Cut to the Bone
If you eat Alberta beef tonight, odds are it was processed by one of the 2,300 workers at the sprawling XL Lakeside Packers facility just outside of Brooks. The plant is the largest slaughter [...]
Michael Broadway
Michael Broadway
Small Town, Big Changes
In many ways , Brooks is a typical western prairie town surrounded by rolling ranchland that’s ideal for raising cattle. Feedlots dot the landscape; their wooden windbreaks stick out above the [...]
Here’s the Beef
During a visit to Brooks in January 1998, I met a man from North Sydney, Nova Scotia—North Sydney claiming, at that time, one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada. Of 15 male recruits who [...]
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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 ...
Amarjeet Sohi
On a Friday morning in spring 2016, Amarjeet Sohi sat barefoot in the den of his craftsman style home in south Edmonton. His first few months as Canada’s federal minister of infrastructure had been frantic, sending him across the country to listen to the wants and needs of every big-city ...