#Sask/NWT History!

[nakamopapina]

I’m gathering stuff for my other blog in advance, and learned two things, that I MUST share:

1) The origin of Moose Jaw’s name was because 'moscâ-' in ‘moscâstani-sîpiy ‘, sounded a lot like ‘Moose Jaw’,

moscâstani-sîpiy is Cree for ‘A warm place by the River’!

and 

2) Regina’s Original name, was considered ‘too scandalous’, to be used as a name for a Territorial Capital. 

Which I can understand because the original name was ‘Pile of Bones’, which came from the Cree word  ‘oskana ka-asastēki’, and it means ‘The place where bones are piled up’. So... uh yeah, probably not the best choice for the name of a Territorial Capital... 

But we still named our lake Wascana, which means, ‘Buffalo Bones’! So there’s that!

The more you know!

[allbeendonebefore]

Do you know the meanings behind all the human names of the IAMP provinces and territories?

To a degree. I know more or less why names were chosen for IAMP but ProCan adopted some fanon names that I don’t know the origins of.

Please keep in mind that many of these names were chosen to be stereotypical or tongue in cheek because that was the mood or the atmosphere of the Hetalia fandom ~2009. I get the feeling that there was an attitude shift somewhere along the lines to make names that aren’t really as based in humour- not that that’s wrong - but I know there’s a tendency amongst younger hetalia fans to be overly critical of IAMP without understanding its original context. 

I also tended to be a bit reactionary when I was younger and wanted to prioritize historical names, but since I’ve reflected on what we were trying to do a bit more I’ve become a lot more understanding about it, haha. I was a kid when I joined this fandom too and I get the pressure to be “accurate”, but it’s important not to stress too much about that sometimes. The more you understand about how history works, the more you appreciate the importance of the sort of stereotypical or tongue in cheek… uh milieu? haha idk

below are a few of the names that were approved by Sherry in IAMP (if I recall correctly, please correct me if I’m wrong)

Jean Tremblay, for instance, was deliberately chosen to be as stereotypically Quebecois as possible. There was a huge running joke about how average the name was because it was even used as a name on things like sample drivers licenses at the time. 

Oliver I believe was chosen by his VA - I don’t know if there’s a link to Oliver Mowat but I like that idea. Stanley was deliberately chosen as a hockey reference (and because the leafs never win the cup anymore).

Rhin confirms that Alexander was chosen as NS’s middle name for Alexander Keiths and not in reference to Alexander Mackenzie lmao, but maybe his last name is. 

Annie Montgomery is an obvious combination of Anne of Green Gables and its author

NB’s last name McCain is after the company / family

BC’s name was a combination of the two major cities Victoria “Van” and her last name was a joke because Cheung was such a common last name (when sherry was in bc/school, i can’t recall exactly) 

Ralph was after Ralph Klein and Campbell was a common last name

Nanook is (i assume) a reference to Nanook of the north

Kate Sahneuti is a name that I personally chose - I like the ambiguity of whether it’s a reference to Kate Carmack or Klondike Kate and i thought the abrupt abbreviated nickname was in character. Sahneuti was the name of a Gwi’chin chief (~1900) who played the HBC off against other companies to maximize benefit for his people. I wanted to choose a name in the same language that the word Yukon came from - I am aware that it’s not a “proper” surname, but Sherry and I agreed that having indigenous representation in her name was a good thing. 

The rest of the names I think were chosen because they were common names or because they sounded good together - I don’t know any more specifics than this. 

We had a few characters who remained nameless because we never reached a decision on which name to use as a first name or a last name: for instance, we all agreed that Tommy Douglas and Louis Riel should play a role in Sask’s and Mani’s name, we just never officially verified which part of the names should be canon. 

the following are fanon or new names that were created for procan that were never officially approved by sherry

The reasons for some names being chosen I really don’t know- I actually wasn’t as active in the fandom as I was in the project back in the day because of my bandwidth issues (and my relative shyness in skype chats lol). Some of my co-IAMP old timers may remember who created what names and why and when. 

