À bientôt Alberta

It’s my last night living in Alberta. Tomorrow I’m leaving.

I was born in Ontario, but I have spent most of my life in Alberta. I have also lived in Newfoundland and Labrador and in British Columbia. I grew up in small, diverse Canadian communities. I know what it is like to start over somewhere new, but Alberta has been home for a long time.

So, why am I leaving?

It isn’t because I’ve suddenly become a partisan. Over the years, I have voted Conservative, Liberal and NDP, depending on who was running, what issues matter most, and who I believed would provide the best leadership at the time. I’ve been the Constituency Office Manager for one NDP MLA and two Conservative MLAs.

I was raised to respect people who live and think differently from me. I have spent decades working with communities, municipalities, post-secondary institutions, and organizations on inclusion, equity and belonging. I have learned that being an ally sometimes means speaking up, sometimes listening, and sometimes means helping people who disagree find common ground.

This is why the direction Alberta has taken in recent years has been disturbing.

The irony is not lost on me that it was a conservative government 20 years ago that supported and funded the Welcoming and Inclusive Communities initiatives that first brought me into this work. Governments and communities recognized that building welcoming communities wasn’t about imposing one way of thinking on everyone. It was about creating places where people could live together, disagree respectfully and still recognize each other’s humanity.

What I see happening in Alberta today feels fundamentally different.

The UCP government’s increasingly divisive approach – and legislation that, in my view, undermines much of the work communities have taken to build inclusion and belonging – has left me deeply disillusioned.

And I am tired.

Not tired of political disagreement. Democracy requires disagreement. Debate is healthy. Questioning policies, challenging ideas and holding governments accountable are essential.

I am tired of the constant framing of us versus them.

I am tired of watching neighbours, friends, and families become divided over politics. I am tired of seeing people who care about the same communities being pushed into opposing camps. And I am tired of political leadership that seems to gain strength by identifying who we should be angry with next.

That’s not leadership.

This is not a time to become more divided.

We are facing challenges that require us to work together. We need leaders who can bring people to the table, not continually move people to opposite sides of it. We need to be able to disagree without assuming the other person is ignorant, immoral or our enemy.

Most importantly, we need to remember that there are human beings behind every political argument and new legislation.

I cannot support the direction Danielle Smith and the UCP are taking Alberta. I believe too much of what is being done is contrary to the principles of inclusion, respect and community that I have spent my career trying to advance, and that I believe Canada and Alberta stand for.

And, after years of trying to build those things here, I have reached the point where I no longer want to spend my energy fighting against the political environment around me.

I want to live somewhere I can disagree with my neighbour without being expected to dislike them, or them me. Somewhere advocating for another person’s dignity and human rights isn’t automatically characterized as a political agenda. Somewhere the government recognizes that its responsibility is to all its citizens, not just those who agree with it or have the loudest voices.

I don’t expect to find a place where everyone agrees with me.

I want to find a place where disagreement doesn’t have to be division.

Alberta taught me that communities are stronger when we make room for one another.

I still believe that.

I just wish I felt Alberta believed it too.

I’m off to a place where they embrace EDI work without blinking. That’s where I belong. À bientôt.

Tymmarah (Zehr Sheculski) Mackie, MA (She/Her)

Fostering Diverse Communities Canada