Petro-patriotism On The March

Josh McEwen’s camping trailer attracts stares when he escapes into Alberta’s wilderness. He wants it that way. Campers stop, squint and often remark at the bumper stickers on his trailer and truck—“I love Canadian oil and gas,” with heart and maple leaf emblems. “I’ve had everything from people giving me thumbs up to asking where I got the stickers, the shirts, all the way to ‘I can’t believe you would advertise something like that,’ ” the Calgary petroleum engineer says.

Merchandise bearing the petro-positive logo has existed for about six years, but around Alberta lately it has become remarkable for its near ubiquity. People sport it walking through Calgary’s downtown mall on casual Fridays, or waiting on transit platforms. It’s on the sides of office buildings and highway billboards. It’s the uniform for a Little League baseball team in Drayton Valley. It’s on the welcome sign to the Spirit River rural district. It was on a toddler’s onesie when the manager of an Alberta produce stand announced the birth of his newborn son to the Facebook world.

On a sunny afternoon in June, McEwen and his black hoodie joined a sea of such logos at what organizers billed as Canada’s largest-ever pro-oil rally—between 3,000 and 4,000 people. Downtown energy workers flocked to the venue, the Calgary Stampede grounds; McEwen says his company encouraged staff to go on their lunch break. A double-length fuel truck parked by the crowd bore the “I heart” logo, as did countless T-shirts and placards, with variations expressing pride for pipelines, oil sands and natural gas. The pro-industry flag-waving got literal with the miniature flags that organizers handed out, featuring the heart-and-leaf logo bracketed by thick red vertical stripes.

“We should be so proud of ourselves. We’re speaking up,” rally emcee Cody Battershill proclaimed. “We’re taking action to take back our economy and take back the conversation.”

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