MLA Report: Rural marginalization is real

By Medicine Hat News Opinion on April 16, 2021.

I don’t think anyone disputes that there is rural-urban divide in our society, and over time it has grown more polarized.

Both economically and politically, often it seems like rural and urban folks live in two completely different worlds. This divide is not new, but over the past several years I think it has become increasingly pronounced. The real danger for our society is not the differences between rural and urban life, but in the power disparity between these two worlds.

With the historically rapid urbanization of the past 50 years, rural folks are losing the ability to determine their own future, and are more disconnected from our society’s power structures. You can see the disparity every day in a thousand different ways.

Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax is just the latest example. Here is a policy clearly designed to make rural living more expensive and more difficult.

We need to drive; we need to drive for work, we need to drive for food, we need to drive to transport our goods to markets, we need to drive for healthcare, we need to drive for recreation, we need to drive for education. There is no alternative to driving in rural and northern communities, and this tax disproportionately drives up the cost of virtually every consumer product that needs to be shipped out of the city. That such an unfair and punitive policy could ever be approved is a testament to how marginalized rural regions have become.

Policies like this kill primary sector rural jobs, decimate rural communities, and rural people are right to have real concerns. And when such policies are implemented to appeal to voters who are completely disconnected from rural realities, you can expect rural concerns to multiply.

A sad truth of the current political reality is that such concerns are rarely, if ever, reflected in national and provincial media. For the most part, rural views are ignored.

Meanwhile, on social media, such views are often vilified, especially among an urban elite that considers itself superior. For example, livestock and crop producers, who have embraced modern technology and improved efficiency beyond anything previously seen in human history, are dismissed as “dumb farmers.” Laid off coal miners and other energy workers, folks who have worked hard and paid their dues, are told to stop whining and, “learn coding.” It’s shallow and it’s disgusting.

So what is the answer to addressing rural marginalization? While I believe most problems in our society are best addressed from the bottom up, I’m not sure that is possible in this case. Rather, I think it is incumbent on our political and business leaders to do a better job of listening to and addressing rural concerns. This means putting more rural people in positions of power, and giving more local autonomy to decision makers to reflect local needs and concerns. Without a real commitment to such action, I fear Alberta will never reach its full potential.

That being said, I’d like to hear your thoughts. How can governments better address rural marginalization? What will it take for our rural regions to once again determine our own futures? You can email me at: cypress.medicinehat@assembly.ab.ca

Drew Barnes is the MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat

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