Alan Aubut is a retired geologist, based in Nipigon.Many of you may wonder why someone from Ontario has anything to say to a Western Standard audience. I must agree with you. My story illustrates how we too often paint with far too broad a brush. Ontario is the third largest province by area and the largest by population. Yet most of that population is in a relatively small area centred on Toronto. I live far from the city that considers itself the centre of the Canadian universe, yet too often I am painted with that brush.Northwestern Ontario differs sharply from Southern Ontario, in climate, geography, and outlook. Yet much is shared with broad swaths of western Canada. Just because I live in Ontario does not mean I share the same views as those in Southern Ontario, nor do they share mine. My life experiences, the ones that shaped me, were lived in Western Canada..MacLEOD: Is it time for Alberta’s independence referendum?.I went to university in Thunder Bay, not far from where I grew up beside the Trans-Canada Highway in a rural area surrounded by Boreal Forest and underlain by the Canadian Shield. I loved being outdoors and still do. Growing up miles from neighbours shaped my independence and resilience. I once considered engineering, but lacking confidence in math, I turned instead to fields that meshed with my love of the outdoors. Science and geography appealed to me, but I could not see myself in forestry. Rocks, however, fascinated me. They told the story of how landforms were created and provided the building blocks of society. As a result, I registered in the geology program at Lakehead University. Time has shown me that unlike most geologists who stumbled into the field by accident, I chose it deliberately.University was an eye-opener for a country boy. In a twist of fate, that is where I met my wife. We had attended the same high school but never really connected until then. We were married in 1975, during my third year at university..It was at Lakehead that I stumbled into my first act of activism. In my final year, one required course, Physics of the Earth, was taught by a semi-retired physics professor. The assignments were very difficult, including calculating how fast the moon is moving away from Earth. There were only five of us in the class, and after each lecture, we pooled our efforts, but always failed when the problems were reviewed. Near the end of the term, the professor noted that one classmate who had skipped first-year physics might not pass. I blurted out that I had taken first-year physics and still doubted I would pass. I pointed out that the problems assigned were well beyond our training and that it was unfair since this was a mandatory course for graduation. The professor was stunned but began reviewing the problems with us. One appeared on the final exam. We all passed, and all graduated.When I graduated in 1979, jobs for geologists were scarce. One option was further study, and my marks were strong enough for graduate school with a teaching assistantship. I applied to three universities, all out West, since that was where the work was. We chose Edmonton, where I began studies at the University of Alberta. We packed all our belongings into a Ryder truck and moved..LAFRAMBOISE: The persecution of Canada’s ‘other’ Freedom Convoy truckers.After a year and a half, before formally finishing, I was offered a full-time job with Pacific Petroleum in Calgary, not long after it had been acquired by Petro-Canada. Our move to Calgary was another turning point. Alberta was booming, and though I was trained in hard-rock geology, petroleum demanded a different skillset. I was thrust into a world of sedimentary basins, drill cuttings, and seismic data. At first, I felt adrift, yet this discomfort forced me to learn quickly. I discovered that geology is as much about problem-solving as it is about theory, and that adaptation is often the most valuable skill. Calgary also gave me a window into Western culture and industry, broadening my perspective beyond Northern Ontario.Not long after, I was offered a job with Inco, then the dominant player in nickel. Although its main operations were in Sudbury and Thompson, it had a small mine an hour west of Thunder Bay that needed an underground geologist. For my wife and me, the decision was easy. We could be near family again, and I could return to my core training. The negatives were a pay cut and a struggling nickel market. I started work at the Shebandowan mine in May 1980. Joining Inco brought new challenges. At Shebandowan, the realities of underground geology demanded discipline. .Not long after, Inco was bleeding money and ordered cost cuts. I was the most junior geologist in Ontario, but my work was solid enough that I was transferred rather than laid off. The exploration department was busy and needed people, though a hiring freeze was in place. Since I was already on staff, I was moved to exploration. I opened a Thunder Bay office and at first worked alone. Over time, it grew, and by the late 1980s, I supervised close to 20 people and managed the largest exploration budget in Ontario. Those were heady days. The optimism was captured by the Timbuk 3 song “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades.”By the 1990s, the industry was evolving quickly. I was transferred to Thompson, Manitoba, to lead the exploration team for Central Canada. Then, exploration budgets shrank, and my career pivoted toward resource estimation. Computers were reshaping the field, and I seized the chance to master them. From building models to analysing data sets, I became one of the early adopters who could bridge geological insight with emerging software and applied them in ways that few others attempted at the time. It was demanding but also deeply rewarding, and it positioned me for later international work. That willingness to adapt and innovate became defining threads of my career..TOKEN LEFTY: The UCP manufactured teacher’s strike.The company policy was that one could retire with a full pension after 30 years of service. Toward the end, I was counting the days, but I cannot complain about the opportunities. After Vale acquired Inco in 2006, bureaucracy only worsened. Still, I was able to work abroad in Western Australia and Indonesia as an internal consultant on resource estimation.I retired in 2010 but took up consulting, specializing in resource estimation. The discovery of chromite in Northern Ontario in 2008 should have been transformative. These deposits in what became known as the Ring of Fire hold world-class potential, and I was quickly involved. Yet instead of rapid development, we faced an ever-thickening wall of bureaucracy. Governments layered regulation upon regulation, slowing progress to a crawl..For me, it was a bitter lesson in how opportunity can be squandered when politics overwhelms practical industry. It also planted the seed of political engagement, as I could no longer ignore how decisions made far from the North stifled growth. With COVID-19, consulting dried up at the same time my enthusiasm for geology was fading. I turned increasingly to writing about issues I once took for granted. Freedom was being chipped away..THOMSON: Canada’s silent war: Losing to terrorists without a fight.In 2021, I ran as a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada, the only party aligned with my moral and ethical compass. I finished a distant fourth but earned about 2,500 votes in a riding where the Liberals, NDP, and Conservatives traditionally dominate. The system favours the big three, but I learned much about what it takes for small upstarts. Since late 2021, I have been editor and primary author of an online newsletter, first called The Purple Wave and now rebranded as The Amethyst Trail..I may be getting along in years, but my desire is to leave this world better than I found it. The optimism of the 1980s may be gone, but it does not mean we cannot recover it. History has shown that cycles of decline are followed by cycles of renewal. The warnings in George Orwell’s 1984 feel less like fiction and more like instruction for those in power, but they also serve as a reminder. Canadians still have the means and the duty to stand against creeping control. What matters is whether we are willing to actively exercise the freedoms we still have rather than surrender them through silence and submission..SLOBODIAN: Canada rewards terror, America confronts it.I want my two surviving sons, and by extension all Canadians, to inherit a country that reclaims its spirit of independence, innovation, enterprise, and fairness. The path will not be easy, but neither was the work of previous generations who built this country from wilderness and rock. If they could forge prosperity under harsh conditions, so can we. I intend to continue to explore how we can push back against a narrowing horizon and instead look outward with confidence. The battle may be daunting, but we must stand together and declare, “not on my watch.” My future writings will continue exploring how Canada can reclaim its freedom and purpose, and I hope you will join me on that path.Alan Aubut is a retired geologist, based in Nipigon..Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
