle and afford. No, it doesn't have to be big to be good, but at least now I know to compare.
3. Culture. This will never be the jewel in commerce-mad Calgary's crown, but on any given day I have access to a wealth of museums, cultural attractions, historical sites. I don't just mean the city, either. There's Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, Tyrell in Drumheller, Rosebud, fringe and folk festivals, Wordfest. So rich I have to be choosey. Oh, and if I ever choose to go, I'm told Stampede is all right as well.
4. Booze. I like a bevvy now and again. The low prices in this province aside (my brother moved back to SK and had to give up scotch, ouch), this area's rich collection of micro-breweries, those BC wineries, Kensington wine market, etc. all keep me on the happy brink of Hemmingway-hood.
5. BC's right there! Hey, it's a gorgeous province. So's Alberta (and Saskatchewan), and I'd never want to live there, but to be able to travel in a day to the Okanagon, or to my pals in Vancouver, to the island . . . I mean, no one in Regina says, "Plus, we can go to Manitoba whenever we want!"
6. Camping and hiking, and with some variety. I love the outdoors here. That touch of alpine je ne sais quoi really plays on me, after years of pitching tents in the prairie grass, or down shrub-lined river valleys. On any given day, I have the choice of prairie river, mountain park, grassland, Badlands. Fishing, hiking, skiing, climbing. Rah, rah, rah.
7. Jobs. Yes, the cost of living is higher. Yes, I have a job that is (proven) transferable all over the world. Yes, education is an oft-crapped-upon service in money-mad S. Alberta. However, I work in a great school, with great support, and I'm hardly collecting chalk nubs to use next fall.
8. Chinooks. The last winter I spent in Regina, we were under what the weather dudes called an "Arctic Dome" for two straight months. My last winter in beloved Saskatoon, it was -30 from November to early March so near consecutively that you barely noticed the release. Hereabouts, even the hope that a Chinook could be over the horizon of the next forecast, even the hint, gets me through any cold snap. However . . .
9. Winter. I love it, I do. That's not like a person claiming they like mussels and eating them just to show how tough they are slurping a slimy sea creature from its cold shell. I truly do like winter. Sensible winter, no Arctic Domes, please. Skiing, snow forts, ice fishing, the hush that falls at night during a heavy snowfall. This area gets some of the most violent and pleasant winters. Manic depressive weather, maybe, but it keeps you attentive, right?
10. Topography. My particular home is a prairie town surrounded by farm and grassland decidedly flatter from where I grew up in Saskatchewan. Yes, really. But Strathmore's dominated by a historical canal system that built the Palliser region. It's a half hour from the Bow River. The Badlands and their hoodoos are just down the hill. Foothills and mountains in short reach. Really, all we're missing is ocean, but then we don't have to worry about earthquakes or hurricanes.
The Bad. I'll try to be brief for fear of contradicting the good vibe I've cultivated above.
1. Politics. Maybe because I didn't grow up here, experience the NEP, or don't have an inherent hatred for the colour red, but I've never gotten the "a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the West" nonsense. People back right-wing parties like they're hockey teams out here, never really looking at the issues.
2. Oil is god. I have many friends who work in and around the oil and gas industry, and yes many other jobs are tied to that industry (though not on the molecular level the O and G folks would con us into believing). But, c'mon, what's good for oil doesn't mean it's good for the rest of the province, and Big Oil is a group pf un-altruistic corporations first. Fact.
3. Expense. High quality of life comes at a pretty damn high cost. The "Alberta Advantage" sure hasn't done much for escalating fuel, energy and food costs, and Calgary's rapidly-growing homeless population aren't all there because they're lazy.
4. Calgary overall. It's the city I access and I like having that access, but it's an exploitative relationship, I've got to tell you. 1, 2, and 3 on this list alone are my biggest beefs with what we satellite folk refer to as "The City," and that doesn't even cover urban sprawl, weak culture, and pathetic public transportation. Fortunate location does not equate to greatness.
5. Those Jonses. It's worse in parts of BC, especially the cities, but that urban and American drive to race your neighbors to a finish line that's been carved by the keen blade of the cutting edge, to have the newest thingy, to be the expert on the newest trends, to one-up those about you sure seems an obsessive pursuit out here.
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