The Fires

Rex Murphy, always the voice of reason, had his little say and it got me to thinking.

He believes we should all say thank you to Alberta: Most of us in Canada have been touched by the province in some way. Well, that may not be so for the bigger Eastern provinces, but it does ring true for a lot of the Maritime Provinces, Newfoundland, probably Saskatchewan and certainly for B.C. 

Alberta had teaching jobs when no one else did. The best teaching year of my life was up in LaCrete. I didn’t like the weather, the harshness of the country or the vast distances, but man, the people and the support I got up there was the very best I ever saw. Can’t complain about the education those people are getting! It wasn’t just the amount of money, we didn’t have anything fancy… it was the way they spent it. We had what we needed and the best professional development.

Our school days were a bit longer than most in my experience, but we had days where, as teachers, we were able to get together and share what we were doing in the classroom.  Days to get all revved up again about what we were providing to the children: a future!

I got a PD from one teacher who showed us a math program that was, well, not a program at all.. just a whole lot of practical stuff that fit into the day.. for arithmetic, basic counting, addition and subtraction, we used a calendar in the morning and just talked about things, like a chat. “When is Anna’s birthday? How many days until the weekend?” And for graphing and positive and negative numbers, we used the weather.. recording it daily. It got cold up there. Coins worked too.. wonderful for fractions.

The staff were supported in getting together. One night we all dressed in black and played, well, sort of hide and seek, in the school. Scary! Fun!

And when I wanted to further my own education, they came out with an awesome Masters program that I could do.. on the phone, from home.. through the University of Calgary, Alberta. Very innovative for the time.

Alberta has been a gift to my three sons as well. Monte went to University of Calgary for his degree. University of B.C. seems more of a place for the elite rather than the province's youth.   But U. of C. welcomed him and he worked hard, as they always expect in Alberta.  When he finished he joined an engineering firm there and went to work building roads.

Gabe found work in the province as well. It seems Alberta has always had work for people that are willing to work.. hard.  And as a baby Gabe had been sent to Albert Children’s Hospital by ambulance from across the border in B.C. The local hospital couldn’t deal with him, and even though hospitals are provincial, they took him in and grabbed that penny right out of his throat.

My youngest son Travis still works in Alberta. He lives in B.C. and lives in camp when on the job.  They need him and his skills, and he needs them and the money to bring back to his family.. in B.C.

And yet we sort of kick at Alberta… they are wealthier than the rest of us and we are all a tad jealous.  But they work hard for all they have. They work longer. They deal with the funnel clouds and the ice storms.. the cold.. the struggle. And lately they have been getting beat up pretty badly. The price of oil has been dropping and the oil companies are not surviving the storm.

We protest the oil wells, the oil sands, the Fracking, but, we still jet around to other parts of North America, Europe, the Middle East, polluting the atmosphere, as though the two things aren’t related. We drive around in enormous, gas and diesel fueled vehicles, when most of the time we could walk. We want all the luxuries without acknowledging the cost. Alberta knows the cost.

My friends, Dan and Rea, who could not seem to find a home in their first choice location of the lower mainland of B.C., also found work in Alberta. Heels dragging, fingernails clinging to the familiar west coast landscape, they found northern Alberta had work, and they needed jobs.

The people and landscape of Fort Mac proved much more welcoming than they expected.  People up there are a special breed.. they work hard, they play hard and they have a better idea of where their food, their material goods come from: the blood and sweat of the planet.  They aren't 'green' up  there, they aren't always 'politically correct'.. but they see the world for what it is.  They don't talk about it.. they actually live it.

While at first my friends were counting the days before they could get out of there, it wasn’t long before they settled.. and then they started to live, and then.. well then they had found their place and decided they would retire in Alberta.

But then, things changed again.  The economy started getting rougher in Alberta as well. Jobs fewer and not so lucrative.

And now the fires.

It is early May and already forest fires have started in Alberta. This is not usual. And this past week, Fort MacMurry has been on fire, quite literally: 80,000 people have been forced to evacuate.. while the city burns. My friends got their horses out, but lost the barns.. now they are worried about their house. They have been luckier than many so far, huge subdivisions are gone.  But the fires are still growing.

Rea was a real estate agent.. she sold a lot of those houses to families, who became friends, who now find themselves homeless.

It must have been scary: And quick. One day she would have been enjoying the abundance of spring sunshine, riding or watching the horses from the barn decking.. and the next deciding on who’s animals to put in the horse trailers and which ones to set free and made to make their own way.

It must have been frightening and confusing that first night. Not knowing how to feel.. sleeping alone in a cement plant while Dan was.. somewhere else doing what he could. Knowing what Dan is like, so helpful and good, it would have been frightening to think what trouble he could get into trying to save other people’s livestock and pets.

It must be frustrating now, staying a safe distance from home, safe with friends and family but not being absolutely certain that others are also safe.  Having no idea of what is ahead..

Ya.. Albertans have had it pretty good for a lot of years.  And because of them, so did the rest of us.  What they did with their fortunes, it seems to me, was pay it forward.  They put money into education and infrastructure. They opened the province up to the rest of the country. They offered education, jobs and healthcare.

You are right Rex Murphy.. as you always are. (Why couldn’t you be running president in the U.S. ? Besides the fact that you are truly Canadian?) We need to say thank you to the province that has given us so much.. in any way we can right now.

And while we watch Alberta's north burn, I hope we are sooooo careful with any sort of flame..  because it looks like it is going to be a long, hot summer in Western Canada and these fires won’t be paying attention to political borders.