Frontenac House Poetry Quartet 2020
The book launch for the 2020 annual Frontenac House Poetry Quartet, which the publisher is calling its “COVID quartet,” was understandably virtual. So, in honour of the wine and cheese [...]
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Raise Revenues!
Three weeks after the UCP formed government in 2019, Premier Jason Kenney struck a “blue ribbon” panel chaired by Janice MacKinnon to recommend ways Alberta could address “a critical fiscal [...]
Ours By Every Law of Right and Justice: Women and the Vote in the Prairie Provinces
On June 7, 1917, for the first time ever, (some) Albertan women headed to the polls for a provincial election. Their counterparts in Saskatchewan followed 19 days later, and before the end of the [...]
We Remember the Coming of the White Man
We Remember the Coming of the White Man is an extraordinary, educational account told by Sahtú and Gwich’in Dene Elders who witnessed the meeting of two worlds—Indigenous and settler—at the dawn [...]
Relax, Dammit!
Wake up. Wipe your eyes. What next? If you are like 64 per cent of people, your next step is to reach for your phone. You probably still have the device in hand by the time you visit the loo, [...]
Should Alberta Have Its Own Pension Plan?
Niels Veldhuis, the economist and Fraser Institute president says yes In June 2020 Alberta’s “Fair Deal” panel recommended that a comprehensive plan be developed to withdraw Albertans from the [...]
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 [...]
Arborescent
Marc Herman Lynch’s debut novel, Arborescent, is a triptych—three distinct novellas connected by setting (a rundown apartment building) and a dark, magical atmosphere. In a wintery Moh’kíns’tsis [...]
Stories of Ice: Adventure, Commerce and Creativity on Canada’s Glaciers
In Stories of Ice, Canmore-based author Lynn Martel explores glaciers in Western Canada from numerous angles. While many Albertans may not give these huge masses of ice much thought—aside, [...]
Once Were Mountains
The democracy thing. Here in 2021 the Alberta premier was having trouble getting his mind around it. In his Ottawa days he’d been taught to forget the concept of government by the people. His [...]
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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 ...