OPINION | Why Calgary can't claim the 'maverick' logo anymore

This column is an opinion from Calgary author Aritha van Herk.

I was one of a small group of Canadians nervously waiting to be presented to the Governor General. We were about to be inducted into the Order of Canada for having made extraordinary contributions to this nation.

Most of us were feeling imposter syndrome — I certainly was. The man standing next to me, who looked utterly "conventional," turned and asked, "And where are you from?"

"Calgary," I answered.

His sneer was augmented by a raised eyebrow, as if he were joking.

"Oh? Well, I guess somebody has to come from there."

I've erased his name and I did not have an extended conversation with him, but of course, like a true Albertan, I remember the slight.

But that brief encounter doesn't say "Wexit" to me — it merely strengthens my determination to occupy this recalcitrant, difficult, scorned and perplexing place, to stay here, and to work toward change.

The "maverick" logo

I've been credited — or discredited — with labelling Albertans "mavericks," a sticker that's plastered itself on everything from our wealth to our pugnaciousness.

"Maverick" is a metonym for curiosity and innovation, implying people who are risk-taking, forward-looking, and creative. It originates from Texas rancher Samuel Maverick, who refused to brand his cattle. They were thus free range, although maverick cattle could be readily rustled.

But I'm not sure we can claim the maverick logo anymore. Its positive aspects have been rustled into a mixture of bad temper and self-righteousness.

We're suffering a case of protracted road rage worse than the flu, travelling with our elbows out, careless of penalties. And the streak of indignation fuelling that aggression isn't pretty.

Time for a reset.

If we are going to deserve the maverick label, we need to inhabit its challenge, take a close look at who we were, who we want to be, and how to move forward in this often-conflicted present-day Alberta.

A recent report details that Calgary has, in the past two years, lost more than 4,000 residents aged 20 to 24, many of that demographic leaving in search of opportunity elsewhere.

Does that mean that we are hospitable only to all that is old and stagnant? Does that attest to a brain drain that will leave Calgary bereft of youthful innovation? Or does it signal that our reputation as a one-industry town, an energy-focused terroir, has little room for other initiatives?

Is this youthful exodus driven by the "jobs, jobs, jobs" mantra, or is the real crux of disenchantment the language of war and disaffection? It does indicate that Alberta's recalcitrance is generational, and not to be dismissed as temporary.

Another report claims that Albertans are dissatisfied with democracy, without pointing out that only in a democracy can we exercise the freedom to be dissatisfied.

A toxic culture

But grievance-mongering has fuelled a toxic culture with little room for the buoyancy of optimism.

Does ranting make us feel better? Maybe, but it feeds malice and intolerance, which can only lead to social and economic gridlock.

Torn between our understandable numbness from the downturn, and the uneasy global situation (the ongoing struggle between resource development and environmental protection), we're suffering from a bad case of the staggers, lurching between pragmatism and idealism.

But rear-view mirror driving is dangerous. Worse, it requires no imagination, but relies on a recidivist idea that 10 years ago, everything was great.

The energy industry is a crude instrument by which to measure Alberta's mavericity. We've forgotten that we were for years an agricultural province and that we continue to lead in that area.

The real threat to Alberta's prosperity is when we lose our capacity to remember, and our capacity for inventiveness.

Alberta has the history, people, education, and knowledge to lead developments in environmental and sustainable energy and carbon capture projects.

We enjoy outrageous geographical and geological gifts — and we should never discount the power of the incredible beauty that surrounds us.

Money is not the only measurement

Calgary is the Canadian city with the highest per capita ratio of post-secondary degrees, and we need to deploy that resource, acknowledge and invest in the knowledge economy, those skills that can grapple with uncertainty. As Max Fawcett says in his recent Macleans article, "Adaptability and intellectual dexterity," the ability to think critically and to communicate clearly, are key to solving problems.

Over and over again, Calgary ranks stratospherically: the fifth most livable city in the world (by The Economist), and the number one most livable city in North America. How is that measurement derived? Stability, Health, Culture, Environment, Education, Infrastructure.

But it is time to stop reciting numbers as if they contain answers; they are mere measurement and tend to lead to a circular recitation of debt, deficits, deceit, and ultimately decline.

Money is not the only measurement, and the quantitative box does not contain the whole picture. That reductive equation can deceive us about what matters, so that we fail to think forward, evaluate our assets, and strike out in new directions.

The mongering of fear, anxiety, and sustained victimhood ultimately earns enmity rather than empathy. All the shouting doesn't support bootstraps bullshit.

Instead of taking up the cudgels of grievance and engaging in American-style polarized discourtesy, can we model a forward-looking mavericity uniquely our own? Can we embrace education, examine real evidence, and bolster entrepreneurial possibility?

Alberta is no colony; we're a province in a country remarkably united despite an unwieldy geography. Focusing on disaffection and disagreeing in order to be disagreeable only distracts from a future where we have the opportunity to be leaders of the pack.

We need to stop wasting our breath on a cancel culture and decide what we want to be and where we want to be. Right here.

As for that 20- to 24-year-old demographic, it's actually important for them to fly away from the cocoon of home and safety, and to explore the world's opportunities and challenges. That is how they can assess their own aspirations, taste the cornucopia of all that Canada has to offer, and then decide whether to come back, having learned how to contribute to Alberta's talent pool.

We have the tools

The future signals complexity, and we have the tools to prepare for it.

We want to be a magnet for innovation, not that adjectival Alberta: corrosive, malignant, and combative.

If our myth is bootstraps and mavericks, then let's live up to it. Jack Mintz writes that Alberta wants to throw off the shackles, but we need to examine where those shackles were forged.

It is worth remembering the words of the poet Earle Birney, who was born in Calgary in 1904, in what was then not yet Alberta but the North-West Territories. In his brilliant poem, entitled Vancouver Lights, Birney wrote:

No one bound Prometheus

Himself he chained

And consumed his own bright liver

Let us not consume our strengths.

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