...on democracy.

When the revolution comes, you’ll be first against the wall.

Except that the revolution has already come.

And fewer people were thrown against walls than I’d expected might be…

The economy has yet to collapse, nothing I can see from where I’m sitting is on fire, locusts have not, in spite of the warnings, descended to blight our crops. Currency has not fled, and I suspect that threats from CEOs to defund the Children’s Hospital out of spite were empty ones. Nobody wants that kind of publicity, after all.

We had an election, not a coup, and transformed ourselves from theoretical to practicing democracy, electing a moderate left-of-center party we hope will enact modest economic reform. In time, I have no doubt disappointment will come with portions of what they do, but in the meantime I’m profoundly proud of us for sending a strong message to all who would govern us.

We have our pride.

We have our Orange Crush.

Treat us with open contempt, and the good people of Alberta will only stand for it for forty-four years, and not one moment longer.

And now, in a way that living in Alberta I’m not exactly used to, I’m cautiously optimistic about the future…