Equalization Rage
It has been called the superglue of Canada’s Confederation. It is also, ironically, one of the things that keeps driving provinces apart. It is ridiculously complicated, made more so by [...]
Reject, Accept, Embrace
All “new” things (most of which are not actually new) seem to go through a cycle from rejection to gradual acceptance and finally embrace. One might assume I’m about to wax philosophical about [...]
Is a Carbon Tax the Best Way to Reduce GHG Emissions?
Jennifer Winter the assistant professor of economics at the University of Calgary says YES. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—and the corresponding effects on climate—are a global problem. Canada is [...]
Conflict Between Humans and Wildlife
Photography allows me to observe wildlife and spend time in nature, but my real goal is to illustrate the challenges facing animals and inspire viewers to change their behaviour. This can include [...]
The Death of Annie the Water Witcher by Lightning
Audrey J. Whitson’s excellent new novel,The Death of Annie the Water Witcher by Lightning, starts with the act of witching in Alberta, which is to say the story is both a complex tale and a [...]
Inner Ranges: An Anthology of Mountain Thoughts and Mountain People
Mountains are a constant theme in Geoff Powter’s life. The Canmore-based climber has decades of experience ascending hard routes in the Canadian Rockies, Yosemite Valley and the Himalayas. With [...]
The Western Alienation Merit Badge
The Alberta of Nancy Jo Cullen’s The Western Alienation Merit Badge will sound familiar to many readers, “with its newly bankrupt oil barons, out-of-work rig hands, jobless heavy-duty mechanics [...]
The Plans to Strip-Mine Coal in the Mountains
It looks like spectacular wild country, but some see it more as a big money sandwich. The top layer of that sandwich is comprised of alpine grasses, forget-me-nots and stonecrop, glacier lilies [...]
Can Climate Change Be Reversed?
When NASA initiated the Mercury Project that would send the first American into space in 1958, one of the many questions facing scientists was what to do about the carbon dioxide emissions of [...]
Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters
This powerful collection of writing and knowledge-sharing builds upon the good work of the Walking with Our Sisters (WWOS) art installation/commemorative gathering of moccasin tops—called [...]
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Not a White-Bread Childhood
Toronto freelance portrait photographer Markian Lozowchuk (disclosure: his mother and I are second cousins) has photographed Justin Trudeau for Toronto Life and Margaret Atwood for Maclean’s, but his editorial shoot of Chrystia Freeland for Toronto Life in 2017, including the cover, was “the most memorable shoot I’ve done.” Even three ...
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 ...
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 ...