Maybe you’ve heard: there is some tension in our land – between the west and Ottawa, at the intersection of the environment and the economy. To understand what exactly is going on, we turned to Monte Solberg. Monte was one of the first Members of Parliament elected under the banner of the Reform Party – a political movement that helped give voice to feelings of western alienation. And when the Reform Party became the Canadian Alliance and merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the present-day Conservative Party of Canada, Monte had a front row seat, going on to serve in the cabinet of then-prime minister Stephen Harper. Throughout it all, and still to this day, Monte is a passionate advocate for Alberta and for Canada, for conservativism and, well, for nature. After all, as Monte explains, these ideas shouldn’t be in contradiction.
What do you think?
- What did you learn from our conversation with the former cabinet minister?
- Do you better understand the issue of western alienation?
- Do you think we can address issues dividing our nation, while also growing our economy and sustaining our environment?
- Do we need our political leaders to take a more balanced approach to the issues at hand? And if your answer is yes, what responsibility do we have to ensure this actually happens?