It was almost 10:00 PM on Tuesday, April 16th when I stepped out of the Winspeare Centre, with the songs of Alan Parsons and a couple of beers still bouncing around in my head. I checked my phone and, while not shocked by any stretch, my heart fell as I read message after message from grieving friends. The UCP has won the majority vote in Alberta.
This doesn’t mean the debating stops. Supporters of both parties will continue to advocate for the living, breathing values they stand for — and proud centrists will likewise continue to assert their lack of values or ability to take a stance on anything at all. But, with the election over, orange voices are no longer charged with hope. More than continued debate, discussion, and speculation of horrors sure to come, I expect our conversation to turn inward.
The messages I received that night expressed a variety of dreadful outlooks. Friends in healthcare anticipating staff cuts. Friends in retail and service anticipating wage cuts. Fellow LGBTQ+ friends anticipating continued intolerance with more people in power who insist we shouldn’t exist. Friends in education and arts expecting their careers and prospects to spiral. Across the board, we were all saying the same thing: this changes everything.
In just the last six months, I have watched the stars align for the UCP. White supremacist groups marching openly down our streets with yellow vests or showing up at mosques – more vocal than ever. Our own Pride Festival Society and Pride Centre of Edmonton both declaring their disregard for the most marginalized members of their own communities in separate but unmistakable ways. I have watched the viewpoints of our province line up with Kenney’s in favor of jobs – but only some jobs, oil jobs. I have watched our province fall in favor of Alberta and “looking out for our own” – but only some of our own, you know, the ones with oil jobs. Nevermind the Albertans working 60 hour weeks between retail and service to make ends meet. Nevermind the Albertans who can’t work because of disabilities. Nevermind the Indigenous Albertans who were here before we were, but continue to have every attempt to help them catch up viscerally challenged at every turn. Nevermind, especially, non-Albertans who also have to live on this planet, which we’re driving steadily towards an uninhabitable husk because, well, the oil jobs.
The good news, in the mind of the UCP Voter, is that small businesses will continue to thrive on the backs of their workers who surely deserve no more than a poverty wage. Also, better healthcare comes with more privatization – but only, of course, if you can afford it.
I didn’t have to be surprised by the election results to be devastated. I wrote back friends with messages of condolences and love – but more importantly perhaps, with anger. Anger on behalf of them, of me, of struggles I’ve recognized in communities I don’t even personally know.
As we move into a UCP-governed Alberta for the first time in my adult life, I know that we can’t keep looking to the people in charge to address the issues that continue to affect me and the people in my immediate circle in our day to day lives. More than ever, it has become our personal duty to take care of each other. Sometimes that just means listening to your LGBTQ+ friends and family – especially the children, who are facing considerable risk. Sometimes it means being kind to the person behind the counter who is probably battling the poverty line. Sometimes it means looking a homeless or disabled or Indigenous person in the eye and asking what you can do to help, and doing it. However, alongside this consistent practice of love and support, we also can’t afford to ignore acts of aggression and bigotry as we witness them – and I can tell you with some certainty that we will witness them. When you see someone being attacked, stand with them and fight back. And keep in mind, attacks aren’t always physical or even direct. Fight back anyway. One of the best things we can do to fight a system with as much power as an oppressive, self-serving government is reaffirm each other’s humanity. Sometimes that means more than a kind word.
I’m not going to end this with some grand promise that together we can change the world and the good guys will win in the end. Platitudes like that, I feel, encourage passiveness and blind hope without action. We need hope, but we need action more. We haven’t won the election; it’s true that ship has sailed, but I hope that we will hold each other, look at the situation as it has unfolded – a painful, open wound bound for infection – and ask ourselves what we as a community and as individuals can do to help.
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