Lorne Gibson: Election Commissioner
Lorne Gibson was Alberta’s first Election Commissioner—an independent non-partisan officer of the Legislature, appointed in May 2018. Previously he served as Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer [...]
Welcome to the Anthropocene
Welcome to the Anthropocene is a virtuosic, challenging book of poetry by Alice Major, who served as Edmonton’s first poet laureate. This collection is by turns a lament, a dirge and a [...]
The Irrelevance of Space and Other Stories
The world is always in movement,” wrote V.S. Naipaul, the late British novelist and travel writer. It’s an apt description for the themes and characters—the “restless feet and wandering [...]
Women Who Dig
In this beautifully written and lavishly illustrated book, journalist Trina Moyles addresses the links between patriarchy and agriculture in Canada, the US, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, India and [...]
The Figgs
The Figgs are a family ripe with dysfunctionality—all adult children live at home, working dead-end jobs, and their bickering is full of profanity. Yet parents June and Randy Figg remain [...]
Public Deliberation on Climate Change
Alberta—and the planet—has a “super wicked” problem. First described in 1973, wicked problems defy “rational” policy responses, such as a cost/benefit analysis, in part because they have multiple [...]
Trade in the Trump Era
Canada’s prosperity depends on trade; Alberta’s even more so. The province exported over $100-billion worth of products last year, generating roughly one of every three dollars earned by [...]
The Pipelines We Need
Read any of Alberta’s daily newspapers and you will know that our province’s only hope is new pipelines. Nothing else will save us. I took some convincing, but I’m in. In fact, I’d like to [...]
Going to Pot
The windows of the former flower shop are still papered over, but soon customers will mill about in a very different kind of store. The floors will be polished concrete, and the dated [...]
Elections 2019
Even humorists feel dark about the world at times, and when I do I force myself back to the basics: food and family. Don’t worry, I’m not going to lecture on why food and water are essential to [...]
MOST READ
MOST READ
The Absurd UCP Curriculum
Jason Kenney arrived in Alberta provincial politics with a laser focus on reforming K–12 education, and one of his primary targets was curriculum—what students learn in school. During the first annual general meeting of the United Conservative Party in 2018, Kenney announced: “If the NDP tries to smuggle more of their ...
We Are Our Own Masters
On January 30, 1649, Charles, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, lost his head. Literally. The king, believing he had a divine right to rule, tried to shut down parliament and reign as absolute monarch. He was arrested, tried by parliament for treason and publicly executed.
First, the republicans of Oliver ...
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 ...