Quote:
Originally Posted by RyeJay
Alberta is not akin to Texas? Sure. Whatever you say: except when comparing oil economies, except when comparing the shared disregard for the environment and climate science, except when comparing a retardation in acceptance of secular driven social norms, the religious intolerance, the parallel political spectrums, the polyurban mess of urban sprawl, and this list goes on ...
And ironically, Alberta and Texas are further comparable in terms of the desertification each is experiencing with climate change...
SO. Perhaps the CBC should start a new reality tv show: Alberta's Forest Fires. It's guaranteed to be 'in production' each year, pending the complete depletion of Alberta's forests.
I'm hoping for at least a 10 season run.  |
What the hell?
Yeah, both have a large oil industry, but I think that's mostly where the comparisons end.
Disregard for the environment and climate science? What the fuck? Do you know about the great environmental programmes underway in the oil industry that make it some of the cleanest oil production in the world? Or how about strong investment in recent years towards transit in both Calgary and Edmonton? Saying Alberta disregards the environment is like saying B.C. is the same because of its lumber industry, or Ontario because of its manufacturing base, or Quebec because of its asbestos stuff, or the Territories because of their mineral extraction. Everywhere has a dirty industry, its just people like to point at Alberta and forget about the problems in their own backyard. I dunno what that secular comment is about.
Religious intolerance? Seriously? Have you even been to Alberta? You sound extremely uninformed about this province. Like Jets4Life said, I guess that's why our two largest cities have mayors of minority religion, not to mention a female premier, great mosques, etc. I tell you, it's sad that political figures such as Mandel, Redford, and Nenshi have to come to the forefront for ignorant Eastern Canadians to realize Alberta isn't full of closed minded racists and is actually a very diverse and welcoming province, just like pretty much everywhere in Canada. I highly recommend you read
this, while not specifically about religion, it is about how ignorant people outside Alberta can be about how welcoming this province really is.
Parallel political spectrums? What the hell? Do you know that political spectrums aren't necessarily the same for every country? Yes, Alberta is infamously Canada's most conservative province overall, but Canada conservatives and American conservatives are two completely different beasts. Look at Premier Redford, for example, who is PC, and some of her policies. Alberta still supports liberal and socialist ideals such as universal health care, legalized marijuana, atheism and acceptance of non-Western religions, public transit, etc. Try to find that in a Republican. I'm not denying there are some racists in Alberta, but racists are everywhere, be it Ottawa or Odessa.
Mess of urban sprawl? Yeah, Albertan cities are sprawly, I'll give you that. But what do you expect when the oldest buildings in the province are only from the 1880s? Edmonton, for example, existed as Fort Edmonton since 1795, however, it was a small settlement and nothing but replicas exist of that era today. But the sprawl patterns are completely different. Look at newer sprawl in Houston and compare it to Calgary. Calgary boasts the densest new suburbs in North America, and Edmonton isn't far behind if I recall correctly. Calgarian suburbs are also met with strong public transit connections, with nearly all quadrants of the city with C-Train access. Edmonton, while behind in this regard, is catching up somewhat. Not to mention Alberta's sprawl isn't as endless and also has a fair bit of denser developments, such as mid rise and high rise condominiums. The older parts of Edmonton and Calgary are also more intact. There's less abandonment and no downtown ring roads cutting off either Calgary or Edmonton's downtown from its surroundings. In Houston people complain about the lack of street activity due to the massive underground network, while in Calgary people boast about how bustling Stephen Ave is nowadays. For urban nabes and commercial streets, I've yet to see anything in Houston or Dallas that looks like Whyte Ave in Edmonton, or 17 Ave, Kensington, or Atlantic Ave in Calgary. The only thing like that in Texas that comes to mind is Austin around the UofT (keep in mind I'm not referring to areas inside the city centre, such as the various mini neighbourhoods in Austin Downtown). And Austin is probably the least "Texas" of the four largest Texan cities.
The whole point of my comment is that Alberta isn't Canada's version of anything. I also dislike U.S. to Canada city comparisons, like how Toronto is Canada's NYC or Vancouver is Canada's SF or Montreal is Canada's Boston. No, all of this is untrue. Canada is its own country, a unique place with its own culture. There is no place like Alberta, nor is there any place like Texas. Despite cultural similarities between the U.S. and Canada, both countries are their own uniqueness. Period.
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...ya know, to 'clear things up'.
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