Against the Grain

A contrarian view of Alberta and Albertans from the outspoken and often controversial former Calgary Herald columnist.

In 2005, Alberta celebrates its centenary: a hundred-year stretch that has seen the province catapulted from being little more than thinly populated grassland and mountain to one of Canada’s richest provinces, one with a fair claim to being perpetually misunderstood. Albertans, of course, are passionate about their province, even when to outsiders the sentiment is baffling. For instance, can a liberal feminist like renowned columnist Catherine Ford find happiness in a right-wing, neo-conservative province? The short form of Ford’s answer is “Yes, I can. But . . .” The long version is the intimate, revealing, entertaining, and opinionated picture of the province she paints… Keep Reading