Today we discussed the various ways in which people face contending loyalties.
The comparison was made to gravity: Every object in the universe exerts gravity on everything around it much the same way various loyalties pull us in one direction or the other.
These loyalties can be non-national (class based, religious, ethnic/racial, regional, ideological, or cultural) or national (a Metis person may feel loyalty to the Metis nation, a Canadian nation if it exists, and perhaps loyalties to his/her other nations such as the French or Scots).
How you describe yourself often reveals a lot about what you’re loyal to: Are you a Canadian first? A hockey player? A farmer? An Albertan? A Catholic? A gamer? A French Canadian? An artist? A Ukrainian? A conservative? An environmentalist? Something else?
Assignment: Complete the following booklet about Alberta’s oil sands. It challenges you to consider a number of contending loyalties, largely non-national, within both a current events context and a larger Albertan history.
