Thin Power:
Andy Marshall’s study of James Rodney Winter Sykes, Mayor of Calgary from 1969 to 1977, has more perspective than most books about landmark political careers. As Marshall recounts, when Rod Sykes [...]
Frank Dabbs
Frank Dabbs
Third Option
The Alberta Liberals have a new leader. Calgary lawyer David Khan won the 2017 race against Calgary lawyer Kerry Cundal with 55 per cent of the 1,661 votes cast. A cogent issue divided the two. [...]
Trudeau’s Tango:
After he sold his Calgary practice, Darryl Raymaker—lawyer, corporate director, political junkie, folk music aficionado and raconteur—embarked on a lifetime labour of love: a book about the [...]
Ralph Klein’s Real Legacy
His critics may tell you that Ralph Klein, the 12th premier of Alberta, has done nothing much since winning his fourth general election. A little golf, a little fishing, receiving the Queen [...]
Survival of the Richest
In 1848, an eccentric Victorian autodidact surrendered his tenure as a civil engineer in the British railway system to join the staff of The Economist magazine as a sub-editor. Over the next 55 [...]
Who Will Lead?
The bombastic premier William Aberhart tried to re-invent Canadian-style government between his rise to power with the Social Credit Party in 1935 and his premature death in 1943. The political [...]
Winds of Change
Less than a century ago, nine million tin-vane windmills clattered away, atop spindly derricks in North America’s farmyards, to generate energy for agricultural operations and homes. Of this vast [...]
MOST READ
MOST READ
Pension Folly
In 1965, Quebec, eager to be master in its own house, decided it wanted to have its own pension plan and not be part of the new Canada Pension Plan. Quebec’s population was younger than the Canadian average, and the province had a high birth rate. The province believed its ...
Rural Resentment
The rise of the right-wing, authoritarian populist movements across the Western world owes much to the support of rural citizens who are increasingly feeling left behind economically and culturally and are eager to overturn the status quo. I’ve been thinking about the plight of rural Alberta in this context, partly ...
Should Churches be Tax Exempt?
Karen Kerr, the president of Edmonton Atheists and co-founder of Alberta Secular Conference says no.
In Canada many charities and other non-profits, including churches and religious groups, are tax-exempt if they are deemed to create public benefit. The exemption is premised on the idea that they provide a public good. However ...