by Shawn Whatley
«Professor Barry Cooper is an Albertan. This fact transcends location. It speaks to a prairie self-understanding, a prairie myth, that stands apart and distinct from the Laurentian myth. For example, Cooper says bilingual Canada is a "huge myth outside Laurentian Canada."
Professor Cooper argues that George Grant did not understand the prairie mindset. He was a Laurentian, and as such, Grant was clueless about Alberta. He reflects the Garrison mindset of the Laurentians: Alberta is a place you go to get stuff.
Cooper thinks Alberta independence is an inevitability. He cannot see any way to meld the two myths (mythoi) together. They are chalk and cheese.
We touch on education, technology, and political ideologies. Professor Cooper promotes a non-ideological stance. Perhaps in the future we can tackle whether this is even possible. It seems to assume a fact-value distinction, value relativism, which assumes what it seeks to avoid. But again, we will have to pursue this another day.
Professor Cooper points us to prairie history written by historians who actually understand the west. Stop reading only history written by Laurentians who do not understand their subject.
Barry Cooper's influence on Canadian political thought has been huge.»