A FEW WEEKS AGO, on my Calgary doorstep, a polite woman from Stay Free Alberta invited me to sign a petition for a separation referendum. She was nervous. I was firm: I’m pro-Canada. We talked for 15 minutes anyway—calmly. No yelling. She left saying the civil exchange felt rare. That small moment crystallized everything I’ve written … More Yes, no, or know…
A SPIN on a Leonard Cohen song comes to mind. First, we take… And then we take Colombia? Greenland? Iran? One thing is for certain: the ‘rule of law’ that governs the world order has irrevocably changed; recent events in Latin America should make plain what’s ahead in 2026. The Chinese president in his New … More ka-boom…
T-SHIRT SLOGANS such as the ‘clash of civilizations‘ and soon after ‘the end of history,’ and after that ‘the world is flat,‘ birthed the astonishing era of Globalization, a time of unprecedented economic cooperation between nation states, which just ended. Donna had a front row seat to world economic history (this is Don scribbling) as … More Globalization is kaput…
THE DOG DAYS of summer are on the wag. Donna is in flight returning from a trip abroad. And I’m still in the driver’s seat for the blog. And you know that question we asked? Oh, okay… sure. the ask: WILL YOU SUBSCRIBE to a digital stream (with a monthly fee of no less than five … More 3: Two people, a dog and a cat…
WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would want to be a politician these days? Donna is on ‘leave’ and I’m filling in with a progress report on our ‘ask’ for a TWO PEOPLE TALKING podcast. I’m disappointed in you. Yes, you. I’ve been watching the blog’s analytics. And I know you’ve seen the ‘ask’. What gives, … More 2: Two people asking…
YES— it’s been awhile since our last blog entry. Here’s why: Donna, as you may know, has a National Post weekend column; it often reflects the intent of Beyond Polarity — amplifying voices and ideas not typically featured in legacy media. Donna’s inquisitive essays are read across the country. That’s the good news. We’re thinking of making a podcast. An ongoing … More Two people talking…
IS ALBERTA’S PREMIER HAVING A PARIZEAU MOMENT? Three weeks in, and it’s already a trying year in Canadian politics: There’s the leadership vacuum. Justin Trudeau, prime minister of the moment, throws Alberta under the bus and frames premier Danielle Smith as disloyal. Deja vu all over again? In 1980, Trudeau (the elder) did much the … More Alberta’s Parizeau moment?
RICHARD HUNTLEY SPENT DECADES enforcing Canada’s border. He says we have a rep for ‘being very generous … that’s going to be a problem’… … More oh, oh… border crisis ahead
SEVEN YEARS AGO, I launched the Beyond Polarity blog. I was tired of people taking rigid, either-or positions. Weary of people feeding polarities. Getting angry at those why tried to manipulate, to get me on their side of an issue. Everything was a debate, with winners and losers. I wanted to do something about it. … More Killing the mute button…
The PM was in NYC this week auditioning for a new gig… … More Situation wanted, will travel…
IT’S A TOUGH JOB being Katie. Katie Telford (KT) is the power behind the curtain that runs the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC); as Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), she corrals what goes where and who does whatever within the ranks of a bulging federal bureaucracy. As we watch the slow-motion … More Raising the curtain on a wife in politics…
IT’S DIFFICULT HAVING CONVERSATIONS with people we respect but don’t necessarily agree with—especially when the issue is sensitive and polarized. Recently, I reached out to a former colleague, Iranian by birth, to talk about what’s going on in the Middle East. Bijan and I don’t agree on who is to blame. But we do agree … More A Difficult Conversation
DEAR READER, Typically, it’s a slow-time for the news cycle. Not so, this summer! American politics is a daily drama with cliffhanger twists. And closer to home… Forest fires burn out of control in Alberta and BC. But, hey — it’s the summer. It’s hot. Very hot. And the prime minister has taken his leave…holidaying … More more breaking news…
DEAR READER, It’s been an eventful year, and then some for Beyond Polarity. And our goal is to reach more readers across the country. The good news: Donna is now a regular columnist for the National Post newspaper; the weekend feature often advances what we’ve blogged over the years. And we’ll be posting Donna’s columns … More breaking news…
