The War on Fat
I sat in Dr. Long’s office waiting for my one o’clock appointment, alone except for the elfin nurse, not quite hidden behind a counter. By 1:45 I’d already flipped through Alberta Report, and the [...]
The Electric Saskatchewan Acid Test
Oddly, I never considered quitting smoking during all my years trying to help people beat their own addictions. I didn’t get around to it until the early 1970s, when a friend I hadn’t seen in [...]
Impaired Judgement
In the provincial referendum of 1923, following seven years of prohibition, Albertans voted for government control over liquor. They chose a distribution and sales system that promised to control [...]
Smoking on the Job
Steven O’Hearn was an unrepentant smoker for more than 30 years, one of those guys irritated by commercials warning people about the dangers of tobacco. Even losing all of his teeth to [...]
The Queen of Paradise
It isn’t easy being fat in our society, even though a growing percentage of Albertans are overweight. Ask any of us if we feel comfortable in a bathing suit. Bet I can guess the answer. Exposing [...]
MOST READ
MOST READ
Misplaced Anger
Should Alberta ditch Canada? This simple yet ominous question—blazoned on two Alberta billboards earlier this year, and asked by many in the recent provincial election campaign—reflects a deep feeling of frustration and resentment throughout the province, much of it directed at Ottawa.
Environics, in their 2019 Survey of Canadians, found 71 ...
All The Rage
The tipping point came a week from the end of the campaign, and
by April 16 in the Big Four Roadhouse on the Calgary Stampede grounds, United Conservative Party supporters felt scant need for civility. Not anymore. The UCP had won the 2019 Alberta election, taking 63 seats to the NDP’s ...
Is Southern Alberta Home to Canada’s Stonehenge?
Imagine you are a bird, soaring. Below you on a high rise of prairie in southern Alberta lies an elaborate arrangement of stones. With eagle eyes you see distinctive lines radiating out every which way from a huge central cairn, enclosed within an outer ring of more stones. This is ...