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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A Rogue Conservative
He is a one-man minefield—set to explode whenever Premier Jason Kenney makes a misstep. And there’s not much Kenney can do to defuse him. Say hello to Drew Barnes, United Conservative MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat.
Barnes is that most frightening of spectres to an Alberta Conservative premier: a maverick MLA who ...
Alberta’s Carbon Revolution
Alex Walk was captivated. He had flown to Edmonton because he had heard that Alberta researchers might have found the Holy Grail of materials manufacturing: a cheap feedstock for carbon fibre. The stakes were high. Abundant, inexpensive carbon fibre could revolutionize the auto industry, for example, by reducing the weight ...
Ask Questions First, Shoot Never
Blood Tribe Police Chief Kyle Melting Tallow is growing his hair out. When I visited the police station in Standoff on the Blood Reserve in late September, his face was framed by a wave of black hair that extended down just over the top of his collar. It wasn’t yet long ...