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How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, by Alan Jacobs (Currency, 160 pp., $23) I made it only to the third item on Alan Jacobs's "Thinking [...]

Critics have been sounding the death knell for classical music for years. Concerts are becoming more sparsely attended; radio stations are dropping the classical format; and new music premieres are [...]

Everyone favours freedom of speech as a general principle. It is only in the particular that the sheep are separated from the goats. Thus B.C. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh supports [...]

Marriage used to be 'until death do us part.' The federal Divorce Act of 1968 ended that. Now the Supreme Court of Canada has revived that age-old commitment--sort of. In [...]

British Columbians were shocked last month by a civil lawsuit that revealed how the independence of social workers can be abused by the unscrupulous. In a lawsuit before the B.C. [...]

The World Goes On, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (New Directions, 288 pp., $24.95) THE title of Laszlo Krasznahorkai's latest book to be translated into English doesn't give much guidance as to [...]

More than any other single measure, computers and network technologies, properly implemented, offer the greatest potential to right what's wrong with our public schools.' This proclamation by a California task [...]

When Statistics Canada told pathologist Scott Cornell his household had been selected to complete the Survey of Family Expenditures last year, he said he was not interested. Then he was [...]

The millions of Canadians tuning in to CBC on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. to watch Emily of New Moon are likely expecting turn-of-the-century family fare. They are getting period [...]

British Columbia's mild climate has long made that province an ideal home for seniors. But now it seems that more of the elderly are willing to brave the bone-chilling winters [...]

In Sunlight and in Shadow, by Mark Helprin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 720 pp., $28) THE phrase 'All you need is love' dates back to the Summer of Love in 1967. [...]

There was friendly debate on most of the resolutions brought before Alberta's Conservative convention two weekends ago. However, two resolutions on education, one of which called for an end to [...]

Removing video lottery terminals (VLTs) from a municipality once seemed simple: the provincial government promised in February that if towns held a plebiscite and found that the majority of voters [...]

The direction of the Alberta Progressive Conservative convention was set right at the start. On the evening of October 24, about 800 delegates met to hear Ralph Klein's opening speech, [...]

The Hotel de Health project to turn unused Alberta hospital space into a medical resort for Americans last year was unsuccessful. Health privatizers, however, seem undeterred, and so does the [...]

To gather opinions on the Calgary Declaration, the Alberta government is undertaking an unprecedented consultation. A four-page brochure and questionnaire will be sent to every household in the province. Ideas [...]

In the world of educational philosophy, the theorist reigns supreme. But not in Edmonton Public Schools (EPS). Elsewhere, new, untried and frequently foolish innovations are foisted on students against the [...]

In his first term as MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, Lorne Taylor was a member of the 'Deep Six,' a group of Conservative back-benchers determined to curtail spending. Since the Conservatives' [...]

The Alberta Lotteries Review Committee released a report, 'New Directions for Lotteries and Gaming,' in August 1995 which suggested that art of low moral standard 'should not receive public money.' [...]

We're saying that if any community wants to get rid of VLTs, they'll be gone immediately. Overnight or within seven days, at the most,' Premier Ralph Klein said in March. [...]

Canada's federally-administered North seems to enjoy experimenting with government. Proposals for gender-equal and racially-based legislatures have come out of the region, and now word has emerged of what may be [...]

At a guess, it seems probable that about 1% of the population of central Alberta are burdened with oversized ears. Some are only moderately enlarged, while others with Dumbo-sized auditory [...]

In the 1990s, there are more female lawyers and judges than ever, many from feminist-dominated law schools. A possible consequence manifested itself in a Calgary courtroom two weeks ago when [...]

July was a mixed bag for antigambling activists. They continued to score victories at the municipal level against video lottery terminals (VLTs), but the provincial government cancelled their progress by [...]

The one issue that unites Alberta social conservatives is a rejection of special privileges for homosexuals. But when Ralph Klein declared two weeks ago that foster children could now be [...]

