Preface

It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that it took more than three lifetimes for this book to emerge. The collaboration among the three of us to edit a collection that seeks to reconfigure the image of Alberta could come about only because of our deep roots in the province. That long history has, in turn, been tempered by skepticism about stereotypical views of Alberta and nurtured by a committed search for alternative stories. Understandably, such a reassessment of what has been done in and said about the province would materialize only with time and experience.

We are quintessential “Other Albertans,” at once in the province but not blindly of it. For his part, Leon brings to the project the history of countless generations of the original people on the land, the Niitsitapi, or “real people”—the four tribes collectively known as the Blackfoot. The Niitsitapi call the place they live kitáwahsinnooni, which means “our land.” As a child growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in Alberta, Leon saw virtually nothing in school textbooks about the Niitsitapi or about their close relationship to kitáwahsinnooni. It was not until he took up post-secondary schooling that his knowledge about kitáwahsinnooni and its intricate connection to treaties negotiated with incoming settlers began to resonate politically. Today, he continues to advocate about the treaties to his community of Siksika and to those who want to learn about the treaties from Niitsitapi themselves.

Karissa recalls that it was, ironically, former premier Ralph Klein who sparked her political consciousness. Her mother was a teacher who, in the mid-1990s, faced the brunt of the “Klein Revolution”—a term used to describe an austerity regime that slashed government spending by well over 20 percent, left roughly one in four public servants out of work, and undercut the foundation of public services in the province. Her parents, people who normally saw eye to eye with the Progressive Conservatives, never again felt quite the same about the party. Neither did Karissa. As a maturing feminist, socialist, and environmentalist, she not only questioned where she fit into the province but also set out to learn the stories of other outliers.

Larry had the good fortune to come of age in the 1960s, when young people worldwide struggled to demolish antiquated customs, institutions, and governments. In that context, Alberta’s hidebound conservativism looked like easy pickings. While that optimism has faded somewhat over the decades, his determination to pursue an unconventional path in life and work has not.

Given our backgrounds, it is no surprise that when we set out on our academic lives, we sought out contrarian approaches to the prevailing view of Alberta as a monolithic conservative bastion. In 2016, our perspectives converged during a session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, in Calgary, where we presented papers that laid out some alternative visions. Responding to a suggestion that we bring together other examples of progressive countercurrents in an otherwise right-leaning province, we leaped at the opportunity to seek out fellow “Other Albertans.” We are gratified to have found an impressive array of authors who share our enthusiasm to describe the many disparate threads in the fabric of Alberta.