>>FEATURE
AGAINST THE GRAIN: AN IRREVERENT VIEW OF ALBERTA
Catherine Ford
McClelland & Stewart, 272 pp.
Former Calgary Herald columnist Catherine Ford has to be one of Alberta’s most colourful, lively personalities. In a recent interview about her new book, Against the Grain, the first thing Ford says after introductions is, "Oh, thank God, a print interview! I can let my stomach hang out."
I don’t stop laughing for most of our interview. Ford has an extremely charismatic presence. She has a boisterous laugh, swears freely, has dramatic facial expressions and is constantly gesticulating with her hands. And she’s so outrageous and seemingly fearless about uttering any opinion that she wins you over in 30 seconds.
When asked about that fearlessness, Ford says, "I was born that way. I’m serious. I was born to do this job. I can remember when I was three years old my mother saying, ‘Catherine, little girls aren’t like that. They aren’t loud and pushy and mouthy and brassy.’ Tried to change. Didn’t work. Whoops."
Ford’s first book essentially consists of her opinions and feelings towards Alberta, her home. She tackles a wide range of subjects including religion, the Kyoto accord, gun control, federal and provincial politics, Alberta’s lack of compassion for the poor and overdevelopment in national parks. She’s an engaging, passionate writer and there are many witty, hilarious, but also astute observations in Against the Grain.
If there’s a criticism to be made, it’s that the book lacks a coherent focus. Ford jumps from subject to subject so quickly it almost gives you whiplash trying to keep up. There’s no connecting argument that sustains itself through each individual chapter. But Ford says that was intentional and she’s always aimed for a conversational style.
"If you’ve noticed, I have a really, really bad habit of going off on a tangent and the book reflects that," she says. "The book rambles and talks about different things…. It’s my opinion, my curiosity."
Ford says she wanted to help dispel the negative stereotypes about Alberta held by the rest of Canada.
"I’m really hoping that people outside the province will understand we’re not just a monolithic, redneck, right-wing, anti-gay, anti-gun control, anti-same-sex marriage province. We’re not all rednecks. We’re not all big C conservatives," she says.
The strongest parts of the book concern Alberta politics, which Ford has an intimate knowledge of. And the personal anecdotes she intersperses among the chapters are so interesting that you often wish you were reading a memoir of her life and career in journalism rather than her perspective on Alberta. At different points she describes being held up at gunpoint in Poland and how the Catholic Church bullied her after her husband’s death because of a line in his obituary that asked people to donate to his favourite charity, the Calgary Birth Control Association.
Ford began her journalism career at a time when women were still a token presence in the newsroom. "It was very male-dominated and the biggest compliment you could pay a woman, a business woman in 1964-65, was, ‘Gee, you act just like a man.’ Oh gosh, thanks. A man in a short skirt. Isn’t that fun? But it was hurtful and it was like beating your head against a brick wall all the time. ‘Don’t call me a girl. I’m not a girl.’ ‘Don’t put your hand up my skirt. That’s not acceptable.’ ‘Don’t pat me. Don’t touch me.’"
Ford says when she worked as a reporter in Ontario, her male colleagues were paid more because "Joe has a wife and children to support and you’re a single girl."
But despite all the bullshit in the early years, Ford toughed it out and established a successful career in the business. She still feels that journalism is "the best thing in the world you can do fully clothed." Her passion for the underdog has remained strong throughout her career and it’s a constant presence in her book.
"There’s an old saying, ‘Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable.’ We don’t do much comforting of the afflicted in this province and I think that’s a blot on the media," she says.
Ford believes it’s time that "left-wing" and "liberal" stopped being perceived as negative terms in Alberta.
"I think we should recapture the flag here. We should recapture the notion of left-wing…. It’s time we took back the notion of being kind to people, being aware of your responsibility for the less fortunate, knowing that big government isn’t necessarily good, but government programs that benefit all of us are necessary. These are the things people should be promoting." |
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