But something else threatens to eclipse this divide as the defining feature of Smithers.
It's the threat of sexy fashion shows.
Every year in Smithers there are multiple fashion shows and to the horror of ... probably just me, the participants get near naked.
The fashion shows are put on by local businesses and are usually fundraisers, but some don't even link up to that feel good hitch, some are straight booze and teenage skin.
There are reasons for these PG-13, bordering on Restricted evenings. Fundraising is always tough, people are at their most entrepreneurial when dreaming up ways to send the soccer team to provincials. And like the business world, there are copycats in the fundraising world. If these lingerie fashion shows are bringing in big money then why not just do a whole bunch of them?
There's also been a bumper crop of fashion conscious entrepreneurs in Smithers, it only takes two or three in a town this size, but they have influence and these events are good for business.
But enough ducking the issue, What I really want to say is this, what the hell is going on here!?
Women in thongs? Men in chippendales outfits? All walking make-shift catwalks in front of half the town? It's unSmithersly behaviour.
Smithers seems too small a town for a sexed up underwear parade. These shows give mixing business and pleasure a whole new meaning. Maybe you have an acquaintance, a bank teller, or your mechanic, then one crazy night you see them in lingerie, and then they're your bank teller or mechanic again.
I could see fundraisers featuring nipple tassels in a lot of small towns, but not Smithers, not farmers market supporting, bike rack installing, S&P Triple A moral credit Smithers.
Smithers is a place where all the rebellion is worked out by your early twenties and children join ranks with their parents in raising wholesome, nuclear families.
But even if Smithers is a town divided by its opposing beliefs, it's still a place where each side lives by principles. The church parking lots crammed full on Sundays and the relatively high voter turnout for elections are evidence of this. There are no shady moral alleyways in this town, at least there didn't seem to be.
These fashion shows are many things, they're business boosters and fundraisers. They're also about repressed sexuality and the need for something a little risqué. For Smithers, they're a different kind of Fight Club, the leak in pipeline opposition, revenge for a lusty look at the neighbour at church.
I like that Smithers has shown its wild side with these fashion shows. Beliefs and morals are good, but everything in moderation.
Aaron Williams has never been to a fashion show of any kind besides modelling his new school clothes for mom and dad back in the day.