Opinion

We often write about the challenges facing Canada – the lack of a credible plan to address climate change, the overreliance on tar sands to fuel our energy needs and economy, the snail’s pace with which we work to protect endangered species and their habitat, including iconic wildlife like polar bears and caribou.

To local Canada Day organizers and the thousands of Central Albertans who gathered at various community events to salute Canada’s 142nd birthday.

There’s obviously an insatiable public curiosity about the late Michael Jackson.Since he died suddenly and unexpectedly last week at age 50, the media has jumped on the story with a vengeance.

The problem with having a great party is that there comes a point when it has to end. And the wilder the excesses, the more wicked the hangover.

Just as Calgary was abandoning work to celebrate Stampede Week, then-premier Ralph Klein breezed into town wearing a white Stetson, to declare Alberta debt-free.It was a stunt, of course, because there still was a little bit of debt outstanding. But a special bank account had been created, with just enough money in it to pay the last of the bills, as they came due.

People who make their living in the sphere of public comment — journalists, politicians, poets and stand-up comics — need to be reminded from time to time that expressing a minority opinion is not a crime. At least not yet.

The grisly video of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan dying in a Tehran street, shot down by a government thug, has already been seen by millions of Iranians.

I was waiting for my bus in downtown Vancouver the other night when an unconventional gathering grabbed my attention.

To the federal government lawyer and the RCMP for the late disclosure last week of damning evidence at the Robert Dziekanski tasering death inquiry.

If you lived in British Columbia, you’d be able to find out how your local hospital measures up against others in the province.