The Edmonton Diaspora.

Look, there are some genuinely interesting and eyebrow raising Facebook and Twitter updates out there, but I think we mostly agree that the lion’s share of them are banal. “Wow, Craig hates the new 50 cent increase of hummus at Safeway – fucking outstanding, man!”

But we all update more than we should, and I’m as guilty as the next sweaty mammal hunched over the keyboard in a Space Jam tank top and boxer shorts. For me, I think it’s about the comments. It feels good when people take the time to read and respond. It’s a validation – maybe a pathetic and sad one, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

And I’ll tell you something – you want comments; just tell people you’re moving cities. They’ll eagerly respond to that comment. Trust me.

That being said I have, in fact, recently moved back to my hometown of Edmonton after a three-year stint in Vancouver. Some of the comments expressed surprise, most were very kind – either describing sadness at my leaving or a warm welcome back for those in Vancouver or Edmonton, respectively. Almost all wondered why.

Now for those you of you proud of your heritage and roots in the City of Champions, you might bristle and the gall of those west coasters to immediately question one’s motives for heading back to Alberta instead of expressing envy or enthusiasm, but I don’t think they meant it like that. I do think, however, that places like Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are seen as destinations whereas Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg are seen as starting off or departure points. We all love the fact that Joni Mitchell was born in Alberta, but she didn’t stick around for long.

Now, granted Vancouver’s a rad city (I don’t know anything about Toronto or Montreal). And simply put: it’s a lot prettier than Edmonton. Comparing the cities based on physical beauty is a slanted affair. I always had a crush on Vancouver. It seemed cosmopolitan, but I did grow up in Whitecourt, Alberta so a cardboard box full of rain soaked Oui magazines would’ve seemed like a cultural wellspring. Still though, Vancouver was a place that seemed exciting, modern, varied, current. I felt, when visiting it as a kid that I could’ve been from there. That maybe I was born in the wrong place.

My three years in Marijuana city were a blast, although I was feeling pretty beaten up by the place when I finally decided to move late this past summer. There are a handful of people in that town which I truly do delight in and hope will be comrades/confidants/character witnesses for a long time to come. But I think, like a lot of crushes, she was good from afar but far from good, you know? Forgive me if I sound dramatic, I certainly don’t intend to convince you the city ‘broke’ me or anything ridiculous like that. It’s my fault; really, I made the place a Band-Aid. I thought just getting to Vancouver was success or an accomplishment. It is a step in the right direction, but that’s like saying a politician winning the election has completed his journey when really that’s when his job begins. Moving cities is not an end. What you sap from the city is – this is, also, when I will argue that if your pursuits are more nebulous or right-brained in nature that you should place yourself in a city over a town, just to have access to as many avenues of success as possible.

So, why am I back in Edmonton? There are a few things that precipitated my trot back to Oil Country. Some are personal and boring to others and not that I feel like broadcasting. But more germane to this essay, it turns out people do make the place. There was nothing being done by me in Vancouver that was geographically specific to the Lower Mainland. I then realized that the humorous, kind, folk that are my support group here are something that doesn’t need to be left that I missed them terribly and that, I may have crushed on Vancouver but Edmonton is marriage material. And by Edmonton, I mean – of course – how I feel when I’m here.

Will I stay here forever? I have no damn idea. Ostensibly, making shitty movies took me west in 2006. Turns out you can do that anywhere – and in a far less saturated market than Van. Ditto for my day job. However again, the point I fear you may feel bludgeoned with by now, is that I was craving home and a chuckling familiarity.

Also, there’s something about not being a destination city that behooves Edmonton. In a city that sees itself as cool or coveted, it can come with an inborn pretension, competition and tiresome community patriotism. There’s something pure, unwashed and communal about this town. I’ve never felt the cold shoulder here, even the drunks seem friendlier.

Listen to your heart, kids. Geography is all about bragging, like that purse, like those jeans. I think you can be more and where you choose to evolve past the urbane cachet is the least relevant part of it.