Bucking Conservatism: Alternative Stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s

With lively, informative contributions by both scholars and activists, Bucking Conservatism highlights the individuals and groups who challenged Alberta’s conservative status quo in the 60s and 70s. Drawing on archival material, newspaper articles, police reports, and interviews, the contributors examine Alberta’s history through the eyes of Indigenous activists protesting discriminatory legislation and unfulfilled treaty obligations, women and lesbian and gay persons standing up to the heteropatriarchy, student activists arguing for a new democracy, and anti-capitalist environmentalists demanding social change.

This book recognizes the lasting influence of Alberta’s noncomformists—those who recognized the need for dissent in a province defined by wealth and right-wing politics—and leaves a set of questions, perhaps sobering ones, for contemporary activists.