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 [...]
By Fred Stenson
Columns
Columns
Children of Freedom
The National Library and Archives of Canada is an imposing example of mid-century modernist architecture, its 1960s Star Trek design vibe an odd juxtaposition to its archival purpose. Inside, the [...]
By Paula Simons
A Rogue Conservative
He is a one-man minefield—set to explode whenever Premier Jason Kenney makes a misstep. And there’s not much Kenney can do to defuse him. Say hello to Drew Barnes, United Conservative MLA for [...]
Sacred Trails
In my childhood church we walked a short loop, some evenings, along the Stations of the Cross. They were 14 bas-relief renditions of ordeals suffered on the day Jesus was crucified, arrayed [...]
Our Poor Language
Those of us who with with language can’t watch documentaries about the evolution of English without tears welling—ah, the beauty! But I’m blubbering for different reasons these days. A few [...]
By Fred Stenson
All Aboard!
Once upon a time a passenger train ran between Edmonton and Calgary. In 1969 the Dayliner was so popular, it ran three times a day, in each direction, carrying about 80,000 passengers a year from [...]
By Paula Simons
A Leaky Blue Balloon
Jason Kenney is not the man he used to be. At least not popularity-wise. His approval rate has been falling, not sinking like a stone but deflating slowly like a balloon. It is a curious [...]
Curriculum Wars
Alberta is test-driving a new curriculum and a new advisory panel for education. It boils down to a controversy over values. Whose values will the system represent? The UCP government says it [...]
By Fred Stenson
Return of the Grizzly Hunt
The first big November snowstorm means bedtime for Alberta’s grizzly bears. This was a good berry year, so most will go to bed fat and wake up next spring healthy. And then some may die. The UCP [...]
My Mother’s Story
My mother was a refugee, and Canada was her refuge. My mother died this August, a few days before her 81st birthday. And as I sat down to write her eulogy, I kept thinking about the confluence of [...]
By Paula Simons
MOST READ
MOST READ
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 ...