Difficulty with Freedom
Freedom can be difficult. You think you’re free, and then you ask: Am I free, or am I just brainwashed into thinking I’m free? Take, for instance, today’s trip to the grocery store. I had a short [...]
By Fred Stenson
Columns
Columns
Alberta Rebirth
In 1972—50 years ago this year—Alberta passed its first-ever Bill of Rights. In 1972—50 years ago this year—the Alberta government introduced its first Individual’s Rights Protection Act. In [...]
By Paula Simons
Environmental Glossary
There will be a provincial election early next year. Should we win, a number of you will be seated in the Legislature. It will be important to keep the learning curve as short and shallow as [...]
Playing with Fire
Among the United Conservative Party’s most fiery election promises during the 2019 campaign was one impossible to misinterpret: “Alberta’s United Conservatives will give voters the power to fire [...]
Commissioner for Oats
When my dad was a little boy growing up in Round Hill, Alberta, he was immensely proud that his Pa was the Commissioner for Oats. My Jewish grandfather wasn’t a farmer. He ran Round Hill’s [...]
By Paula Simons
The Pied Piper of Alberta
At the peak of last winter’s omicron wave, I found myself thinking about “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” If you don’t know the story, here’s a short synopsis: A medieval European town has a [...]
By Fred Stenson
Letter From the Future
Dear Grandma and Grandpa, I just got back from one of the best summers of my life, working in the Alberta Climate Conservation Corps, so I’m writing to thank you for what you did, way back in the [...]
A Farcical Test
Imagine it’s November 19, 2013, and you’re a delegate to the Alberta Progressive Conservatives’ annual general meeting in Red Deer. The big issue on the agenda is a leadership review of [...]
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 [...]
By Paula Simons
Return of Darkness
Let’s start with the enlightenment. After Greece’s Golden Age (Plato, Aristotle), things in Europe dimmed. Centuries of religious and political tyranny followed. The church was the boss, [...]
By Fred Stenson
MOST READ
MOST READ
Alberta Rebirth
In 1972—50 years ago this year—Alberta passed its first-ever Bill of Rights.
In 1972—50 years ago this year—the Alberta government introduced its first Individual’s Rights Protection Act.
In 1972—50 years ago this year—Alberta outlawed eugenics and repealed its infamous Sexual Sterilization Act.
In 1972—50 years ago this year—Alberta repealed its Communal Property Act, which ...
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 ...
Crowfoot Comes Home
Herman Yellow Old Woman was asleep in his home on the Siksika reserve east of Calgary on April 7, 2020, when the phone started ringing at 5:30 a.m.
It was Alison Brown, a professor of anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She told Yellow Old Woman that Exeter City Council ...