Oil industry may threaten Canadian cowboy culture, but it's not down-and-out yet

The Canadian prairies have always been associated with a certain way of life – the rough-riding, boot-wearing, cattle-ranching ways of the Canadian cowboy.

But with the energy market booming across the prairies – specifically Alberta, where cowboy culture reigns supreme – and the workforce shifting from farmland to oil fields, there is some question about how long the cowboy culture can survive.

Bloomberg News recently reported on the struggles of Alberta’s cattle industry, which is losing its workforce to the lure of the profitable oil industry.

“The oil patch is rolling along pretty good right now, and it makes it difficult for agriculture to compete with the same labor force,” Greg Bowie, chairman of Alberta Beef Producers, told Bloomberg.

Terri Mason, editor of Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine, says that cowboys and cattle ranches have seen a variety of threats to their way of life over the years – from the price of land to the wave of BSE, or mad cow disease, a few years ago.

And while the oil industry may lure away some of the workforce, there will always be a place for the cowboy way of life in the Canadian prairies.

“There is no shortage in the level of interest in being a good cowboy,” Mason told Yahoo Canada News on Wednesday.

“They are out there, and these guys and gals are working really hard at it. It is more than a job, it is a life and a lifestyle. There is no shortage of the folks that are working ranchers. You just can’t see them from the road.”

From an economic perspective, at least, there seems to be a reason for pause.

Bloomberg News reports that energy investments across the prairies have led to an increase in “jobs on drilling rigs or pipe crews” at the expense of farm hands and beef plant workers.

The news agency notes:

So does this boom in the energy industry, and corresponding dip in the availability of ranch hands, mean that the cowboy way is in danger?

It may seem a bit of a reach to suggest that this trend away from cattle ranches and toward oil patches could have an actual impact on the cowboy way of life. But this isn’t the first time the future of Alberta’s cowboy culture has faced doubt.

Calgary’s growth into a massive urbanized centre has long raised questions about how long it could maintain its link to the rural lifestyle.

Calgary is set to hit a population of 2.5 million by 2050, and based on recent trends much of that increase will come from immigration.

As researcher Ray Pennings noted in the Globe and Mail a few years ago, “Population growth is primarily dependent on new births and immigrants, without whom the economy would be grinding to a halt but who have no roots in or connections to a rural Canadian, let alone cowboy, culture.”

Cowboy culture is tough to quantify entirely. But it is tied to the prairie’s farming history, of horse riding and cattle drives. Of working the land, relying on it. And in a way, having it rely on you.

The desire to maintain and protect the cowboy way was behind a bid by 70 Alberta ranchers to declare a western section of the province a nature conservancy. The 12,300-hectare Waldron Ranch will be open to cattle grazing but no development of any kind.

“It is not a kind of career choice that a person makes lightly,” Mason says. “You don’t go into it for the money, your heart has to be into it. You have to enjoy working in a range of outdoor conditions. No two days are the same. It is a completely different lifestyle and I can’t think of another lifestyle that compares to it. It is highly independent yet you are tied to the land.”

Mason said she isn’t out there trying to hire cowboys, but what she is confident in saying is that there hasn’t been any decline in interest in the cowboy way of life.

“You go to any small-town rodeo around here and it’s not the adults you watch but the little kids. There are thousands of little kids running around and they are all in cowboy boots and they are all packing rope. They are all wanting to be a cowboy.”

Indeed the Calgary Stampede – the preeminent celebration of Canada’s cowboy culture – has seen a resurgence of late, even if it has never really wanted for interest in the past. The nine-day celebration of all things cowboy set an attendance record in 2012 when more than 1.4 million people attended the show. Last year, 1.26 million people took in the Stampede events.

Mason adds that there has never been a higher level of interest in being a quality cowboy – from the number people studying to be a clinician, as well as working in training horses, vet care and land management. Even if the oil industry pays better, the cowboy way will always be a draw.

“It doesn’t take a person very darned long working the patch to realize that money isn’t everything,” she said.

“It is nice at the end of the day to get that money, but you’re giving up your life to get it.”