Touristing in Alberta

It seems shocking that we've covered a large part of the world's surface and hadn't (until last Thursday) been north of Red Deer in our own province. So we decided to deal with that.

A couple of months ago we reconnected with Ron's cousin Ralph at a family reunion. When Ron was growing up Ralph was one of the old kids and not part of his circle at all. Funny how 50 years can change all that. Five years don't make any difference at all now. So we were delighted to discover how well we clicked as friends.

Ralph and his partner Raymond live in Edmonton. I'd been to Edmonton on business in 1989, but that doesn't really count as a visit. We needed to see the place, and Ralph was eager to show it to us. So last Thursday we drove up that way via Custom Woolen Mills, an extraordinary fibre factory in the middle of nowhere somewhere east of Carstairs, giving us a chance to get off the highway and into some real farm country. I picked up a Turkish spindle and some slubby, bumpy wool to spin with it.

I'm afraid I'm hooked on spinning now!

Friday we discovered that Ralph missed his true calling: he should have been a tour guide. He drove us all over the place, showing us the Edmonton he loves. We shared lunch with two of his lovely daughters, Judy and Jodi (we'd met Judy at the reunion, too) at a fine sushi restaurant, and then "did" the West Edmonton Mall - you haven't seen Edmonton unless you've seen the Mall.

Ralph's daughter Shelly came over after dinner to share my birthday cake (apricot-pistachio torte: yum!).

Saturday morning was a trip to the Edmonton farmers' market, where I picked up more wool to spin - actually hand-dyed kid mohair from the supplier's own flock. Oh dear, I'm going to have much too much spinning to do, just like I have far too much to knit. Then, off to Mannville and cousin Charlene, via Vegreville's giant Easter egg.

Charlene had arranged a tour of a Hutterite colony for us that evening. What an interesting place! About a hundred people share the work and earnings of a large piece of land, making everything possible and living almost completely self-sufficient lives together. They were completely open and willing to answer every question we could think of about how and why they live like they do. And they gave us some awesomely delicious pie to finish off the evening. I don't think we could live that life - you have to work too hard - but I think they're the richest people we've ever met; they have more than enough of everything a human being could ever need.

Sunday Charlene, Paul and the two of us visited the Ukrainian village near Edmonton. Interesting place - old buildings rescued from destruction and set up in groups as they would have been in the 1930s or earlier. Each building is staffed by a young person who acts in character for the time and place, very knowledgeable and able to answer all sorts of questions. Definitely a place worth another visit.

Sunday night we spend with cousin Gay and her husband James near Wetaskawin. After moving from High Prairie last winter they lived in their RV for a couple of months. It worked out so well for them that they bought a 5th wheel to live in permanently; they have their two homes parked next to each other in a small RV lot just outside Millet. They put us up in their RV that night, leaving us full of admiration for their ability to get along together for a long time in a very small space. We're certainly not made of such stern stuff!

Monday we made our way homeward via Rocky Mountain House, where I picked up more fibre for spinning - bison this time, from a couple who raise bison and non-allergenic horses just outside of town. I envied their two little kids who had the run of the place and looked full of health and life. Every child should have that much fresh air and sunshine!

Rocky Mountain House reminded us of pre-tourist boom Canmore, very plain and not at all affluent - but you wouldn't call it poor, because it was tidy and well-kept. Its greatest treasure is its historic site, well worth the couple of hours we spent exploring it. The Canmore museum has been celebrating the bicentenary of mapmaker David Thompson, who was based in Rocky for some time, and I found their display on his life interesting in comparison.

We were going to spend the night in Lake Louise or someplace like that, but the weather began to turn rainy, so we retreated to our own mountain resort home. It's still the most beautiful place in the world, but the rest of Alberta isn't too shabby, too.

Political overload

Yesterday I did something I thought I'd never do: I bought a membership in the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta. I've worked for the NDP since I was 15 (I fell and broke my tailbone in their Halifax office, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "busting your butt").

Ron bought a membership, too. But we haven't undergone a radical conversion. It's just that it looked like Alberta was about to go even farther along the road to hell, and we knew we had to do something. The Conservatives are the only party that's going to be in power in Alberta in the forseeable future, so casting a vote in a provincial elections is pretty meaningless. But yesterday members of the Conservative party were voting for a new party leader, and a vote in that election can make a difference. There were three choices: a "suit" from Calgary with fairly moderate views; a southern rancher/professor who is only slightly to the left of the Ku Klux Klan, and a nice farmer from the north. The right-wing crazy man was very likely to win. So out we went and got our memberships. It was a multiple-choice ballot; you indicated your first and second choices, and if no one got over 50% of the first choices, the bottom guy dropped out and the second choices of the people who voted for him were counted. And so the winner was the one who came second after the first choice votes were counted: the nice northern farmer. With any luck he'll be harmless.

Meanwhile the federal Liberals were electing their new leader at a convention in Montreal, so when we weren't out messing around with the provincial Conservatives we were stuck in front of the TV. And the same thing happened, sort of. The leaders were overtaken by a really nice guy who'd been running third most of the time.

The thing that struck me about both these events was how nice all these people were to each other - the Liberals in particular. They'd had some ugly leadership conventions in the past, but this time they seemed to be making an effort to be civilized and kind. It seemed so much more intelligent than some of the alternatives you see in politics.

So politicians really can act like intelligent human beings. Maybe there's hope for this country, at least.

And maybe I'd better go out and buy myself an NDP membership to soothe my conscience