AURA OF POWER: An Alberta Election Game
To download a printable version of the game rules click here. OBJECT OF THE GAME The goal is to win a majority of Alberta’s 87 seats (i.e., at least 44) and, with them, raw, unchecked power for [...]
Memoirs of a Muhindi:
Mansoor Ladha’s compelling and topical if somewhat uneven Memoirs of a Muhindi chronicles his struggles—similar to those of many itinerant people today—to find a home in unwelcoming lands. He [...]
Little Yellow House:
When Carissa Halton moved with her husband into Alberta Avenue, an older north-side Edmonton neighbourhood with a “tough reputation,” some friends speculated that the couple would relocate once [...]
Frontenac House Poetry Quartet 2018
Fresh from the blazing success of last year’s Griffin-winning publication of Billy Ray Belcourt’s This Wound is a World, Calgary-based Frontenac House is justifiably proud of its annual poetry [...]
Meet the Minister: Margaret McCuaig-Boyd
AV: Your mandate is to “steward responsible development” of energy. What does that mean to you? The world is looking to jurisdictions that have credible plans to fight climate change—but we’ll [...]
Building Where We Shouldn’t
If you want to see elk or wolves in Banff or Jasper National Parks this winter, here’s a tip: look on an alluvial fan. Alluvial fans develop wherever a creek running down a steep drainage flows [...]
The 2019 Election
If all goes according to plan, Alberta will have a provincial election this spring. But what if it doesn’t go to plan? What if we don’t have an election this spring? Oh, I know we’re supposed to. [...]
Part 2: A Tribute to Charlie Russell
I knew about ranching back in the 1980s. Ranchers were the bad guys who killed off bears and whose cattle trashed their habitat. Like most environmentalists of the day, I got my insights from [...]
The Age of Denial
Long ago, in this column, I wrote about the corporate men-in-suits whom democracies have elected ad nauseam in my lifetime. I called such a man Captain Denial, because so much of the political [...]
Are More Pipelines in the Public Interest?
David Hughes says no. We are repeatedly told by the Trudeau government that we must meet our Paris climate change commitments and at the same time ramp up oil and gas production and build [...]
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The Nenshi Years
I find it easy to forget what Calgary was like when it all began—before what I’ll call the Nenshi Years. It feels like a lifetime ago, several political epochs back. Before the pandemic, before the Olympic bid, before the flood. Before the boom—and whole boom–bust cycle—ended. Before the PC collapse ...
Sidewalks to Nowhere
On a cool November evening in 2012, a crowd of more than 100 invited guests, primarily land developers, gathered at a private venue in downtown Calgary. The host was Cal Wenzel, head of Shane Homes. From a stage in front of a big screen he proceeded to review each Calgary ...
Should Post-Secondary Education be Free?
Hugh Mackenzie
The economist and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says yes.
Free tuition would redress a massive intergenerational inequity created over the past 30 years. In 1990–91, average university tuition in Canada was $1,464; adjusted for inflation, that would be $2,541 in 2019–20. Today the actual average ...