Melting Mettle

Edmonton, March 29, 2004

   We are the children of heroes. Our fathers and grandfathers risked everything to stand together and defend a principle. They left their wives, children, sweethearts, homes, farms, jobs and businesses. They left hearth and home, comfortable lives by all comparison to the mud, blood, bombs, bullets and frostbite that waited across the sea. They fought for freedom. Not their own freedom but for the freedom of peoples they didn't even know. They fought for Russia's freedom and Norway's. Poland's and France's. They fought for Britain's freedom. They fought for freedom overseas because they knew that doing so was the best way to guarantee their own freedom back home. Our fathers and grandfathers showed the world a mettle that is still talked about today by those whom they liberated.

   A far cry from the comfortable cowards that inhabit this province today. I too am one of those comfortable cowards. Government knows that all they need to do to keep us quiet and obedient is to keep us relatively comfortable. As long as we've got a decent supply of Doritos and free health care, we'll go along with anything. Tyranny. Injustice. No problem! "Pass the salsa please. Oh, and another pickled egg would be lovely!" Farmers are being jailed for selling their own property? "Oooh look! My gas rebate cheque came today!" Comfort melts a man's mettle.

   What brought all this on was a chance meeting with one of those jailed farmers. I had great difficulty looking him in the eyes because I knew I had let him down. He and his friends stood and fought while I turned and ran. We all turned and ran. Our federal members of parliament turned. Our provincial MLA's turned. Even our Premier turned and ran. Cowards every one.

   I've met real heroes before and they have never affected me the way those farmers have affected me. Never before have I had to think about my own conduct in such a context. It's as if my wife and I had been accosted by thugs and I ran away screaming "Do what you want to the woman, just leave me alone!" I feel humiliated. I feel so... Canadian.

   The next time an Albertan takes a stand against the federal government, you can count me in. If only one person gets hauled off in handcuffs, you can expect that it will be me. Edmond Burke said ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’, and while I understood the meaning of the words, it's obvious to me now that I didn't really get it. Thanks to some courageous Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba farmers, I do now. I won't let them down again.

Thanks for stopping by.