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Why the heck would she post that?
It really is bizarre, especially if you wanted to eventually lead a province that has probably the most Ukrainians outside of Ukraine itself.

It's not like it's an old post and just aged badly. It was posted well after they took Crimea; the Russians were absolutely seizing territory and funding fighters in Donbas at that point.
 
It really is bizarre, especially if you wanted to eventually lead a province that has probably the most Ukrainians outside of Ukraine itself.

It's not like it's an old post and just aged badly. It was posted well after they took Crimea; the Russians were absolutely seizing territory and funding fighters in Donbas at that point.
I don't know in absolute numbers. but I know that the percentual of Ukrainians and descendants in Edmonton and region is the highest outside of Eastern Europe. Alberta likely has the highest proportion of Ukrainians in North America, if I had to bet.
 
The stupidity lies in disavowing ones own heritage or at least trashing it; is it a cause for embarrassment for her? Shame, shame!!!
from Wikipedia...
Marlaina Danielle Smith[7] was born in Calgary on April 1, 1971,[8] and is the second of five children. Her paternal great-grandfather was Philipus Kolodnicki, a Ukrainian immigrant whose name was anglicized to "Philip Smith" upon his arrival in Canada in 1915.[9][10] Growing up, her family lived in subsidized housing.[11] She identifies as having Indigenous ancestry, though she has not given any evidence to support her claim.[12][13]
 
I wonder why he changed his name. I understand the Philipus to Philip, but Kolodnicki to Smith? Being of Polish origin, I'm glad my grandfather didn't allow our last name to be changed and I know enough Ukrainian families including one that I know personally and of notoriety "Stelmach" that maintained the ethnicity of the name
 
I think some Eastern European immigrants were kept in Alberta concentration camps during the 1920s. I think they were eventually released.
 
I wonder why he changed his name. I understand the Philipus to Philip, but Kolodnicki to Smith? Being of Polish origin, I'm glad my grandfather didn't allow our last name to be changed and I know enough Ukrainian families including one that I know personally and of notoriety "Stelmach" that maintained the ethnicity of the name
Lots of Ukrainians changed their surnames when they came over as there were issues with them being hired due to their foreign last names. My cousins Dido (Grandpa) had to change his last when he came over to find a job. Wasn't even considered to be hired at numerous jobs due to having a non North American name. Happened in a lot of cases unfortunately.
 
^

it also needs to be remembered that few immigrants spoke english and fewer immigration staff spoke anything other than english but the forms still needed to be filled out.

our family name was shortened as two brothers in separate lines got different immigration officers, each of them spelling it differently as they both abbreviated it.

it’s like the story of “ollie olsen’s chinese food” where a new customer asked to meet the proprietor to find out how a swede came to be the proprietor of a chinese cafe. instead of a strapping swede he was introduced to a slight elderly oriental gentlemen. when asked about the cafe’s name, the gentleman said when he arrived at immigration, when asked for his name the tall blonde man in front of him said “ollie olsen”. when it was his turn to answer the question, when asked he said “sam ting” and the immigration officer wrote down “ollie olsen”…

there were also many immigrants who simply wanted as complete a break as they could get from a country and a culture they fled or were forced from and many of them took the opportunity to use an immigration form to document that. many of them had no other documentation so creating a new identity for whatever reason was pretty easy to do.
 
You're right Ken. I'm just telling you what has been shared with me through the generations.
sometimes it's too easy to get wrapped up in the "outrages of the day" and forget how hard things really were for previous generations and the hard choices that they had to make as a result. i appreciate your sharing - it's something not enough of us do often enough.
 

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