Alberta's four-year experiment in privatized liquor sales has been an unqualified success. There are many more stores, offering longer hours, greater convenience, increased selection and lower prices. Not surprisingly, consumers [...]

Commenting last year on resistance from the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) to his department's plan to allow privatization of child welfare services, Social Services spokesman Bob Scott was [...]

Marianne Dueck was riding her motorcycle home, heading toward Edmonton on Highway 16, when she had an encounter that made her doubt her eyes, if not her sanity. 'It was [...]

On an official visit to Russia in 1993, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney teamed up with President Boris Yeltsin for a successful boar hunt. The two leaders posed for a [...]

Since February, when Alberta let municipalities ban video lottery terminals (VLTs) by plebiscite, the fight over the machines has been waged mostly at the local level, with hotel and bar [...]

Video lottery terminals became an issue during Alberta's provincial election this spring, after outcries that the machines were damaging family finances. The Liberal and Social Credit parties made the provincewide [...]

Everyone knows that a child is the result of the fertilization of a woman's egg by a man's sperm. But the knowledge that a child is more than the sum [...]

A young family that decides to pull up its stakes and move to another city rarely does so without reservations. Relocation for work or education may mean bidding adieu to [...]

The Klein government has introduced a dual market in pork, and has campaigned against the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly over export sales of wheat and barley. Given this commitment to [...]

Five weeks into a strike, Canada Safeway has realized it is losing the public relations war to its 11,000 striking Alberta workers. A poll released by the employees' union last [...]

Joan Schenkar The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life & Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith. St. Martin's Press, 684 pages, $40 Patricia Highsmith could be ah unpleasant, even nasty, woman. [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance Charles Murray was invited to speak in April at Azusa Pacific University about this, his latest book. The event had been scheduled for months, but two [...]

Jerusalem, by Alan Moore (Liveright, 1,280 pp., $35) An office move not long ago necessitated one of those painful purges I've had to face almost from the moment I could [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance At a Harris Teeter in suburban Washington, what used to be Harry's Balloon Corral is, to young eyes, disappointingly empty. The grocery store has posted a [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance The last time I heard from Alex, he emailed from Kabul. 'Our lengthy discussions about your trip to St. Petersburg were apt, because you are like [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance It's not often officials from the nation's largest business lobby and an AFL-CIO-affiliated union speak to one another, let alone work together. But last week, the [...]

Democracy in Britain Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832, by Antonia Fraser (PublicAffairs, 352 pp., $29.99) THIS lively book by Lady Antonia Fraser more than delivers [...]

The early feminist demand to 'have it all'--marriage and a career--is dying out, though not in a way traditionalists will like. Young Canadian women--especially working women--are increasingly choosing common-law relationships [...]

As they were leaving Edmonton's Winspear Centre concert hall following a recent appearance by American feminist icon Gloria Steinem, two young women expressed displeasure to their two older female companions. [...]

By any measure, John MacEachran was an outstanding Albertan. The internationally-trained academic, who arrived in Edmonton in 1909, founded the University of Alberta departments of philosophy and psychology. Two scholarships, [...]

Violent incidents--from punch-ups to deadly assaults--have become commonplace in Alberta schools. But until now they have usually been boy-on-boy assaults. So a report that Edmonton high school students watched impassively [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance New York A premiere at the country's foremost opera company always meets with a certain level of excitement. But the man in the orchestra section two [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance Hollywood loves to think of itself as socially significant. But given how long it can take to finance a film--let alone make one--it's exceedingly rare for [...]

Byline: Kelly Jane Torrance Halfway through what feels like the usual interview with a Hollywood entertainer in town to promote a new work, I'm stopped short. Lance Reddick had discussed [...]

The Living Moment: Modernism in a Broken World, by Jeffrey Hart (Northwestern, 184 pp., $24.95) Many critics count it lucky for literature that T. S. Eliot abandoned a career in [...]