Alberta Unbound

Political scientist Yasmeen Abu-Laban on multiculturalism’s forgotten Alberta roots.

They said he’d never amount to anything. Indigenous MD Alika Lafontaine on beating odds and labels.

After years of being locked into a boom-and-bust resource economy, after years of battling against redneck stereotypes, after years of fighting for their future, how do Albertans create the Alberta they want? And what should that Alberta look like? In the fifth and final installment of Alberta Unbound, host Paula Simons, and her panelists -- Dr. Jared Wesley, a professor of political science from the University of Alberta; Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP for the riding of Lakeland, northeast of Edmonton; Dr. Diana Steinhauer, the president of Yellowhead Tribal College, and an elder with the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Treaty Six territory; acclaimed journalist and documentary-maker Omar Mouallem,  and author and former Alberta cabinet minister Doug Griffiths – tackle some tough questions from an Edmonton audience. 

Who gets to tell the story of Alberta? What are the stories Albertans tell themselves – and what are the stories that get told about them? Whoever controls those narratives controls the way Albertans see themselves and are seen by others. In Part Four of Alberta Unbound, host Paula Simons debates the stories and myths of Alberta with five provocative guests: Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP for the riding of Lakeland, award-winning magazine writer Omar Mouallem, Jared Wesley, a professor of political science at the University of Alberta, Doug Griffiths, an author and former Conservative provincial cabinet minister, and Cree elder and academic Diana Steinhauer.

Alberta alienation seems as old as Alberta itself. It has become a touchstone and a trope of Canadian politics. But what does that alienation spring from? And how has it changed over the last hundred years. In Part Three of Alberta Unbound, host Paula Simons discusses Alberta struggles and Alberta stereotypes with panelists Dr. Jared Wesley, a professor of political science from the University of Alberta; Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP for the riding of Lakeland, northeast of Edmonton; Dr. Diana Steinhauer, the president of Yellowhead Tribal College; acclaimed journalist Omar Mouallem,  and author and former Alberta cabinet minister Doug Griffiths.

There are so many divides in Alberta: rural and urban, north and south, right and left, Indigneous and settler, myth and reality. With so much diversity, how to do we find an coherent identity? And how do we confront, honestly, the complexity of our history? In part two of Alberta Unbound, host Paula Simons puts those provocative questions to five diverse panelists: Dr. Jared Wesley, a political scientist from the University of Alberta, Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP from the riding of Lakeland, in northeastern Alberta, Dr. Diana Steinhauer, the president of Yellowhead Tribal College and an elder from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Omar Mouaellem, an award-winning journalist, and author and former Alberta provincial cabinet minister Doug Griffiths.

What does it mean to be an Albertan? When you think of a “typical” Albertan, do you imagine a rancher? A rigger? A cowboy? A construction worker? How do we define, and redefine, what it means to be of this place? In part one of Alberta Unbound, host Paula Simons puts those provocative questions to five diverse panelists: Dr. Jared Wesley, a political scientist from the University of Alberta, Shannon Stubbs, the Conservative MP from the riding of Lakeland, in northeastern Alberta, Dr. Diana Steinhauer, the president of Yellowhead Tribal College and an elder from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Omar Mouaellem, an award-winning journalist, and author and former Alberta provincial cabinet minister Doug Griffiths.