IT’S BEEN ELEVEN MONTHS since a fateful mammogram sparked a flurry of tests (followed by waiting); diagnoses (followed by waiting); decisions (followed by more waiting); surgeries (followed by recovery, then some more waiting); radiation (followed by recovery); and finally, this week, I’ve been given my breast cancer discharge papers. How am I celebrating? Well, for … More I got my life back…
A personal journey through cancer treatment in Alberta, highlighting the importance of early detection and the need for improved healthcare resources. … More Ring the bell…
TO REPEAT–I’M DEALING WITH A CANCER SCARE. I’M NOT DYING. Today, I met with my radiation oncologist—Dr. Natalie Logie. She’s spunky, straight-talking & obviously talented; I like her. It was our first meeting and I totally concur with her recommendation to move forward with the radiation of my right breast as a pre-emptive measure to … More Waiting for Healthcare
Oh, goodness me. The carnival act that is Trudeau (the magnificent) has run out of gas… … More The Great Unravelling:
IN THE HIGH COUNTRY, no matter where I look, I see breasts! Does this make me an honorary adolescent boy? NOT! But it is bemusing. In a visit to Wyoming last week, a friend there leaned in to whisper that the Grand Teton—the prominent and iconic three mountain peaks jutting up around Jackson Hole—were … More Peak titillation …
TALKING ABOUT DUCTAL CARCINOMA IN SITU (DCIS) NO LONGER SCARES THE BEJESUS OUT OF ME. That’s progress. Navigating this pre-cancer condition is kind of like reacting to the yellow warning lights flashing on the dashboard of my car. It pays to do the maintenance. Since many of you ask—and I’m grateful for that—here’s a quick … More Some heartening news
I AM NOT checking out anytime soon. The calcification in my right breast—ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS—mercifully is not the dreaded C-word. My surgeon Dr. Quan refers to this diagnosis as pre-cancerous. Yesterday, there was a brilliant essay in the New York Times Not Everything We Call Cancer Should be Called Cancer. If you … More I am not dying…
Cancer Journey Post #6 RELENTLESS IS THE WORD OF THE MONTH. Relentless wildfires. Relentless cancer. Relentless anxiety. Harrowing updates from friends who escaped the wildfires in Lahaina have my stomach churning. And while my post-lumpectomy healing is going well (and I’ve been buoyed up by an outpouring of love), the surgical pathology report that landed … More Oh, damn…
Cancer Journey, Post #5 IN A BARBIE WORLD BARBIE’S JABS AT THE PATRIARCHY ARE SETTING OFF A FEMINIST CATHARSIS! Could there be a better time to be thinking about breast cancer and body image? I’m a Barbie girl in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic…. At 5:30 tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading … More In a Barbie World
Donna’s Cancer Journey Post #4 Living with Cancer Yahoo! I have a surgery date: August 3rd. The Alberta Health Services (AHS) machine is in motion and I’m being flooded with information & pre-admission logistics. The certainty is definitely comforting. But deep down, I know a lumpectomy isn’t the end of this journey. Cancer is now … More Living With Cancer
Donna’s Cancer Journey Post #3 Within 18 hours of being home from Peru, I’m sitting in the waiting room of the Breast Clinic. The clinic is housed at the Women’s Health Centre, one of the smaller buildings tucked within the vast Foothills hospital complex in Calgary. I’m grateful to my daughter-in-law, Renee, a pediatrician; she’s … More Meet the Cancer Surgeon
Donna’s Cancer Diary: Post 2 It’s a very dry spell on the Canadian prairies and wildfires continue to burn out of control. Off-and-on, the air is thick with yellow smoke and smells like acid. A sharply-worded caution from Don cuts through the haze: Don’t put yourself in the line of fire(s). “You are tough, yup. … More Get out of the Line of Fire
Tornadoes, distant and nearby fires, a smoke choked sky, flooding … cancer. … More Booby-Trapped
Canada will face growing pressure to share its abundant freshwater with an increasingly parched U.S. but needs to safeguard its most vital resource. We’ve written about this in previous blogs. Research Money—a publication serving Canada’s science, technology, innovation and investment community, invited us to contribute an op-ed diving deep into this question. We thought readers … More Thirsty Yanks and Canada’s water…
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION (recently celebrated by Christians observing the Latin calendar) is a leap of faith. For believers, it’s evidence for life after death. And a promise of redemption no matter how rotten you’ve been. In the instance of Alberta’s body politic, and the last two provincial elections, is it possible to roll away the stone? … More Rachel has risen? Danielle redeemed?
