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Eileen Banks

Recently, Jason Kenney showed up in Rimbey.

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He tweeted about Martha and Henry. And then, on a farm a few kilometres from my home, he denounced Bill 6 and Rachel Notley.

It was a simple message. Kenney wants Albertans to believe that he’s the voice of severely normal Albertans. He’s enlisted Alberta’s famous fictional couple to underline the point.

A few kilometres from where Kenney live-streamed his speech about an “ideologically driven agenda” that’s destroying a way of life, my partner and I lived an existence that would make Martha and Henry proud.

For his entire life, my partner bailed the hay and grew the grain to feed 100 cow-calf pairs on 722 acres east of Rimbey. Food was put on the table, kids sent off to university, bills were paid on time. Three generations were sustained without off-farm income.

It was often gruelling work. We hurried when storm clouds threatened swaths of dry hay, then watched the skies open up as the last strands hit the bailer. We endured cold snaps during calving season, bringing vulnerable young calves into our kitchen to keep them warm.