Along River Road, outside Greenville, N.C., the sagging clapboard shanties of black farm work ers punctuated the win ter-barren tobacco fields. But turning down a neatly manicured lane into Marvin Blount’s farm, Tennessee Senator Albert Gore’s motorcade came to rest at a more photogenic scene of the rural South.By MARCI McDONALD11 min
For the Toronto Stock Exchange and that city’s financial community, the 1982 discovery of the huge Hemlo gold deposits in northwestern Ontario represented an acute embarrassment. The two companies responsible were listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange and had raised their exploration money in Vancouver.
Suddenly, the party was almost over. The days were dwindling away, and the other Olympics—the ones in the Calgary streets in which Games-goers vied to have the most enjoyable time imaginable—were in their final, frenzied phase. On the Stephen Avenue mall, under a sparkling blue sky, strollers gobbled fat hotdogs, watched jugglers and listened to reggae and rock.By BOB LEVIN6 min
The afternoon sun glinted off two broad discs of bronze as Karen Percy posed before the Olympic flame at the foot of Mount Allan at Nakiska last week. With her medals for third-place finishes in the women’s downhill and super giant slalom races, the 21-year-old from nearby Banff established herself as the new shining light of the women’s ski team and the Canadian star of the Calgary Games.By CHRIS WOOD6 min
It was a lonely Olympic night for a woman accustomed to adoring crowds. After picking her way through a throng of excited Dutch fans dancing a conga line and chanting “Olé, olé, we are the champions,” Karin Kania— winner of five medals at previous Olympics—made a solitary walk last week from the brightly lit Olympic Oval into the chilly darkness of the University of Calgary campus.By JOHN HOWSE4 min
By the time the Conservatives take us to the polls we may have forgotten what all the scandals were about. But we will remember that there were scandals. The expression “scandal-plagued” will stick in our minds. On our way to the polls we will pass through streets filled with the cry of scandal.By Charles Gordon5 min
In January’s Criminal Lawyers’ Association Newsletter, Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland launched a vicious attack on a chapter in the book Greenspan: The Case for the Defence, written by Edward L. Greenspan and George Jonas. The attack concerned a sequence of events in 1981 when a group of radical lawyers accused the 18-member Toronto police holdup squad of torturing suspects.By Barbara Amiel5 min
Thirty years ago the Sterling high school football team and its star quarterback, Jesse Jackson, regularly piled into a school bus for the 60-km trip through the Appalachian Mountains to Asheville, N.C. Jackson’s team, like its opponents in Asheville, was all black.By IAN AUSTEN6 min
As she slowly walks the corridors, wrapped in a long wool topcoat and leaning on a cane, only one thing seems out of place: the headphones clamped firmly over her traditional Polish head scarf. The woman’s portable radio, tuned to an English-language station that she cannot understand, was suggested by a staff member to keep away the haunting memories of a night nearly 50 years ago when she watched invading soldiers murder members of her family.By PHILIP WINSLOW4 min
For more than three years accusations of scandal and patronage beset the federal Conservative government. As a result, when a Quebec jury acquitted former cabinet minister André Bissonnette on Feb. 23 on charges of breach of trust, fraud and conspiracy, a jubilant Prime Minister Brian Mulroney went on the offensive against his critics.
When he landed on Feb. 22 at Vancouver International Airport, 47 hours, 43 minutes and 26 seconds after he had left the same point to fly around the world, Edgar Kaiser had jetted 23,414 miles and set nine new speed records for the size of aircraft (a British-built Aerospace 800) that he and his two copilots had been flying.By Peter C. Newman4 min
From the beginning, it was supposed to be a two-star event. East German Katarina Witt and American Debi Thomas would fight it out for the Olympic gold medal: two Carmens, two contenders. But suddenly, near the end of the night, the script was torn up and Canada found itself with a freshly minted heroine.By JANE O’HARA6 min
The Lord moves in mysterious ways in Texarkana, Tex. Next to a highway and on the border with Arkansas sits a sign in front of The Blue Jean Store. Its message: “God loves you going out of business sale.” This year Texans are invoking God in politics as well as in business, as retired army colonel Nathan Reiter recently discovered.By IAN AUSTEN6 min
The story you want is part of the Maclean’s Archives. To access it, log in here or sign up for your free 30-day trial.
Experience anything and everything Maclean's has ever published — over 3,500 issues and 150,000 articles, images and advertisements — since 1905. Browse on your own, or explore our curated collections and timely recommendations.WATCH THIS VIDEO for highlights of everything the Maclean's Archives has to offer.