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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Jason Kenney’s Vision for K-12
It was by all accounts, a fiery speech. Standing on a blue-curtained stage in front of a couple thousand supporters at the UCP’s inaugural policy convention in Red Deer in May 2018, leader Jason Kenney went on the attack against anti-oilsands activists and the foreign money he says funds them ...
Ready to Leave Without Warning
Of all the jobs I took that summer,” Karen Solie writes in her poem “Park Place,” “selling franchise coffee in the mall food court on weekends was the worst.” Unfortunately, I can relate. Eight summers ago, like Solie, I too took a job at Park Place, a mall which has ...
Whipsaw Change
If you think at times you’ve got a tough job, just be glad you’re not a member of Alberta’s civil service. These poor souls don’t know if they’re coming or going. They’ve spent the past four years working for an NDP government that set an ambitious new course for Alberta ...