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Philipps doesn’t think about himself an overtly political songwriter, nor did he see the high-profile struggle to reinstate the 1976 coal-mining coverage as a partisan difficulty. However when he was requested to take part within the live performance and bigger marketing campaign, he instantly mentioned sure.
“As an Albertan, I simply don’t understand how you couldn’t,” he says.
Phillips is only one of all kinds of entertainers who leant their voice to the trigger.
On Monday, Alberta’s UCP authorities did a sudden about-face on the difficulty, with Vitality Minister Sonya Savage saying it could reinstate the coal-mining coverage that it quietly rescinded final spring. This comes lower than per week after Premier Jason Kenney appeared to double-down on the federal government’s stance in a radio tackle, saying the 1976 coverage was out of date and that trendy environmental protections had been far simpler.
The change would have allowed coal mining in delicate lands within the Foothills and Rocky Mountains which had beforehand been banned. Critics mentioned the choice to permit mining, notably within the Crowsnest Go area, would threaten wildlife, watersheds and air high quality within the space.
The Siksika Nation and Kainai Nation and native ranchers launched authorized motion in opposition to the federal government. City councils in Excessive River, Turner Valley, Canmore, Lethbridge, Nanton and Longview had been amongst these voicing opposition in southern Alberta.
So it might be naive to recommend it was the activist artists that turned the tide and altered the federal government’s thoughts. Nonetheless, it was a difficulty that appeared to draw the eye of quite a few artists of varied stripes. Some, resembling singers ok.d. lang and Jann Arden, have spoken out in opposition to the UCP previously. However artists that we don’t usually hear from on political points additionally weighed in. That included Terry Grant, the previous star of the reality-TV collection Mantracker and a real-life wilderness skilled, and Heartland actress Amber Marshall. Excessive-profile nation stars Corb Lund and Paul Brandt additionally took a stand in opposition to open-pit coal mining.
