Bucking Conservatism Alternative Stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s

With lively, informative contributions by both scholars and activists, Bucking Conservatism highlights the individuals and groups who challenged Alberta’s conservative status quo in the 1960s and 70s. Drawing on archival records, newspaper articles, police reports, and interviews, the contributors examine Alberta’s history through the eyes of Indigenous activists protesting discriminatory legislation and unfulfilled treaty obligations, women and lesbian and gay persons standing up to the heteropatriarchy, student activists seeking to forge a new democracy, and anti-capitalist environmentalists demanding social change. This book uncovers the lasting influence of Alberta’s noncomformists—those who recognized the need for dissent in a province defined by wealth and right-wing politics—and poses thought-provoking questions for contemporary activists.

Bucking Conservatism is a must read for everyone interested in peering behind the stereotypes of Alberta conservatism, for a look at the grassroots rebels, radicals, queers, feminists, hippies, Indigenous activists, socialists, and environmentalists who tweaked the noses of the political elites and their business interests. This rich collection introduces us to a range of individuals who made change, defied convention, and spoke truth to power during Alberta’s 'long sixties.' Bucking Conservatism is a welcome chinook of revisionist social and political history that will resonate with scholars, students, and readers. Beautifully written, bristling with verve, insight and political nuance, this anthology deserves a wide audience of readers.

Valerie Korinek, author of Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930–1985

The chapters of Bucking Conservatism recall the ‘Long Sixties’ as a time of small, diverse eruptions, often local ones, through which Albertans asserted rights, opened day care centres, stood down a bulldozer and a freeway, experimented in painting and poetry, and articulated a contemporary ethic of conservation.

Roger Epp, author of We Are All Treaty People: Prairie Essays

Bucking Conservatism astutely captures the tension in Canadian history and politics as it explores how Albertans have wrestled with the inherent contradictions of what it means to be a progressive Albertan.

Erika Dyck, co-author of Managing Madness

Through a discussion of significant moments and important movements, such as Indigenous rights, gay rights, New Leftism, and the counterculture, Bucking Conservatism offers a thoughtful and nuanced reassessment of Alberta's history and convincingly demonstrates that progressive politics helped shape the province in important ways. This book is a must-read for those interested in understanding the complex history of politics in Alberta.

Roberta Lexier, co-editor of Party of Conscience: The CCF, The NDP, and Social Democracy in Canada

About the Editors

Leon Crane Bear is Siksika and a treaty Indian, as well as a graduate of the University of Lethbridge. Larry Hannant is a Canadian historian specializing in twentieth-century political dissent. Karissa Robyn Patton is a historian of gender, sexuality, health, and activism, and is a Canada Research Chair postdoctoral fellow at Vancouver Island University.

Reviews

[A] beautiful mosaic of activist history for many reasons. It’s an intersectional collection that takes for granted the links between social justice struggles. It’s well-written, well-organized and insightful. [. . .] Groups embarking on future projects will benefit from the robust list of references that marks each piece. [. . .] Bucking Conservatism offers a blueprint, a model, for others who want to continue this work, in whatever time period.

—Joe Kadi, Alberta Views

With such a breadth of subjects, there really is something for every reader in the book. This is a book I can imagine picking up off the shelf again and again and looking at for ideas and inspiration.

—Belinda Crowson, Canadian Journal of History

Table of Contents

1. Preface
2. Acknowledgements
3. Introduction / Larry Hannant
4. Part I.  Indigenous Activism and Resistance
   1. Introduction / Leon Crane Bear
   2. 1. Indian Status as the Foundation of Justice / Leon Crane Bear
   3. 2. Teaching It Our Way: Blue Quills and the Demand for Indigenous Educational Autonomy / Tarisa Dawn Little
   4. 3. “We are on the outside looking in [. . .]. But we are still Indians”: Alberta Indigenous Women Fighting for Status Rights, 1968–85 / Corinne George
5. Part II.  Defying Heteropatriarchy
   1. Introduction / Karissa Robyn Patton
   2. 4. Fed Up with the Status Quo: Alberta Women’s Groups Challenge Maternalist Ideology and Secure Provincial Funding for Daycare, 1964–71 / Tom Langford
   3. 5. Gay Liberation in Conservative Calgary / Nevena Ivanović, Kevin Allen, and Larry Hannant
   4. 6. Contraception, Community, and Controversy: The Lethbridge Birth Control and Information Centre, 1972–78 / Karissa Robyn Patton
   5. 7. “Ultra Activists” in a “Very Closeted Place”: The Early Years of Edmonton’s Gay Alliance Toward Equality, 1972–77 / Erin Gallagher-Cohoon
6. Part III.  Doing Politics in a New Way
   1. Introduction / Larry Hannant
   2. 8. Daring to Be Left in Social Credit Alberta: Recollections of a Young New Democratic Party Activist in the 1960s / Ken Novakowski
   3. 9. Socialist Survival: The Woodsworth-Irvine Socialist Fellowship and the Preservation of Radical Thought in Alberta / Mack Penner
   4. 10. Learning Marxism from Tom Flanagan: Left-Wing Activism at the University of Calgary in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s / Larry Hannant
   5. 11. Drop In, Hang Out, and Crash: Outreach Programs for Transient Youth and War Resisters in Edmonton / Baldwin Reichwein and PearlAnn Reichwein
   6. 12. Solidarity on the Cricket Pitch: Confronting South African Apartheid in Edmonton / Larry Hannant
7. Part IV.  Countercultural and Environmental Radicalism
   1. Introduction / Larry Hannant
   2. 13. From Nuclear Disarmament to Raging Granny: A Recollection of Peace Activism and Environmental Advocacy in the 1960s and 1970s / Louise Swift
   3. 14. The Mill Creek Park Movement and Citizen Activism in Edmonton, 1964–75 / PearlAnn Reichwein and Jan Olson
   4. 15. “A Lot of Heifer-Dust”: Alberta Maverick Marion Nicoll and Abstract Art / Jennifer E. Salahub
   5. 16. Land and Love in the Rockies: The Poetic Politics of Sid Marty and Headwaters / PearlAnn Reichwein
   6. 17. Death of a Delta / Tom Radford
8. Conclusion: Bucking Conservatism, Then and Now / Karissa Robyn Patton and Mack Penner
9. List of Contributors

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