James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development. He is also a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, and served with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light InfantryWhat Is Alberta?I’ve had the good fortune — no, the deep honour — of walking, paddling, skiing, and sweating my way across this rugged, magnificent land. I have canoed her rivers, hauled bales on her farms, herded cattle, branded calves, and laboured on rigs. I’ve breathed the sharp winter air of her wilderness and the clean perfume of her wheat fields in July. I have skied her slopes, biked her trails, and slept beneath her vast, cathedral sky — the freest sky on earth.I was raised here. Schooled here. Tried hockey (badly,) football (slightly better,) and served this country in uniform. I have stood on the fields of remembrance in Europe, thinking of the prairie boys who never made it home. I have danced in her festivals, toasted in her pubs, and watched the northern lights with a heart full of gratitude that I belong to this province — to this people.So you can understand my dismay when I hear someone like M. Yves-François Blanchet of the Bloc Québécois claim that Alberta lacks a culture. That somehow this place — forged by hardship, faith, and risk — is culturally bankrupt compared to the salons of Montreal..Well, allow me to respond, not with outrage, but with pride.Alberta was born not out of privilege, but out of perseverance. Our culture is not conjured in cafés; it is carved from the land. The first to settle were the English, and the Coureurs des bois, (later Voyageurs), adventurers and traders. Later the Ukrainians, Germans, Poles, French and French Métis — people who fled oppression, censorship, and conscription — who came here for one reason: freedom. And they were willing to trade everything they knew for one shot at a life of their own making.They came with little but hope and a work ethic forged in fire. They found land, hardship, yes — but also opportunity. And they built.Later came the Dutch, the Swedes, and the Irish, adventurers and builders. After them the Vietnamese, Filipinos, Chinese, Arabs, East Asians, Africans — all with that same yearning: to live free, to work hard, and to raise children under a sky that did not judge them by their name, faith, or origin.. They came not for entitlements but for opportunity. And they paid dearly for it.Let me tell you about Alberta’s oil patch — where men and women, often far from home, dig, drill, and sweat in sub-zero silence. They work through long nights and short summers. They’re not unionized bureaucrats. They don’t want your pity — just your permission to get the job done. They create value. Real value. And they ask only that their efforts not be confiscated by politicians who neither know their names nor respect their work.Then there is our farmers. The ones who plant a crop with no guarantees. Who gamble every year on weather, markets, and mercy. They work with a reverence for the land that no bureaucrat can simulate. They don’t shut down in July or clock out at 4. They rise with purpose and rest with pride. All they want is a fair shot, in a fair market — no tinkering from Ottawa..And then there are the ranchers. Alberta’s cowboys. The ones who know every animal in their care — who wake at 3 a.m. during calving season to ensure a calf takes its first breath. They work Christmas morning. They tend to their herds with more patience and diligence than most show their kids. And they don't expect applause — just fair prices and a fair shot.Let me tell you about Hani — an Iraqi immigrant who came here for freedom and built several businesses. He didn’t ask for a thing. He worked. He hired. He built. He loves this province.Or the Czech art dealer who fled communism. Who found in Alberta the liberty that vanished in his homeland. And now freely shares his love of beauty with a people who value it.And there are so many more, everyday Albertans, who show up, who can be counted on, who create value. These people are Alberta. Not caricatures. Not colonists. Not “rednecks.” Builders. Contributors. People who make the engine run while others draft op-eds criticizing how they fuel it..And what do they get in return?Lectures from Laurentian elites. Sneers from bureaucrats. And condescension from those who think culture must be written in French, funded by Ottawa, or endorsed by the CBC.Albertans are generous. To a fault. But they are not fools. They are the nicest people you will ever meet — until they are not, until they have been pushed too far.What angers them most is not taxation. Not regulation, although that can get us going. It is contempt. Contempt for the lives they've built, the industries they’ve created, the value they’ve added, the sacrifices they’ve madeOttawa believes our wealth was given — we know it is earned. Ottawa thinks our loyalty is automatic — it is conditional. And Ottawa assumes our patience is eternal — it is not..Fun fact — and it’s worth repeating — Alberta is the only province in this country where the majority of people live north of the 50th parallel. More than all other Canadians combined. What does that mean? It means we understand winter. Real winter. We know cold not from a weather app but from diesel that won't turn over, from skin that stings in seconds. It also means we know folly when we see it — like EV mandates designed by climate clerks in Ottawa who've never had to plug in a block heater at -35. We are not Southern Ontario’s suburb.So, Mr. Blanchet, and others who see Alberta as merely a place to extract dollars and impose dictates, hear this: We are not guests in confederation. We are partners. And if we are not treated as such, Albertans will do what they’ve always done when faced with neglect — they will take matters into their own hands.We are the true North, strong, free, and unbowed.If we cannot be that within confederation, so be it. We won’t be afraid to strike out on our own and will be the richer for it.That, mon ami, is Alberta.James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development. He is also a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, and served with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
