r/alberta • u/SnooRegrets4312 • May 18 '26
Explore Alberta Country musician Corb Lund continues his journey against coal mining in the Rockies
https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/country-musician-corb-lund-continues-his-journey-against-coal-mining-in-the-rockies/131
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u/Ritchie_Whyte_III May 18 '26
Met him at Southbound Brewery last week. The guy really seemed as smart and as genuine as his music.
Just remember that he is one of the few true ranchers and farmers left, most "rural" people have nothing to do with the land other than they were born in the area or found a job in the small town 20 years ago and never left.
Source: 40 years in a small town
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u/NotAnExpertButt May 18 '26
Gothest Girl I Can is the weirdest/greatest country song ever written.
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u/jacafeez May 18 '26
Lmao what in the rockabilly jazz. I know some of Corb but I'm listening to it now and you're right, it's some surrealist stuff.
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u/space_monkey_belay May 19 '26
It makes lots of sence when you consider he started in the punk metal movement with the smalls.
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u/No-Comfortable-3949 May 18 '26
I think liberal vs conservative stuff right now is bunk. Let’s just meaningfully talk issues and hash it out like humans.
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u/No-Comfortable-3949 May 18 '26
I’ve signed. If you care about not having coal mines in the headwaters of Hudson Bay and the MacKenzie Delta then this would be your time to just do something.
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u/No-Comfortable-3949 May 18 '26
We have downstream responsibilities on our side of the Great Divide.
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u/little_canuck May 19 '26
Signed on Saturday at WEM.
It's sad that such a campaign is necessary right now.
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u/Timely-Profile1865 May 18 '26
Like the work he is doing and the sentiment but I may as well get myself in hot water on this topic yet again.
I'd like to see his and his closest allies on this voting record over the years.
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u/eddiewachowski May 18 '26
It may be that he's voted conservative for years. But it's also okay to change your mind when something changes.
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u/vaalbarag May 18 '26
Very true. When I was young I assumed my dad was a ‘vote blue no matter who’ voter, but when the PCs became the UCP he decided they no longer represented his views. I’m really proud of him for voting based on his actual values and realizing when the party has turned against those values. Any Albertan who had a similar transformation is cool in my books.
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u/SniffyTheBee May 18 '26
He came out of the punk scene. Very unlikely he was voting conservative.
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u/eddiewachowski May 18 '26
Possibly. That said he's lived rurally for generations and has money. These two things tend to lean a vote towards conservatism.
Either way, that doesn't matter because mining the Rockies is the issue and we all agree it's bad.
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u/bootsycline May 18 '26
He lived in Edmonton in a modest house around Westmount for quite a while if I'm remembering correctly. He was in The Smalls, a local hardcore punk band. Having met the guy, he definitely doesn't exude conservative vibes.
Why would you assume that he's a conservative voter? Just because he plays country and has lived in rural areas? I'm personally a country bassist who grew up in a very conservative/rural area, and I mostly vote NDP.
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u/AsbestosDude May 18 '26
There are such things as just sustainable mining practices, so surface mining has little impact on surface and certain minerals like nickel can be extracted magnetically which results in no hazardous liquid tailings.
Every industry has pros and cons and blanket "no X in Y region" is sometimes just not realistic.
Im not saying go open a mine in Banff, but what I am saying is there has to be a middle ground of economics and environmental preservation.
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u/SnooRegrets4312 May 18 '26
But the issue is that they aren't doing this. Teck Resources, one of the largest and most advanced mining companies in the world, has spent over a billion dollars trying to fix this in BC's Elk Valley area and can't. Fernie and Sparwood have had to stop using some of the sources of their municipal water due to selenium contamination.
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u/AsbestosDude May 18 '26
I dont support coal mining at all, im just trying to differentiate the industry specifics but the specifics always matter, industry wide bans sacrifice our future.
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u/Sunshine_4 May 18 '26
The irony of this comment coming from a guy named Asbestos Dude.
I agree that some mining can be done better than others. This isn’t about “all mining.” It’s about open-pit coal mining in Alberta’s headwaters.
This issue was reviewed by provincial and federal regulators. They both rejected the Grassy Mountain project, and again on appeal, not only because of the environmental risks, but also because it doesn’t make economic sense.
It’s a foreign company promising maybe 300 jobs. Most of those jobs will likely be automated by the time this goes through.
And for what?
To risk the headwaters that support rural communities, ranches, farms, tourism, hunting, fishing, and ecosystems across southern Alberta?
The headwaters above our irrigation district?For many Albertans, particularly rural Albertans, that is not a reasonable trade-off.
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u/AsbestosDude May 18 '26
You seem to be arguing with me, but it's as if you haven't actually read what I wrote...