Preston Manning, founder of the federal Reform Party and the Manning Centre (now rebranded the Canada Strong & Free Network) isn’t taking calls about his latest gig. The Government of Alberta, flush with petrodollars, is paying Preston over a quarter-million bucks to chair Premier Danielle Smith’s COVID-19 panel. Donna sat with Preston on another government-appointed … More Talk to the Chair
A speech from the Throne, they called it. And you can imagine it was, if you’re sitting on a toilet … More The Throne Speech…
Danielle, we need to talk. Donna was on the Fair Deal Panel. And that’s history. What’s happening now isn’t… … More Danielle, we need to talk.
Pissing people off has its rewards. Greenpeace-style modus operandi in Canada, alongside railway blockades by activists for weeks on end, are examples for how ‘direct action’ works (especially if you’re on the right side of public opinion). But is that the way to run a country? … More Conflict, controversy, provocations sell…
THE PRIME MINISTER INSISTS he must save Canada. He cannot allow, he says, the new Conservative leader to ever run this country. Is Justin channelling the Donald? … More This movie features a bad actor…
BEWARE THE STINGERS of Alberta politics. There are two careerists vying to be the Queen Bee… … More Beware the queen bees…
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS if you’re in Alberta. Imagine what it’s like living in Europe and elsewhere, worrying about where you can secure a reliable and readily available source of energy in the near future, in a marketplace upended by Russia’s war with Ukraine … More Feeling energy secure?
Who’s next? British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s blunt one-liner as he stepped down from power—“When the herd moves, it moves”—will live on in infamy. We heard something similar from Premier Jason Kenney this spring after leadership review results starkly depicted the extent to which he had been abandoned by the conservative herd. And I well … More One Down, Trudeau to Go?
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt share something in common: their intent to remake the world in a way that suits them… … More Lest we forget.
This won’t be funny. Cynical. Or anything with a twist. I live in Varsity, a Calgary neighbourhood. This morning, I woke up just before five—the wee hours—to the faint smell of smoke. Instinct kicked in. I raced to my bedroom window. Across the street, there were flames leaping from the roof of a home. Called … More House on Fire
DID YOU SEE Rachel Notley the other day giving it her all in the Legislature?
She was pretty pissed with Jason Kenney because he didn’t proclaim what she wanted to hear about Roe v. Wade. It’s as if she set her hair on fire … More RACHEL NOTLEY, a lady in waiting…
In the Jason Kenney playbook on how to get stuff done, the old maxim rings true: it ain’t over until it’s over. But what if the premier fails to survive his leadership review later this month and sinks to rise no more? Are you going to need a life preserver? … More MAY DAY! MAY DAY!!
Crypto! Pierre Poilievre promises to “unleash” the potential of cryptocurrency once he becomes Canada’s prime minister. First he needs to be the leader of the federal Conservative Party, but let’s not quibble over the fine print. … More HURRY! HURRY! CRYPTO is the next big thing!
Should China decide to dump the oodles of US dollar assets it owns, well… that would be interesting. … More While democracies slept…
Jason Kenney says, “I don’t need this job.” These most telling words uttered by Alberta’s premier are an admission of defeat. I know, because it’s what I told myself just before deciding to exit the PC leadership race against him in 2017. … More Take this job & ??
TEACHING THE DINOSAUR TO DANCE: MOVING BEYOND BUSINESS AS USUAL—Donna’s new book—launches TODAY! Of course, this new book looks at the challenge of moving beyond polarity, and a whole lot more. Written over the course of the pandemic, the book has been informed and inspired by Donna’s nearly 40-year career in leadership roles in the … More Teaching the Dinosaur to Dance
Bye bye Canada’s Arctic? Vladimir Putin’s handshake with Xi Jinping of China during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics was the first clue… … More Sit up & pay attention…
Ottawa has spoken. You disagree. And you think they’re coming for you next, your bank account, and your children. Tick-tick-tick … More Weekend rallying point?
Getting a grip on the trucker standoff at the U.S. border is to know what legacy media can’t tell you… … More Truck off, eh!