The characters who did not have official names:

NWT: For projectcanada, we thought it was an appropriate tribute to the VA for NWT in IAMP who passed away to name Northwest after her (Cymbeline). Her last name was a suggestion by me, another indigenous name used as a surname that referenced a historical Chipewyan woman who was instrumental in peacemaking between rival groups during the fur trade (Thanadelthur). 

SK: We agreed that he was going to have either Tommy or Douglas in his name in IAMP; I’m not sure where Owen came from but it was an adopted fanon name for Procan. Me and Sask friends tend to prefer Gabriel Douglas (after Gabriel Dumont) and also because we think saying Ohhhh GABRIELLLLL is the funniest thing ever. 

MB: We agreed in IAMP he would have either Louis or Riel in his name and for ProCan the fanon name Ilan Riel was used. I don’t know why or where the name came from, but it’s worth knowing that Winnipeg is one of the three major centers for Jewish settlement in Canada and that there is some precedent for him having a Hebrew name there. Still no idea where Ilan came from. 

[allbeendonebefore]

Hey hapo what's with the sea of blue in sask and Alberta during the election like did Sheer make that good of an impression on Sask voters??? NDP is option??

sea of blue you say? obviously we created our own blue sea since we’re not allowed access to tidewater JKJKJKJK

this is a really complicated question and I’m trying to think about how best to explain it. my feelings on the issue are very mixed because i feel like i have a foot or a hand in several camps like some convoluted twister game. it’s something that a lot of identity and emotion is tied up in for a lot of people and it’s rooted very firmly in inequalities that have existed for over a century and get expressed differently in different regions. It’s something that I grew up saturated in and I’ve done a lot of reading about (and of course there’s always more on my reading list) but I’ll try and highlight a few reasons that I’ve been musing about so as not to be too overwhelming. 

it’s something that is really hard to explain to people from outside the province because we’re quick to be written off (sometimes rightfully so, others not) but it’s something that’s equally hard to explain to people inside the province. As I said it’s something we’re all saturated in, we are born into it or we grow up in it and it’s really hard to confront a lot of things surrounding it. And I definitely have my own biases and background and relation to this issue and I must stress that as furious as I am with people in large groups making dumb ass decisions, I can’t be angry at individuals because I get a lot of why this happens even though I find it personally misguided or ignorant at best and actively harmful, selfish, and self-sabotaging at worst. But when I explain this I hope it makes sense why for a lot of people it feels like the only option.

And my last preface is that I am speaking from an Alberta perspective, if my followers in Saskatchewan want to add on to this please feel free. I’m glossing over a lot here because I’m trying to keep this short and understandable… but when have I ever done that lol.

Yeah, it got long.

so why does the west go conservative. it’s not scheer, and if you remember harper you’ll remember personality is never high on our list of priorities. [insert gif of harper explaining how he too is a human who watches netflix here] 

1. History 

To sum up two hundred years: Alberta and Saskatchewan were never equal partners in confederation with other provinces. They were purchased and carved up by the Canadian government which then imposed the two party system on the provinces, which prior had consensus government which (i believe) was similar to how NWT and Nunavut continue to operate. They were not given the rights to their own resources until decades after joining confederation. They were given Liberal governments because the Liberals were and are considered the “natural” governing party of Canada, and while Saskatchewan has flopped between Liberal and Conservative governments like many eastern provinces, Alberta has always had a radical streak and has NEVER re-elected an unseated party in its history. And no, I don’t consider the UCP a continuation of the previous 4 decades of conservative rule, even though they imagine themselves to be the inheritors of that legacy. 

Fast forward to the direct impacts: in the 70s, world events that severely impacted oil production caused Eastern Canada to absolutely panic and force Alberta and Saskatchewan (yet again) into providing discounts on their production to soften the blow in Ontario and Quebec of rising prices, forbidding them to sell for a profit to the United States. This included both oil products and potash, hugely lucrative products in AB and SK. It was a continuation of Eastern Canada imagining and treating the prairies as property, as chattel, where provinces like Quebec and BC would never be asked to undersell to benefit the rest of the country. 

