Subhead:Show your pride in Alberta's contributions in helping build the modern world by providing the metallurgical coal used to create steel.# YouTube-embed:KRZCrJjmgNU Steel builds the modern world: bridges, hospitals, r ailways, even wind turbines. But steel doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It starts with metallurgical coal, and Alberta happens to have some of the best deposits of it anywhere on Earth. So, when activists say Alberta shouldn’t develop it… I have to say something pretty simple. Alberta digs coal , a nd we’re proud of it If you grew up anywhere near the oil patch in this province, there's a song you know. It’s four in the morning outside some extended-stay hotel in Grande Prairie or Bonnyville. There’s frost on the windshield of a diesel pickup warming up before shift. And blasting out of the speakers? “ The Roughest Neck Around .” That song is practically the anthem of the oil patch. A tribute to the people who built modern Alberta with their hands and their backs. People like my dad, and just about every single man in my family. People who sacrifice being at home to work in forbidding conditions to earn a living, to give us something we all need to live comfortably. The line that always stuck with me is the one where he says the rig hand “ brings the power to the people. ” And that’s exactly what Alberta’s resource workers do. Oil, gas, coal. All of it powers the modern world. So, imagine my surprise when the man who wrote that song — Corb Lund — launched a campaign opposing coal development in Alberta. Look, I want to be clear about something. I’ve seen Corb Lund in concert many times. I’m a huge fan. And honestly, if all of my musical tastes had to perfectly align with my political views, my playlist would get pretty small, pretty fast. Most of us don’t listen to music that way. We listen because the songs feel true. Because they tell the story of where we come from, and Corb Lund has always done that for Alberta. Which is why this whole thing actually makes me a little sad.