Columns

Canadian Fedwatch! News Across the Nation

Elections! So, as expected, the opposition party’s motion of non-confidence came up in Parliament. The opposition parties all voted in favour. The next general election has been scheduled for January 23, 2006, not quite a year and a half after the last election. Predictions abound, with the idea of another Liberal minority being the most… Read more »

Lost & Found – Requiem For a Friend

It didn’t look good, to say the least. My ancient, steam-driven iMac stubbornly refused to boot up. Its inner workings making a sort of grinding, creaking sound, like the cars of an antique and soon-to-be condemned rollercoaster labouriously inching their way to the top of the ride’s first hill. Perhaps it was my imagination, but… Read more »

Turning the Pages

Oddly enough, I read a bestseller recently. This almost never happens, due in large part to the number of courses I’m taking at any given time. But a good friend lent me her copy of Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel (1999), and I just couldn’t pass it… Read more »

Canadian Fedwatch! News Across the Nation

Alberta Investing in the Future – Forgetting the Now? The Alberta government recently announced another 750 million dollars will be going into the “Access to the Future Fund” (Alberta Dept. of Advanced Education, 2005). This fund will be fully funded when it reaches a total of three billion dollars, and produce 135 million dollars annually… Read more »

AUSU This Month

“A Learning Alberta” Recently, the Alberta Government announced a comprehensive review of the Alberta post-secondary education system. Many discussion documents were placed online, and all stakeholders were invited to respond and make suggestions on our how post-secondary system can be improved. The students of the four universities of Alberta have responded through a document drafted… Read more »

Dear Barb – Grandparent’s Rights

Dear Barb: I enjoy reading your column, although I may be a little older than most of your readers. I am a grandmother of two beautiful little girls. My son, who is their father, has just separated from his wife and now I am having a problem seeing the girls. My son has become so… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Utter Bloody Rudeness

My daughter Hilary and I joined a capacity crowd at the Winspear Centre recently as guests of the Edmonton Journal. In a huge thank you gesture to Journal subscribers, we were assembled to listen to the maven of manners Lynne Truss. Truss is the British author of “Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness… Read more »