Don't We Expect the Alberta Government to Be More Inclusive?

by

Opinion

Do you think of yourself as an inclusive person? Are you able to tolerate and embrace the behaviors or beliefs of a wide array of people?  Are you able to consider people’s thoughts that are not the same as your own? Do you only respect people that agree with or support your opinions?

Are you an inclusive person?  

Many of you likely answered yes, but I don’t believe you.  

When considering most topics, much of society talks instead of listens, shares without reading, or never asks questions like, “why do you feel that way?” 

Apparently Premier Rachel Notley and her government are not being inclusive either.  

The Notley government in Alberta has banned Rebel Media from attending government related events including activities at the legislature, saying that the startup media company (very popular with elements of the right) is not “accredited media”.  

Personally, I believe The Rebel’s Ezra Levant is more entertainment than news, just like the Daily Show or This Hour Has 22 Minutes. News and entertainment have merged. The Rebel should have access just like the Edmonton Sun or Globe and Mail does. When I started RealAgriculture I had trouble getting media passes a couple times, because I was not print, and a blogger or website were not considered media (that was 2009). Ezra and his team at Rebel Media are media.

Whether it has been Bill 6 or oil royalty review, The Rebel has been extremely critical of the Notley government. It doesn’t matter if you think Ezra is right, wrong or three bricks short of a load, inclusion of all ideas and all thoughts are what Notley said the new Alberta was all about.

This is the same Premier that stated once that Alberta was the “embarrassing cousin” for its environmental record.  In terms of media inclusion on issues like Bill 6 she seems to be living her comments. This is embarrassing.

The NDP Alberta Government is not being inclusive.

Be careful with the finger pointing though……

Are you inclusive of all members of your farming community? Why do we jump to judge people based on farm size, production practices or marketing practices?

Think back to the hostility of the Bill 6 debate over what was a family farm. On Twitter and at the rallies, farmers were downright nasty to each other about people with more than 2, 10 or 20 employees not being “real” family farms.

Were you inclusive when we all jumped to conclusions about beef producers that have marketed into A&W’s better beef campaign? Initially people stated that producers marketing into the A&W channel were not supporting the industry. I put a personal ban on my kids eating there. The ban has since been lifted, although my ten year old daughter still refuses to eat there.  Not sure where she gets that stubbornness from.

What about the attitude towards Hutterite colonies? Hutterite bashing can be a common practice which usually relates to clothes, accent and behaviours.

We all need to be more inclusive. I’m sorry to say I jump to conclusions all the time.  I was trying to be inclusive and wrote a post about Albertans needing to give Notley a chance. YIKES!!!  You are not always right when you are trying to be inclusive apparently.  But the process of trying to understand is healthy.  It’s about trying to understand the issues.

I don’t believe that we need to forego our own thoughts, but we would all be better off if we were just willing to be more inclusive, whether you are left, right, big farmer, small farmer everything in between.

I don’t support much of what Ezra says, but he is allowed to speak his opinion the issues no different than the team at RealAgriculture. I think he has steered some of rural right in the wrong direction on Bill 6, but he also made Bill 6 relevant for the urban right wing supporters. If the Notley government wants to promote transparency and be inclusive, they should practice what they preach. That also goes for the rest of us.

 

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