Our little Towns and Villages, First Nations Communities and Hamlets are essential to the provincial economy. So why are "we" letting "they" treat us like we are the "country cousins?"

“Country cousin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/country%20cousin. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.

Lacking sophistication, and it shows. Pfft.

It is true that people who choose to live in small communities may be different from those who choose to live in the city. One is no better than the other; they just live differently. You might say the same about any group. For example, those who live on assistance in the inner city likely live differently than those who live in single-family dwellings in the suburbs of a large urban center. That doesn't mean one person should have more value than the other. I would agree; people-wise, we all have value.

However, one core difference exists between small-population communities and larger urban centers, and it is almost always dismissed. We live where the revenue is generated.

The mines, oil and gas, cows, chickens, and pork chops are all out here, as are the grains that feed us all. Miners, farmers, truckers, and many labourers live in these little economic hubs supporting entire industries and provinces. We are essential because we produce revenue.

Yet we need to duke it out and compete for funding to maintain our infrastructure and continue to provide a basic level of service essential for people to live here. We keep having to apologize for what we don't have and, in some cases, go into deep debt as a community to provide the services to attract the people we need to deliver our services.

The government provides funding per capita. Consider that for a moment. A town with less than a thousand people provides the labour force and bedrooms for their families, creates enough wealth to meet the community needs and support the provincial needs, but has to apply to get back a teeny small amount of the revenue they produce.

Their infrastructure ages out, while local people with little say in provincial matters pay increasing property taxes to pay for the lagoon and water treatment systems. Other plans die on the vine while we are just trying to keep the taps on and toilets working.

In the meantime, we feel lucky if we can access a grant to provide the essential services. I wonder if anyone has done any mathing? What could losing the little towns, villages, and communities cost? How would it impact the trucking rates, storage rates, and all of the rates?

When I was growing up, most people thought it was inevitable that we would all work in the city. Most of us tried it, and many preferred returning to living in a small town. Not because we are country cousins and too unsophisticated to live in the city, but because we prefer the lesser crime rate, the lack of homeless people propped into our building entries, and how people lean in and help each other. It is just NICE out here.

Lots of us have degrees, and lots of us are educated out of the wazoo. There are more opportunities for those who want to be self-employed, and housing is affordable. It is a great place to live until we have to raise funds for our infrastructure on the backs of fewer than 500 households. Our provincial and federal governments will let us struggle to pay for an essential service that provides the labour force that creates the revenue for the entire province! When we cannot do it anymore, and the town dies, we might not move to the city; we will move to the next town with a lifestyle similar to the one we love.

Making the smallest populations go without providing the necessities of life while scooping up all the revenue they produce seems counterintuitive. If I had little hives producing revenue like many small populations do, I would consider what they make as part of how we should fund them. Instead of stressing out our little communities, some of the revenue we produce here should go to maintaining the infrastructure to keep the revenue flowing. Then, we could spend some of our dollars on the other things we value, like health care.

Is your small town really friendly?

Spoiler Alert: Many communities are anything but unless you fit the profile.

People are friendly to each other, especially their neighbours and friends who they know well, agree with their politics, and go to the same church. They are more tolerant of those who have kids who went to school with their kids and to those who were raised there. They love those with the correct mix of humility and success. There is nothing like a small town where you can band together and fundraise, build facilities, and ease the burdens of the injured, the unfortunate, and the sick. They have huge hearts until they see a threat. They still band together, but the outcome is anything but friendly.

If you are different, funny-looking, from a country that feels threatening or a neighbouring town the locals think is snotty, your small-town living experience might be anything but friendly. There is a weird sense of entitlement among people who spend their entire lives in one place. Locals regard their opinions as legitimate because they see each other as having greater local power and privilege than the newbies. They have been here longer and, therefore, think their opinions hold greater weight. Any change to that, even a positive change, can be seen as disrupting the status quo. Nobody likes change or that feeling that we are out of our element. The Disney Animated special said it best in a song from Beauty and the Beast, "We don't like what we don't understand; in fact it scares us, and the monster is mysterious at least...bring your guns and your knives, protect your children and your wives...we'll save our village and our lives, Kill the Beast!"

You hear a lot about "old school" in those communities while the infrastructure crumbles under them. You hear a great deal of resistance to immigration, where the Council tries to attract immigrants, preferably English-speaking Caucasians, who won't want to change a thing about the community and are willing to forgo everything they ever valued while at the same time, expecting them to invest their life savings into your community. I am particularly annoyed by comments that go, "When in Canada, you should act like a Canadian," assuming, of course, that everyone is Canadian the way they are Canadian.

I know there are Canadians who do not speak English in their homes, some Canadians do not celebrate the same holidays that others do, and there are different values even within the smallest population. For some reason, though, some people within those communities think they set the standard for all in the country and defend their point of view in a way that I can describe as not friendly—maybe even a little threatening.

So, when we say we are 'friendly,' are we really? And really, who needs who? We aren't having 13 babies per family anymore, and our systems are built on the need for employees. Thoughts?

Here is what I wish I could write in response to asinine (meaning "extremely stupid or foolish") social media posts directed at municipal leadership.

A quick review of social media pages shows that the population's expectations of Council and Administration are far out of line with their legislated roles and responsibilities. I've read blatant lies, partial truths, and other weird things that people say on social media and in print that make me want to ask, "Where did you get the idea it was Council's job to:

1. Anticipate the things you need.

2. Fund your wants.

3. Make staff work overtime to support your fundraiser.

4. Discriminate against one group to satisfy the wants of another.

5. Take your abuse because you think you are right.

6. Listen to you yell because you do not, at your age, know how to handle your frustration.

7. Take things further when you don't sign your name to a complaint.

8. Be bullied and harassed in the office and the street.

9. Be subjected to slanderous comments on social media.

10. Sit there docilely while you take out every frustration on them?

While it is true that taxpayers' dollars pay their salaries, no employer would be allowed to talk to staff the way many people feel entitled to speak to their elected leadership and administration. We pay the RCMP, too. Would you care to try assaulting them in their foyer? Will you please videotape it if you do?

While handling complaints is an occupational hazard, handling personal attacks shouldn't be. So stop it. You look bad, and you make your community look bad.

PS. Asshole is spelled with 2 (two) "s"es.