The Alberta Advantage
When recently researching public debt, I found an article from India that gave reasons why a country would turn to deficit financing. The first example was when the world dealt with the cost of [...]
By Fred Stenson
Energy / Economy
Energy / Economy
Economic Diversification
When I sat on the Alberta Treasury Board, but a few short years ago, we were talking about investing provincial surpluses in the Heritage Fund. Today? Our oil-and-gas-dependent economy is in free [...]
Beer Boom
Lacombe, just north of Red Deer, may not be the first place you think of when the conversation turns to craft beer. But these days some good brewing is definitely happening in town. In fall of [...]
By Jason Foster
Heritage Trust Fund
A decade ago, when Alberta was debt-free and staring at a $7.4-billion surplus, Premier Ralph Klein decided it was time to spread the wealth. He announced that every person who lived in the [...]
By Max Fawcett
Giving Our Oil Away
By the time we emerged from the Grandin LRT station on a fine May morning, a full 90 minutes before the swearing-in ceremony, we were mere flotsam on a sea of humanity. Edmonton had never seen [...]
By Satya Das
The Beginning of the End
A sumo wrestler emerged from my car’s tailpipe last week and floated into the air. His topknot appeared first, then his head, and then his great body squeezed out of the opening. I watched him in [...]
By Kevin Taft
Electricity Deregulation
Noel Somerville dabbles in stocks, but he refuses to gamble on his electricity bill. The Edmonton senior—like 57 per cent of Albertans—has chosen not to enter into a contract to purchase [...]
By Darcy Henton
Reeling in Alberta
Early May in Grande Prairie. About 100 filmmakers, cinephiles, volunteers and curious attendees mill about in front of the Regional Theatre, chatting. The petite and energetic Terry Scerbak, [...]
By Mari Sasano
A Line in the Dirt
In January, Heather and John Kerschbaumer left their 7,500-acre farm near the mighty Peace River and flew to the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas for a conference about alfalfa. The [...]
By Alex Gillis
100 Years of Oil: The legacy of oil at Turner Valley
In the presence of royalty yesterday,” the Calgary Daily Herald reported July 29, 1914, “Dingman Discovery well spouted like an inexhaustible gasoline fountain 40 feet high until driller Hovis, [...]
By David Finch
MOST READ
MOST READ
Facts Don’t Matter
Like many Canadians, I’ve been surprised by the recent turmoil south of the border, where some politicians regard undocumented “alternative facts” as equivalent to the findings of science. The US is undertaking a science-trashing exercise without precedent. President Donald Trump has declared climate change a hoax devised by China and ...
The Gap
Dentists are trusted professionals. They’re also widely disliked. Having had a good dentist for decades, I was more trusting than disliking. But when my dentist reduced his hours, and new dentists joined his practice, the hygienists started to push frequent fluoride treatments and x-rays. I’m almost 40 and haven’t had ...
The Disappearing Critic
“Came here Saturday night to see the play A Christmas Carol. The theatre is a little small, lots of walking up stairs if you are seated in the higher rows. They need more bartenders and servers during the intermission though as there were huge lines. They do one thing that ...