Thread by @BarbLarochelle

My great grandfather moved to Edmonton as a teen in 1878, when his father, who had been an Arctic explorer, then chief factor for the Hudson Bay Co. , settled here. My great grandfather earned his own living for many years driving a stagecoach, delivering mail and passengers 1/8

to and from the Edmonton area, going from Fort Saskatchewan down to Calgary and back. He also kept a livery stable and people paid to keep their horses there. One of his brothers also drove a stagecoach and another was a prospector, looking for gold and silver in Alaska. 2/8

My grandfather didn’t drive a stagecoach like his father because that was no longer a career choice by the early 1920s. Instead, he became a journeyman tinsmith with his own sheet metal shop in Jasper Place. My dad apprenticed with him and worked there too. 3/8

The point of all this family history is this: some jobs or industries, while important and necessary at the time, stop being a way to earn a living because the world moves on. The fur trade brought that branch of my family west, but being an HBC trader or chief factor 4/8

is a thing of the past. Same with being an Arctic explorer, or gold prospector in Alaska, or mail stage driver. Some things, like sheet metal work, continue and there is still demand and need for these. The oil industry has played a vital role in Alberta with much wealth and 5/8

employment and prosperity. There is still a need for oil and gas, but at the same time, the world is moving on and very actively looking for ways to replace these. We *must* be forward looking in Alberta and try to position ourselves to be leaders in the next big things 6/8

to come along, whatever they may be. We can responsibly get value from this important resource while at the same time recognizing that at some point it, too, will become a thing of the past, no matter how much some people don’t want that to happen. Why not be leaders? 7/8

Why not use the brains and resourcefulness of Albertans to look ahead? 8/8