The current federal conservative party is an amalgamation of reactions to this situation and related ones: the Progressive party (which was a complete misnomer) originated in Manitoba, the Reform party emerged from what I understand as the “first wave” of western separatism, and even though Reform was defeated federally it is still a direct ancestor to Stephen Harper and by extension Andrew Scheer. Harper’s policies are the natural product of decades of conservative governments dating back to Preston and Earnest Manning’s Social Credit party in Alberta.

That said, people from both inside and outside the provinces completely misunderstand Harper’s (and Kenney’s) “Western-ness” or “Albertan-ness”. Both of them ran on western issues and appear to speak up for western interests, but those issues and interests only go as far as the CEOs of the oil companies are concerned, not the working class in the industry. Harper and Kenney actively undermined the equalization formula for the west and had the gall to campaign on striking a good deal for the west. Federal politicians do not have to ever strike a good deal for the west, they will ALWAYS prioritize voters in Ontario and Quebec so long as our voting system remains this way. 

2. Identity

My next point in the long agonizing question of Why This is a sensitive one. In Alberta we have my parent’s generation who were voting age at the toppling of Social Credit by Lougheed’s Conservatives. For Alberta this was a monumental shift in taking no shit from Ottawa that people still look back on. Lougheed was a hero for demanding a fair price from Canada for Alberta, and he was incredibly concerned with managing the resource and the profits wisely. While conservative governments were natural and long standing in eastern Canada, this was the first time they had taken power in Alberta and they made a dramatic and revolutionary impression, which is not a thing that conservative governments are usually known to do. 

My parent’s generation remembers this time of intense prosperity. My parent’s generation raised their children in this boom-bust cycle and my parent’s generation watched as Lougheed’s heritage fund was spent out from under us. I grew up under Ralph Klein’s government- intensely popular for a premier and who’s legacy was as powerful as Lougheed’s, but incredibly polarizing. He gave $300 to every man, woman and child in the province (except my fam because we had just moved back and didn’t have residency, lol) which was memorable if irresponsible. But it was men like Klein who had the charisma and the presence to make people really take pride in the industry, to worship the boom-bust, and to consider all problems solved. Klein did not give a shit about the part of Alberta I grew up in, and friends who lived in the far north of the province fared even worse. It’s absolutely no wonder that the Edmonton area consistently votes “against” the rest of the province when we were left isolated and broken during the bust of the 90s and ignored repeatedly in the mid to late 2000s. 

I have a deep seated and extreme resentment for Ralph Klein’s government and it’s not because I missed out on my 300 Ralph Bucks or because I don’t have connections to the industry, it’s because I grew up with a deep seated fear that I wouldn’t be able to complete my education or that if I got sick something horrible would happen. I was legitimately terrified I would not be able to make it to secondary school because of the cuts his government made on rural schools, and for friends of mine who were not as lucky and well supported as I was, it was even worse. I won’t drag their personal stories onto the internet to make my point, but know 

But the point of this all is that the people alive today who vote are people who remember this time of prosperity, of fighting Ottawa, and of relative ‘freedom’ from taxation and so on and so forth are constantly trying to hold onto that time. The kids in my generation who I went to school with did not have to graduate high school - my school had a 70% drop out rate because people would go straight to the patch or into a related industry. In Alberta, every industry is a related industry. There is not an aspect of living in Alberta that the patch doesn’t touch. This is hard to understand for people outside the province. It was actual culture shock to me to come to Ontario where funders of schools and businesses are families that date back to confederation rather than Enbridge or Suncor. 

Moreover, the people who work in the patch do an incredibly difficult and dangerous job for incredible amounts of money and it’s no wonder they are so valourized. The people who work in the patch are more dependent on the companies than they are on the government. During the fire of 2016, it may have been the government providing evacuation stations, but it was the companies who got people out. Working class people feel seriously undervalued and are obviously seriously defensive about the industry for real, concrete reasons. 

