I’m a very proud Albertain. I was born in Calgary, raised in Stony Plain, and live in Edmonton.

With most of my professional life spent in sales, I’ve crisscrossed the province multiple times and loved it!

• Edmonton’s river valley is unmatched in North America, especially in the fall
  • Fun fact: Edmonton’s River Valley is the largest urban park in Canada and one of the largest in North America….bigger than NYC’s Central Park
• Staying in downtown Calgary, getting to see the river AND the mountains at the same time
• Seeing that massive trestle bridge coming into Lethbridge as you cross the Old Man River
• Anything in or around the Rocky Mountains
• The old Mohawk gas station in Hanna that sold the best rib on a bun

Everywhere has something that makes visiting worthwhile.

Beyond scenery: Albertans are about the friendliest people in the country.

We’re proud to be Albertan and stand up for what we believe to be correct.

Sometimes, taking a stand can be contentious. People are so excited to fight these days that they rarely listen to understand, only to respond. That has set Alberta alone as Canada’s vigilante province.

Personally, I think the views that the rest of the country has of Alberta are mostly unfounded or at the very least, wildly exaggerated. We get called rednecks and hillbillies but I can assure you that if you spend time in a racing paddock in ON, you’ll hear far worse things than what you think we’re saying in Alberta.

Until I did some racing in ON, I had no idea that the plural of “you” is “yous.”

Despite some misconceived notions, Albertans make things much harder on ourselves.

This morning, I picked up breakfast after my gym session. A brand-new diesel pickup was left idling in the parking lot. The driver pulled in, stopped, and went in for breakfast.

In the olden days, it was accepted practice to leave your engine running for a couple of reasons:

• If you’ve just come off the highway, it takes time for the turbo to slow down; shutting your engine off too soon will cut the lubrication of the turbo and lead to failure
• In older models, they hated starting in the cold so it was easier to keep it running vs. taking the chance that it wouldn’t restart……but it had to be pretty cold, and the truck had to sit for hours

This morning in Edmonton, it is -3C. I can quickly get around without a jacket outside for 3-5 min.

There is no meaningful reason to leave a vehicle running, especially unattended. Not to mention that Edmonton has an anti-idling bylaw, which is rarely enforced. It is an old-fashioned notion, as well as being plain lazy.

We need to start doing better and, at the very least, show the rest of the country that Albertans still care about contributing to the confederation with more than our tax dollars.