SUNDRE – A focus group led by researchers from the University of Alberta who recently came to Sundre are exploring Albertans views on ethnicity and immigration.
A team from the university’s department of political science recently conducted sessions in Cochrane, as well.
The study is part of a larger effort to gain greater insight on Alberta’s political culture and attitudes, said Feo Snagovsky, an assistant professor.
“Our team has been doing focus groups around Alberta for I guess five years,” Snagovsky told the Albertan.
“We’ve had lots of different kinds of conversations with folks all around the province,” he said, citing such examples as Fort McMurray, Lethbridge, St. Paul, Caroline and Rocky Mountain House.
While many have also been held in Calgary and Edmonton, he said the research group from the university’s department of political science which is called Common Ground, also endeavours to obtain perspectives beyond the Highway 2 corridor.
“We have conversations around a number of issues around identity and politics in Alberta,” he said.
The team was in Sundre on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Mountain View Inn and Suites. While about half a dozen people had been expected, only a few ended up being able to attend, he said.
“We had more folks in our other focus groups.”
Getting a sense of Albertans
An exercise inviting participants to draw their impression of an Albertan was involved in previously held discussions.
“Most folks draw either a cowboy, a farmer or a rancher, an oil worker,” he said, adding those focus groups were about asking people to see the world through this person’s eyes and to consider their experience.
“That helps us get a sense of what the political culture of a place like Alberta is,” he said.
The people who participated in the more recent set of conversations such as the one held in Sundre were invited to share their thoughts on the matters of ethnicity and immigration, he said.
“We were talking about how people see race and ethnicity and how they feel about things like immigration,” he said.
“We know that ethnicity and immigration are sort of hot topics if you follow politics south of the border,” he said.
“In some of the conversations we’re having now, we’re trying to understand to what extent some of those ideas have bled over into Canada.”
Bridging political divides
The research team, he added, is engaged in several different projects.
“One of our goals is to help bring Albertans together who might otherwise be separated by things like partisanship, the rural divide,” he said.
The researchers also aim to help shed light on who Albertans are per public opinion polling, along the way hoping to “manage the disconnect between who Albertans actually are – in terms of how they view politics (based on) what surveys can tell us – and who they think they are in terms of where people think the average Albertan is.”
More simply put, the team aspires to separate tropes from reality, he said.
“Our goal is to understand political culture and attitudes.”
Affective polarization
Part of that involves trying to understand what people value and how they act in the political sphere, he said.
“One of the things that we’re really concerned about is ... called affective polarization.”
There are different kinds of political polarization, such as ideological, which Snagovsky described as when people fiercely disagree on ideology.
“There’s no evidence that’s the case in Alberta,” he said.
“Alberta is actually quite a centrist place; most folks are kind of right around in the middle.”
What the researchers are more concerned about is affective polarization, which is how people become polarized against others.
“It’s how they feel about who they think is the other side involved,” he said.
“For example, if you look at Alberta’s two main political parties – the UCP and the NDP – supporters of each party show really negative (attitudes) towards each other,” he explained.
“That’s not something that’s historically been the case. People could have really fierce ideological and policy disagreements and still act civilly and respectfully to one another.”
U.S. a cautionary tale
While affective polarization has to some extent always existed in Alberta, it seems to have gotten worse, he said.
Responding to research findings from the U.S. where polling data from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University indicates nearly half of the electorate thinks members of the opposing party are not only politically wrong but outright evil, he said, “I don’t think Alberta is quite as bad.”
Yet left unchecked, affective polarization could lead to a similar outcome.
“Canadians often look south border and think, ‘Well, that could never happen here. That’s just those wacky Americans,’” he said. “And I don’t think there’s any evidence that’s true. We’ve got to be really mindful and work really hard to make sure it doesn’t happen here.”
Albertans eager to share views
So far, the researchers have yet to encounter any reluctance from the communities they’ve visited.
“People in general have been extremely welcoming,” he said.
“People are typically stoked to have these conversations.”
The biggest hurdle the team faces is getting the word out to entice even more people to participate, he said.
“It’s mostly logistics that have been the barrier.”
But despite holding different perspectives, Albertans enjoy the opportunity to discuss their opinions provided the discourse is respectful.
“People have really diverse views but I think usually are quite open to talking to people – even who disagree with them – as long as they come into a place of good faith,” he said. “I think most people come away from the focus groups having definitely enjoyed the conversation.”
Although the team keeps confidential specific details discussed during focus groups as participants are assured anonymity, the researchers will eventually release the study’s findings.
“We do publish academic papers, but we also publish public-facing research briefs,” he said, adding such information can be found on the research group’s website www.commongroundpolitics.ca as well as their Substack and social media.
“We sometimes go back to communities where we’ve done focus groups to share the results of our research,” he added. “If we get enough folks from a community saying they want us back, we’re happy to come.”
The latest focus groups in Cochrane, Sundre, Caroline and Rocky were the last ones on the docket until next spring, when the team is looking to go to Grande Prairie.