Erin O’Toole + Freedom Convoy = a blow job… … More Erin O’Toole: it’s a blow job…
THE TRUCKER’S CONVOY powering its way across Canada has been hijacked by radicals and aims to land on the doorstep of the federal government this weekend. The Freedom Convoy was launched as a protest against the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all truckers entering Canada. Extremists and fringe groups have used social media to … More It will happen here…
PUBLIC-PRIVATE COLLABORATION isn’t a new idea. It just got scaled up, accelerated and more creative during the plague. So why aren’t we doing more of this? Because it’s hard… … More This shouldn’t be so complicated…
While it’s smart to hang out with people you know & trust during the plague, there’s peril in the familiar — a risk of becoming inward-facing… … More 2021 in review: BEYOND THE BUBBLE
EVERYTHING is different now. There isn’t a business, government, non-profit or social institution of consequence that has not been rocked in some fundamental way by the events of the past two years. From the coronavirus plague to the climate crisis to social justice movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, disruption rules the day. And status quo … More Teaching the Dinosaur to Dance
THANKS TO Alberta Views Magazine for providing a platform to share this story: Why was I forced off the board of the Banff Centre? It’s not a nice story. And ultimately, this is not about me so much as it about all of us who call Alberta home. Here’s the link:
People bemoan the tendency of photography to “capture” a photo rather than to participate in a place. Can you do both? … More The Joy of Seeing More
September 30th is Canada’s first National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. To honour the occasion, we repost TREATY PARTNERS for your consideration as a way to move forward together… … More a national day for Truth & Reconciliation…
Feeling anxious? Stressed out? Try squeeze & release… … More The land speaks…
We believe it is possible to reimagine and restore the relationship originally envisioned for the treaty partners who signed off the ceded land where the authors live in the territory now called Alberta located in western Canada (Treaties 6, 7 & 8). … More Treaty Partners
We have a choice: to change the way we go about governing ourselves; or let the anarchy of whatever goes and how much we can tolerate rule the day… … More Wild weather, wild politics…
It should have been a duh. Business as usual during a pandemic was never a smart business plan… … More Pay now or pay & pay & pay…
Given all the misery of the last year, the false predictions of when normal should be normal again, who is going to tell you that your cat is dead? … More P.S. Your cat is dead…
They have a ‘plan’. And they stuck to it. Now they’re stuck. UCP was bold in a pandemic. And now this… … More UCP—closing time.
It’s the late 1960s. His name is Robert Theobald. He’s an economist with degrees from Cambridge and Harvard. He’s smart — very smart. And he has a great idea: The Basic Income Guarantee. Sound familiar? … More Everything old is new again…
Who would have thought Texas would be on the up and up? A bonanza of talent has exited California. Here’s why… … More Opportunity in misfortune…
IT’S OCTOBER 2020 and all is not well in Alberta. Canada’s petro-state province has been clobbered with a triple whammy—the pandemic, an oil crisis, and a crippled economy. In a very anxious world, this could be the nadir or an apex moment—or both—for Alberta. And while there’s been a pause or awakening, an opportunity to see … More Imagine this…
WHAT DO CITIZENS in Hong Kong know that we don’t? The city of untold millions is bracing for a fourth wave of the pandemic. And in Alberta, we’re being told to get ready for the second. Unlike the first go round, when our provincial government and public sector unions assured Albertans “we’ve got your back,” there’s a sickening … More There will be blood…
ACCORDING TO THE GREEN SCRIPTURES you might be led to believe Alberta’s wilderness and wild places have been irrevocably trashed. You know the stories: Resource extraction industries have despoiled Mother Nature. And only enlightened ones on the receiving end of The Economy of Attention can right a century of wrong-doing by evil-doers on the land. … More History is not repeating itself
WHAT DO AMERICANS know about the upcoming school year that we don’t? Will Alberta school-aged kids be in classrooms this fall? What happens if they’re not? … More Are We Neglecting Alberta’s Kids?
WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would want to be premier? We don’t want the job. And we’re not looking to be coaxed. Donna served as a Progressive Conservative and for a spell, a provincial cabinet minister in the Redford Administration. It didn’t end well—for her or the party—it’s not an experience one quickly forgets or … More this time it’s really different…
AT THE TIME it seemed like a smart idea.
We enticed the Americans to invest big in beef infrastructure. And they did.
The Cargill Plant in High River single-handedly processes 40% of western Canadian beef. As one American president is fond of saying, it’s huge. Think agribusiness on steroids.
