Quote:
Originally Posted by Wooster
Alberta, western Canada has a pretty small black population compared to large Eastern North American cities, immigration is more Asian dominated. Nevertheless, We've had black provincial politicians - recently provincial cabinet minister Lindsay Blackett.
Rural communities like Slave Lake had a Muslim woman as Mayor. I don't recall any black Alberta Mayor's, but I can't see why a black person in Alberta would face any sort of different level of acceptance compared to any other visible minority. There simply aren't any historical factors here that would.
Anyway, there's a decent chance my gay, black boss (chief of staff to Calgary's Mayor) will run for Federal office as a liberal, so we'll see how that goes if he does run ;-)
http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2014/...entre-liberal/ |
Just so it's clear (and this is for both you and Dizzy Edge), I wasn't implying that it wasn't the case... I expected more or less parity with Quebec in terms of black, Muslim, etc. provincial MPs and mayors, and assumed that you'd bring up a few examples to confirm it, which you did, so it's fine. Keep in mind that you were the one who hinted it was unlikely in Quebec... my point was, not really any more than in AB...
If you want another example, here we sometimes hear that federal MPs from AB would wish to do something about granting abortion immunity to a foetus beyond a certain number of weeks... okay, sure, it's a minority of Albertans, but it's still something you'd just basically never see here. That kind of stuff, in the national media, tends to color our view of AB. (...surely CBC didn't invent it...)
AB is more of a 'clean slate' (I wouldn't say... a place with less culture, because you'll be thinking that I want to piss you off, but it's nonetheless a newer place, with a less defined culture)... and in that sense, sure, everyone will be welcome. I mean that in the sense that a newcomer is not seen as a potential threat (if he/she ends up not integrating) to the existing culture.
Also, open-mindedness isn't absolute. A quick example would be that Albertans are more "close-minded" than both Justin Trudeau and the people of Colorado. But you can also find things on which Alberta is less socially conservative than Colorado...
Quote:
|
Yes, my friend is fluent in French.
|
Wow, that should've actually rubbed people the right way, from a born and raised Calgarian. Sorry about what happened to him! I can't really say much beyond that it's surprising, and really not typical.