I'll take a crack at that. I'm from Calgary, what is now considered a boom town in a boom province. I worked in Fort McMurray. The population there is over 50 000 with 10- 20 000 more men in camps surrounding the city. In the early 70's the population was a few thousand. In Calgary it is very rare to meet a Calgarian.
In one way I would say that it is a soulless, but like everything else, if you make an effort you can get to know some people and you need not live an empty life. On the other hand with the increasing pace of life people are always on the move and it makes most relationships (especially the ones I have had in McMurray) feel very temporary. No matter how close you feel you have to know that the time will come for one of you to move on. I read a book written in the late 60's or early 70's called future shock. I gather it was a popular novel back then. It predicted some of the effects that an increasing pace of life would have and how hard it would be for us to adapt.
There are no more real villages that I can see either. Everybody wants to just go about their business and for sure in this province there is a huge rush. No company can get enough people and so there is an increased work load on all remaining employees. Time off is hard to get because there is nobody to fill in anymore. This has created a strain on marriages and families. Friendships are equally effected. If, as a person in a relationship you have no friends to talk to then all of the roles that a friend used to fill need to be filled by your husband/wife putting further strain on that relationship. I am now 11-12 hours a day 6 days a week. I would happily give up a few dollars and hour in exchange for my Saturdays. I would love a weekend and a life
I knew of couples working in the mine who would go to work for the weekend and give their teen 2-300 dollars as if cash would fill the void. Needless to say the rate of addiction amongst teens (and adults) in that city is one of the worst in the country. I have seen middle aged men from Newfoundland crying in a public restaurant because they have missed the last 2 years of their children's lives being separated by the entire continent. This means that not only is the village no longer there for that child, but the father is not either.
I am quite tired, and reading this the thoughts are not very well connected, but the ramblings do, I think, tie in with the question. The short answer is yes, it is somewhat alienating up here as well, and not just suburban life. Life in the small towns is affected as the population moves out of the towns and into the city in search of a better lifethat is just not there when they arrive.
