Moraine Lake lays cradled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, a twenty minute drive from Lake Louise and one mountain range away from the Alberta/British Columbia border. It is a glacier-fed body of water that rivals Neptune for its indescribable blue and on a clear day, when the water is still it reflects the surrounding mountain and Douglas firs as if it were a mirror. It is recognized around the world for its other-world beauty. Sunrise and sunset hikes are overwhelmingly popular.
Humans love things that are beautiful.
We love them to death.
As The Eagles sang on The Last Resort, a song off their 1976 album Hotel California, "Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye."
The lake belongs to Banff National Park, so it comes under federal jurisdiction. This means the federal government is responsible for its maintenance and security. Recently, Parks Canada, listening to scientists and forestry experts, determined that the crushing amount of visitors to the area is damaging the ecosystem. Moraine Lake is part of the Fairview wildlife corridor, a passageway for such creatures as elk and moose. Parks Canada wants to eliminate personal vehicles from entering the area. It is recommending that people book a seat on a shuttle that will transport them to this wonder of the natural world. This will reduce stress on animals who use the corridor, especially in the late evening and early morning, a time, as mentioned above, that is popular for hikers.
As of right now, Parks Canada is only suggesting that hikers and sightseers avoid driving their own vehicles and is implementing paid parking.
Predictably, Alberta's governing party, the UCP (United Conservative Party), never missing an opportunity to spit vitriol at all things Ottawa, is outraged. Their representative in this matter is the Minister for Forestry, Parks and Tourism, Todd Loewen, who was instrumental in bringing about the demise of their first leader because he wasn't conservative enough. In an open letter to federal ministers Steven Guilbeault of Environment and Climate Change and Randy Boissonnault of Tourism, the minister states. "Alberta's parks — both provincial and national — are jewels of the province, and Albertans and visitors alike deserve to have full access to enjoy their benefits."
His Honourable Mr. Loewen clearly lacks a sense of irony. Full access is the problem.
He is on record as suggesting one of the alternatives would be to expand the 100-car parking lot that currently exists. Just to be clear, one of his solutions to aiding an ecosystem in jeopardy is to bring in bulldozers and graders and asphalt pavers.
Jason Kenney's campaign to unite the right under one banner has proven to be a deeply flawed project. He found out the hard way that it is impossible to unite the right because the right includes extreme points of view that allow no room for compromise. The only thing the UCP managed to unite is the zealots with a persecution complex who believe anyone slightly left of their own ideology is a communist. The party has provided them with a collective voice and license to use it.
The other day I was at the dog park and fell into a conversation with a fellow about the way some dogs can be aggressive when they play. Without any provocation, he claimed that when Trudeau was finished outlawing guns, he was going to force us to register our dogs. I let loose a short guffaw which I quickly tampered when I realized that he was serious. He literally believed that our Prime Minister wants to make sure nobody owns a dog that plays rough. For a brief moment, I considered explaining that such a proposal would not even make it out of caucus let alone to the floor of the House of Commons but it did not seem likely that he knew the process of a bill becoming law or was interested in knowing. Knowledge would only interfere with his worldview.
There is little doubt that he will be voting UCP in May because he wants leadership that will affirm his bizarre theories about Ottawa.
Loewen is part of that crowd. Their current leader, Danielle Smith, is often criticized for kowtowing to the ultra-right base of the party. This is a criticism steeped in the hope that she is a rational being. She is not kowtowing. She is one of them.
At the core of the Moraine Lake situation is the UCP principle that Albertans are independent and can do whatever the hell they want and that nobody should be interfering with how they lead their lives, especially not a bunch of stuffed shirts in Ottawa who they did not vote for. They do not care that the lake is in a national park so not their jurisdiction. It’s in Alberta which makes it theirs. The UCP calls this sovereignty. Premier-Not-Actually-Elected-To-Office Smith's first order of business was to pass her precious Sovereignty Act. (In an attempt to appease the less hard core Conservatives in the province, its official name is now Sovereignty Within A United Canada Act, a paradox since one cannot be sovereign and united.) It is her and her caucus's way of legislating their defiance against the governing Liberals and mostly Justin Trudeau. It is designed to fight back against any "specific federal program or piece of legislation as unconstitutional or causing harm to Albertans." On their website, there are no defining parameters for what entails harm. In fact, there is no clarification of what the act will do or what its purpose is. Bizarrely, there is a long list of what it is not designed to do. The list below is copied directly from the Alberta Government website:
The Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act:
will not allow Alberta to defy Canada’s Constitution
will not allow Alberta to separate from Canada
will not allow cabinet to issue unconstitutional orders-in-council, including giving instructions that are outside of provincial jurisdiction to provincial entities
will not allow cabinet to give instructions to private individuals or corporations that aren’t provincial entities, to violate federal law
This leaves one asking, Then what's the point?
There is an old saying about the breakdown of relationships, particularly marriages: The fight about the crockpot is not about the crockpot.
There is a central, controlling component of the UCP that has such a blinding, all-consuming hatred for Justin Trudeau's Liberals that it dominates all their decisions. It is their raison d'ȇtre.
It is obvious that something has to be done about the excessive use by the public of Moraine Lake for recreation. If a Conservative government were in charge, it is unlikely that Loewen et al would have made much of a stink. Parks Canada is a federal government department and, therefore, by association under the purview of Justin Trudeau. That’s all the impetus needed to protest environmental protection of a piece of land in Alberta, even though it technically is the responsibility of Parks Canada.
In May of this year, Albertans will be going to the polls. At that time, the Liberals are likely to still be in power and the focal point of the UCP platform. In spite of being in power since 2019, they will be blaming all of Alberta's problems on Trudeau and that the NDP party is not prepared to put up the kind of drag-out fight that is needed.
Irrational rage does not make for good governance. It leads to irrational decisions such as not controlling access to fragile ecosystems or refusing to prevent the spread of a deadly virus or driving across Canada in a semi trailer to take over a democratically elected government.
Leave rage to the extremists.
When in the ballot box, remember that governing requires reason and compromise.