The past four decades have shaped generations of people in this way. This is not something easily reversed. Voting conservative is almost inextricable from Albertan identity and it’s impossible to explain concisely. We all grow up with the same arguments and talking points, we are all imbued with anger and defensive remarks from birth, and to people outside the province our arguments can sound rehearsed to the point of sounding cult-like. Stop Using Plastic If You Don’t Like It. Stop Driving and Flying. Stop Importing from Dictatorships. Stop Being a Hypocrite. They are easy, simple mantras to absolve anyone related to the industry (which is everyone) of any guilt because they don’t have to be a hypocrite if they just embrace the reality. There is no room for any critical thought in this identity, there is no room for discussion, there is nothing beyond Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Don’t Ever Criticize What Keeps Everything Running. It’s normal and natural to feel upset when people who don’t grow up with this line of thinking find it strange.

3. Alienation

So why doesn’t our valourization of the working class translate directly into NDP votes? Why does Rachel Notley become vilified for speaking and acting as Peter Lougheed did in the 1970s? Why do we continue voting conservative and say thank you when they betray us and kick us in the balls every single time? Why do we cover up our oh-so-shameful history of birthing the CCF/NDP out of the desperation and destitution of the Great Depression? 

As I’ve been saying it’s complicated, but it’s also really simple. No federal party ever speaks to us. Not a single one. The conservatives barely have to because they know our identity as conservative dates back to before a time when we even had a provincial upper-case Conservative government ourselves. Scheer can parade up and down parliament hill with his appeals to free speech and his pro life base and his white supremacist dogwhistles all he likes because he knows keeping Alberta and Saskatchewan “happy” (read: angry) is easy. This is a man who said himself that he doesn’t need ‘indian votes’ to win and he certainly was far more worried about keeping Doug Ford out of the spotlight during his campaign and pissing off Ontario than he was about us, and premier kenney spent all his time in office campaigning for scheer instead of running the goddamn province, including preparing us for an emergency. And we lap it up while screaming bloody murder if rachel notley is not personally handing out waterbottles on the side of the highway of death. 

No party, not even the conservatives, truly speaks to Albertans. We get hated on constantly by the rest of the country because we appear to be full of climate change deniers, but even the CEO of SUNCOR condemns deniers and politicians who cater to them. A lot of Albertans do acknowledge climate change is a reality despite how we’re painted, but because of the misunderstanding we feel directed at us constantly we tend to react badly and would rather hole up in our bunkers and let the rest of the country freeze in the dark - or melt in the sun as it were. No party speaks to working class rural people. No party makes the attempt to speak to people who are still only grappling with already outdated terminology like “global warming” while they are shoveling snow in August or September. No party is talking about actual grievances that working class people in Alberta face, such as long hours away from home and family or intense isolation that leads to addiction and death, that matter more to people than seemingly hypothetical change in climate that happens Elsewhere, not Here. Parties need to start coming up with concrete solutions that will make the inevitable transition more than just necessary but inclusive and beneficial. No one wants to feel like they have to start from scratch, no one wants to worry about what to do or how it will help. We aren’t used to thinking about solving problems, and we keep putting it on the next generation while we make it even harder for them.  

The more we are criticized the more militaristic the vocabulary becomes, and that’s why we provincially voted for a war room and tax cuts while taking the money from school lunch programs. We rest on our laurels of having the lowest child poverty rate in the country while stealing money from children and blaming their parents for them going hungry. It’s abominable. And a lot of us realize it. And a lot of us still feel as if we have no choice. A lot of progressive voices get drowned out in stifling silence and any change feels like an existential threat. We got ourselves into this mess, but we all need to work together to get out of it. And that means listening to the strongest opposition we’ve had in nearly a half century. That means being grown ups and sitting at the table with the rest of the country. That means fighting the gut reaction to sputter out talking points you were taught to say because it meant protecting your family. That also means that we need to be listened to in return without smugness or patronizing attitudes from politicians or the rest of the country. 

If you want us to switch to alternative energy, you all need to step up and start helping us do that. As long as we feel as if it’s being imposed on us we will struggle and we will fight, but it’s exactly why it’s so important to change the tone of the conversation. Listen to us. Help us. Make us feel like we’re part of the country. Give us the tools we need to be better. Encourage us to be leaders in the energy industry because we love being the best and thrive off healthy competition. Appeal to real, concrete issues for working class people with real concrete solutions. 

yeah. uh. [places mic shakily back on the stand] peace im going to bed, fight me or whatever.