Hedwig and the Angry Inch: A perfect way to wash away the aftertaste of an Albertan PC landslide (with some bright spots, actually)

To my loyal public, I have to apologise for my last post, which was probably the most boring thing I’ve ever written. If this blog devolves into a review of blogging software, all is lost, and I’ll be the first person to admit it.

Luckily, interesting things–besides new web browsers, which, I know, aren’t all that interesting–have been happening recently. Too much interesting stuff. First, it’s time for me to acknowledge the 9000-pound elephant in the room (an average adult Indian elephant cow weighs 4500kg, so the next time somebody refers to “the 2000 pound elephant in the room,” ask them where they found such a tiny elephant) and talk about the recent Alberta election.

Okay, my side lost, big time. The final tally was 72 PC (that’s “Progressive Conservative,” for you Americans, not the other PC, or the other other PC), 9 Liberal, 2 New Democrat, 0 Green, 0 Wild Rose Alliance. This despite a predicted breakout for the Liberals, who saw their seats decrease from 16. NDs lose official party status, and we now have “King Eddie” at the helm for at least four years and likely much, much longer. What’s a loyal, generally optimistic “Grit” (”Grit” is slang for “Liberal”; not sure where it comes from… and Wikipedia comes to the rescue) to do?

I try to be a “glass is half full” person, and part of that is managing the fact that I’ve been on the outside of the political majority just about my whole life, in one way or another. Even my tenure in Ontario was during a conservative government there. And I’ve survived and haven’t gone native and switched my allegiances. Anyway, here are my “silver linings”:

1. Central Calgary is now one Liberal bloc: We won Calgary Currie (my riding, south of downtown, which was already liberal since the last election), Buffalo (which comprises all of downtown proper), and Mountain View (which comprises the neighbourhood just north of downtown). I like this, since I’ve almost always been sequestered in small- or large-l “liberal” strongholds, and it suits me to live this way. Calgary had one Liberal MLA when we moved here, then NONE, then three, then four, and now five (with Varsity and McCall, in the NW university area and the ethnically diverse, immigrant-majority NE). Still a minority, but as long as I can feel with increasing confidence that my neighbourhood exemplifies what’s Canadian and urban, I’m happy. That’s positive change.

2. The Wild Rose Alliance, which was selling itself and being sold as the “real” conservative alternative, was repudiated. They got votes, yes, but did not and will probably never get enough outside of a core of social conservatives (who are in no way shape or form a majority in this province, no matter what the rest of the country is committed to believing). They had one seat in the last legislature; now they have zero, and I’m happy about that.

3. I really don’t see this election as an affirmation or a mandate for the PCs. I see it more as an expression of the willingness of the voting Albertans (more on the “voting” part in a minute) to give the Stelmach government the opportunity for a try-out. Stelmach was not an elected Premier; he became Premier when he was voted in as PC party leader last year. Now, maybe, his support will grow or erode under the auspices of a “real” administration. To be honest, and I hate to admit this publicly, I don’t despise Stelmach the same way I despised Ralph Klein and his corrupt, bullying incompetence. Stelmach did some nice things: The province-wide smoking ban for one; refusing to demean same-sex marriage for another; in American terms, he’s actually a bit left of centre. But that doesn’t mean I’m voting for him; it just means I’m not as depressed as I could be.

4. This is not a “mandate” for Stelmach for another important reason: Nobody voted. Well, 41% of voters did, and the ones that did were OLD (Brian and I saw this firsthand at the polling place- sheesh!), and old people in Alberta remember the NEP and still see “Liberal” as “poison.” Yes, they’re idiots who cannot understand the difference between a provincial party in 2008 and a federal one in 1980, but they vote, so they make the rules. I have a conspiracy theory about this: Voters who’d vote against the ruling party are TAUGHT not to vote by media, local and national, who have a vested interest–the country as a whole has this interest–in Alberta remaining conservative. This has the effect of cowing people who’d vote for change because, and we’re told this from day 1 moving here, “there’s no point.” There IS a point; strategic voting would work in the cities at least, and we CAN change this province. Albertans are no more small-c conservative than average Canadians on any any issue except maybe Kyoto (and can you blame them?); Calgarians look exactly like Torontonians on social issues (they did on same-sex marriage but the media never told anybody, because the media NEED Calgary and Alberta to accept the myth about themselves or else regime changes and poof goes cheap subsidized oil); we DO have the power. I wish more people understood this.

So go matters political. Now, Brian and I went to see Sage Theatre’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch last night at the Pumphouse.

Last night (a Thursday, mind) was, like most of its performances, sold out. The film version is one that we both love, a lot, fantastic rock score and a great story, but it was originally a play, and I was curious how it would look.

And we both loved this production! It works beautifully, despite–maybe because of–being staged in the small confines of the Doolittle Theatre space at Pumphouse. It’s basically a concert peppered with monologue, and the actor cast as Hedwig (Geoffrey Ewert) really channeled John Cameron Mitchell well, right down to his body type. He also had a great voice. In even better voice was Jamie Konchak as Yitzhak, superb singer. The animations were done by a local artist, not copied from the film, and there are a lot of local references (”Tommy Gnosis is playing at the Pengrowth Saddledome right this minute”) to keep track of. I found this a cleansing and emotional experience, and not only because there are some songs in Hedwig that cause me to lose it, “Midnight Radio” especially. It’s also because after another exercise in apathy with this week’s election and being told, again, how “conservative” we all are here, to sit through some ribald, queer-friendly theatre in a packed house felt like baptism to me.