Columns

In 1799 Joseph Lewis, a Hudson’s Bay Company employee, arrived in what is now Alberta. He was 27 years old but his life had already been crammed with adventure. Born in 1772 in Manchester, [...]

I have always tried to avoid getting into arguments with Alberta premiers. After all, as a journalist it’s my job to question politicians, not quarrel with them. But sometimes premiers seem to [...]

The deep of winter would be a time of despair were it not for the sure promise of spring. The sky is empty of birds and each dawn is silent and cold. The sun barely rises before it begins again [...]

Glyphosate, better known by its trade name Roundup, is a popular herbicide. It kills almost anything green, and it’s safe too. Well, maybe not so safe. Recently courts have begun awarding damages [...]

It’s dog whistle politics without the whistle. Alberta’s new UCP government doesn’t have to come out and admit it’s much less committed to Indigenous issues than the former NDP [...]

In 1965 Edmonton writer Henry Kreisel published “The Broken Globe” in an American periodical. It was a short story about a Ukrainian immigrant with a farm near Edmonton. When Mr. Solchuk’s son, [...]

October, for me, used to mean duck hunting: the fecund smell of prairie potholes, a spreading sunrise glow along the horizon and the whistle of mallard wings overhead. Saskatchewan describes [...]

Anyone who says a leopard can’t change its spots has never met an Alberta provincial politician. Over the years the spot-changing has included Liberal MLAs who “crossed the floor” to become [...]

All of us respond automatically to verbal stimulus. Even if we have a raging headache or are in mourning, we’ll still reply to “How are you today?” with “Just fine” because we’re programmed to. [...]

Earth is a mess. It’s been 400,000 years since the planet’s atmosphere last held this much carbon dioxide. And we keep pumping out more. The consequences—melting permafrost, increasingly frequent [...]