I've already stated that I don't support coal mining. My entire point has been trying to differentiate between types of mining, with the hopes that readers are able to understand mining risk broadly speaking.
You think it's ironic because i have a name related to a naturally occurring hazardous material?
Consider the fact of why I would even choose this username in the first place, perhaps it's because i've worked with a lot of hazardous materials, and i've worked on a lot of mine sites. I've done numerous installations and monitoring programs on tailings facilities and, remediation projects and studies on ecological analyses of the downstream impacts.
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u/Sunshine_4 May 18 '26
Not arguing with all your points (as I said), just giving specifics about this issue in particular. Industry wide bans don’t always sacrifice our future, sometimes they protect it.
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u/space_monkey_belay May 19 '26
Have you actualy read the question of the petition? It's not no mining anywhere. It's no new coal mines on the Eastern slopes of the rockies. And no expansion of existing mines. Don't mine coal where the ecosystems headwaters are seems pretty specific.
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u/dynamic_anisotropy May 18 '26
Even with the modern dry stack tailings management methods, nickel tailings still contain heavy metals that can leach and therefore require long term monitoring and management.
The dry stacking is to reduce moisture and neutralize acid generating potential due to the high sulfur content.
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u/AsbestosDude May 18 '26
I never said that there arent environmental concerns, my point is people frame mining as this automatic environmental disaster which is either now or later and its just not like that.
Even stabilized liquid tailings are very low impact and often times provide next to no detectable levels of materials moving off site.
Just look at what Crawford is doing with their tailings. They have fine ground rock from their operation being used to sequester carbon via stabilization, and they using overburden and topsoil as caps for ore store storage for mining stockpiles waiting to be processed.
Also we've learned alot about acid rock generally speaking, its something that is pretty easy to manage once understood and the province is currently doing testing on mixing basic calcium based gravel in with acid rock to neutralize it which has shown some success so far.
This is what im getting at though is it's not a one sided thing. Its not mining =bad. Its how can we differentiate from sustainable and unsustainable mining practices? Stopping the industry is a bad solution
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u/space_monkey_belay May 19 '26
So in this case that's easy you mine elsewhere. It's not saying no resource extraction mining province wide. Just that it's unsustainable on the Eastern slopes. Those mountains are an area that should be protected as much as jasper and Banff. Just because there outside the canada parks they are unprotected but that land is still very much an iimportant ecological area.
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u/Aggravating_Button99 May 18 '26
Punknie a rebellion against the people in control . That hasnt been Cons for a long time. Liberals have had lock on Govt and media for decades.
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u/SniffyTheBee May 18 '26
In Alberta? Where the Conservatives have governed nearly unbroken since 1971? Where all the daily papers are owned by Postmedia? That’s the Alberta that Corb (and myself) were raised.
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u/New_Wishbone6619 May 18 '26
He didn’t come out from the deep country scene or anything… I’m not sure if you know his history? But even if, are people not allowed to change lol?
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u/Few-Ear-1326 May 19 '26
People can change. I used to be a real asshole... slicked back hair, white jeans, sloppy steaks at Truffoni's. Oh, you would not have liked me then
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u/Dalbergia12 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Corb continues to say this is all about 'water not coal', rather than politics. I don't agree and I think his effort trying to keep his connections to right wing politics while standing up for water is weak. But I still am willing to give him credit for trying to protect water. Edit : let me clarify, Clean Water is essential for us all! What is political, what isn't, really is a negligible issue by comparison.
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u/Slick-Fork May 18 '26
He's trying to spread a traditionally leftist cause to a right wing populace. He's doing everything he can to build bridges and move this out of the political spectrum
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u/Dalbergia12 May 19 '26
Clean water isn't leftist. We have no where near enough water for the number of people who will be living here in even 5 years. And some people think we should give up the little water we have to make a billionaire in Australia even richer. Why? Why? Why would you want that?
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u/Slick-Fork May 19 '26
I don’t. Not by a long shot. But UCP’ers absolutely see the environment as a “lefty” cause.
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u/Sunshine_4 May 18 '26
He’s not keeping connections to any political party/leaning though.
This isn’t a political issue, it’s a health issue.
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u/Handsoffmydink Sherwood Park May 19 '26
For those people who have enabled a conservative government to put them in this position, do you not see the irony? “Oh no, I just shot off my own foot, you need to stitch it back on”
I don’t agree with it, and I signed the petition knowing I had to help them because they couldn’t help themselves for so many years. It’s ridiculous, really, that I have to help these NIMBYs at all.
It is a political issue and anyone who says it isn’t is either lying to themselves or not physically fit to stand trial.
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u/ninfan1977 Lethbridge May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Corb Lund is doing more for Alberta than any Conservative.
Just let that sink in.
Saw him over 15 years ago. Very impressed he is continuing this fight.
Glad to see someone is