Universal Care (Some Exceptions Apply)
My uncle, Harald Skjei, was born in 1899 and died from diabetes at the age of 14. A diagnosis of diabetes meant almost certain death before the historic work of Canadian doctors Frederick [...]
Supersized
Dave Eggen remembers going to the doctor as a teenager in the 1970s, and his shock at being presented with a bill for $20 at the end of the visit. “I didn’t pay,” Eggen says. “It’s funny how the [...]
The Bugs Stop Here
It’s a dark room about the size of a cargo van. The walls are made of enamel-coated steel. There’s a deep electronic purr, and a slightly acrid odour that quietly catches in the throat. The [...]
Ma Ville
“You don’t want to move to Calgary,” he said. “That city lacks a soul.” He was a very old man I met in Banff almost three years ago. He was polishing the sink in my studio at the Banff Centre for [...]
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Why She Runs
It's a half hour before dawn when Rachel Notley emerges from her hotel elevator, and I barely recognize her. She’s wearing her running clothes and a battered pair of Asics Gel running shoes. Despite having arrived in Calgary late the night before, she has a schedule to keep and she’s eager ...
Individualism Run Amok
Betsy DeVos would be thrilled to have a [school] system like yours,” says Diane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University, about Alberta. Donald Trump’s secretary of education along with evangelicals and religious extremists in the US look to our province as the shining example of what a school ...
UCP Report Card
In 2017 I issued a mid-term report card on the environmental record of Rachel Notley’s government. Their performance on land use planning, parks establishment and climate change was exemplary. On other matters, such as carnivore conservation and land reclamation, they ducked and dodged. Overall, they earned a B+. Such a ...