… More Getting slaughtered…
THE NEWS CYCLE makes it self-evident things ain’t looking too good for Alberta’s future. And should the pandemic red alert be lowered anytime soon, don’t expect a return to ‘normal’ for the provincial economy (let alone how we go about our business). We’re going to have make a fresh start, whether we want to or … More Alberta in the 21st Century (PART 2 of many)
POOR TYLER.
The smartest guy in the UCP room still doesn’t get it.
Health Minister Tyler Shandro thinks it’s about him, his wife, his interests outside of public life. He’s wrong. And Alberta’s rural physicians just reminded him who’s the boss in a pandemic. … More Resistance is futile…
REMEMBER WHERE you are today. On this day—20 April 2020—Western Canada Select was valued at less than zero. Our primary resource is now priced like excess trash bags (producers have to pay to have it retrieved and stowed away). The coronavirus has pushed the envelope on just about every thing imaginable, but negative dollars for … More Shut in. Shut down. Shut up.
THIS IS AS GOOD A TIME as any to reflect on the future of the province. … More Alberta in the 21st century: PART 1 (of many)
WHAT A DIFFERENCE four months makes.
And with the Fair Deal report due to land with a thump on Easter weekend, Donna’s work on the panel is done.
There’s a good chance the final report might be set aside given the clear & present danger. Regardless, it’s our view Albertans will have much more to say in the months and years ahead, given the triple whammy of the pandemic, the collapse of oil prices, and a nagging doubt about Alberta’s place in confederation… … More We’re back…
We’re going on vacation.
“Only a winter vacation,” says Don, continuing “unless, of course, some ‘thing’ happens.” And it happened that… … More gone fishin’
THE HEADLINES signalling what’s ahead on CBC’s The National couldn’t have said it better. The radio promo led with the Democrats move to impeach Donald Trump, and the second huge story of the day—the biggest story of paramount national interest: due to inclement weather, there’s to be no hallowe’en in Montreal. Right-o… Meantime, “out west” in … More Alberta’s crisis of identity
ALBERTA’S GOT TALENT. Just this week, I had coffee with one of Alberta’s talented, a woman in her mid-40s who I’ll call ALICE. ALICE (not her real name) is at a cross-road: Not sure if she’ll stick it out in Alberta (a place that’s been her home for the last fifteen years) or return to … More Alberta’s got talent!
Whether it’s a Conservative or Liberal minority (or whatever shakes out of today’s federal election), you can be assured the result is a forecast for the end of Canada as it’s presently configured… … More Dead in the water…
THE FEDERAL ELECTION is already shaping up to be a virtue signalling, bafflegab of BS (no matter the political flavour), peppered with digital bytes and social media jabber, clouds of mushrooming vape, whereby, the Liberal’s ‘climate emergency’ has been rebranded as ‘the environment’ thing to be alarmed about and Green in New Brunswick is not so … More Nice doesn’t cut it…
ARE THERE PLACES IN YOUR FAMILY WHERE NOBODY DARES TO LOOK? One of our summer joys is embarking on a “Chautauqua”, a short trip with dear friends. This July we took our third, this time a journey into the more remote pockets of east-central Alberta. (Find Chautauqua #1 and Chautauqua #2 here). We drove the … More From the Shadows
NATIONAL UNITY is not under threat in Alberta proclaims Justin Trudeau. Nothing to see here but loyal Canucks, the Prime Minister surmised during his recent stopover in Calgary and the Stampede. The Prime Minister wants you to believe talk of Alberta cessation (a ‘thing’ in the province these days according to pollsters) is nothing but … More NOT a Time to be Flippant about National Unity
ELON MUSK is a ‘thing’. He’s also one of ours. Yes, a Canadian, well… half-Canadian (by his own admission). And now that we’ve got your attention it’s time Canada gives more than lip service to what the game-changers are doing. Clean-tech pioneer Elon Musk wants to dig the dirt. He says Tesla must beef up its supply … More PART 2: Digging the dirt (sort of)
CANADA IS PLAYING a child’s game. When it comes to China and international business, the rule of law, and the Asian giant’s internal politics, Canada likes to throw down its trump cards: quality canola & pork, for instance, food Chinese families rely on; affordable access for Chinese students at our best post-secondary institutes; respect for rule … More Part 1: Chinese checkers and GO
WE ARE WORRIED, very worried. And you should be too.
An image in mind that best explains what lies ahead politically is to imagine a spooked herd of bison galloping toward a cliff. … More Head-Smashed-In Politics
