Twenty Alberta Provincial Parks Closed - A Legacy Lost to Our Children

I was sad to hear about the closing of 180 provincial parks recently. The wilderness has always been an important part of my life as it was to my father and my father’s father. The love of the wilderness brought my mother and father together and so could be considered responsible for the existence of me and my siblings. They were both members of the outdoor club at university. On weekends, the club would engage in such activities as skating on Whitemud Creek in Edmonton. After the skate, they would retreat to the club’s cabin that featured a potbelly stove used both for heat and cooking. When my father extended his handkerchief to my mother after she’d cut her hand opening a tin of beans to feed the hungry skaters, you could say she lost her heart. 

I don’t think Mr. Kenney gets it. He pretends to be an Albertan and speak for us but he isn’t

Kihiwin Provincial Park

and he doesn’t. I support the Rachel Notley’s NDP and a progressive style of politics because I believe that government is the best way to solve problems that can be easily monopolized by companies and thereby used to exploit the dependence of the population on those products and services. Services and products like healthcare and drugs, utilities like heat and electricity and to an ever-increasing degree, the internet and cell phone services. Without government ownership or regulation, exploitation based on greed is far too easy.  

Many Albertans have an ideological objection to any pragmatic intrusion on the free-market economy. That said, Albertans who support both a conservative and progressive styles of government share a love of the wilderness. Like me, they developed that love as children whether it be through camping, fishing, hiking or hunting. I don’t hunt but I get it. A friend of mine who wanted to share his love for the hunt took me out quadding one day. We spotted many deer, a great owl, a moose that passed within feet of where we were hiding, and a lynx. I was impressed.  

Crow Lake Provincial Park. 

These animals exist because we’ve protected our environment with the establishment of parks that we all share. My wife jokes that those of us who live in the wilderness venture even further into the wilderness to enjoy our holidays. I live in town of Slave Lake located 250 kilometres north of Edmonton, the nearest city. We’ve traveled to many foreign countries, but we’ve also camped a lot. And, my family shares a cabin on Gregg Lake without electricity or running water located within the Switzer Provincial Park which, fortunately, is not being shut down.  

My parents bought this cabin with pink insulation dripping between supports in the ceiling, cloth sheets in place of doors for the bedrooms, and a potbelly stove for heat that would hop up and down when it got too hot. The potbelly stove was replaced with a Franklin, my dad and I put up a ceiling and my parents extended the cabin using plans designed by my brother. We share space with many wild animals including bears, wolves, deer, moose, coyotes, loons, Canada geese, the pesky whiskey jack, many squirrels, an ever-decreasing number of sparrows, and the chickadee. Among many others, of course.  

My parents loved their rustic and then not so rustic cabin in the wilderness and spent every

Little Fish Lake

minute they could out there. I share that love. I can’t imagine living in a place where I couldn’t step out my door and have some access to the wilderness. Before my parents bought their cabin when I was 15, we spent one month every year camping. Often, we meet my uncles and their children who’d also be camping ‘cause that’s what we did and do. We’re Albertan. And we don’t camp with all the facilities. We camp in national and provincial campgrounds where we are lucky to have a flush toilet and often don’t.  

And that’s what I don’t get about Jason Kenney and his caucus. Aren’t there at least a few that shared most Albertans experience of camping? Jason Kenney didn’t grow up in Alberta and has never demonstrated an interest in an experience shared by many of his supporters. Couldn’t they speak up? Mr. Kenney says that there isn’t the money but there was money to give to rich and profitable companies and there is money to hire people to clean up the orphan wells but there isn’t a pittance to spend on the upkeep of a few provincial parks. Closing those parks is not only sad for those who support the continued existence of wilderness areas but I would also argue UnAlbertan.  

Parks could be our greatest refuge in the near and not-so-distant future. With COVID-19 spreading around the world making many forms of travel impossible, there’s always camping. It’s time for the Kenney government to at least pretend routes in Alberta because long after the oil is gone, there can always be parks. It’s a heritage we owe our children and grandchildren and their grandchild.  

Twin Lakes Provincial Park. 

Images courtesy of Parks Canada. For more information about provincial park closures, see the Narwal Magazine article.