December 22, 1997

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Canada

Turning the screws

The First Ministers had barely tucked into their beef consommé when Alberta Premier Ralph Klein began to denounce the federal government’s betrayal. How, he asked, could Ottawa have dared to strike a deal on global warming in Kyoto, Japan, that completely ignored an earlier federal-provincial agreement on targets for greenhouse gas emissions? His fellow premiers leaped into the conversation, contending that once again Ottawa had made a unilateral decision for which the provinces would have to pay the price. By JOHN DeMONT MARY JANIGAN5 min

Pop Culture

Real-life wrestling

Taking a break from his daily workout in the gym at his 810-square-metre, five-bedroom home in northwest Calgary, Bret Hart gingerly extends his right hand to greet a visitor. It isn’t much of a handshake. The six-foot, 235-pound Hart offers only limp fingers and no grip—hardly what one would expect from a five-time champion of the World Wrestling Federation.

COLUMN

The best new books of a bountiful season

There’s a great crop of new Canadian books this year. Here are some of my favorites: Preston Manning: The Roots of Reform, by Frank Dabbs (Greystone Books, $27.95). The times cry out for an unemotional, balanced biography of Preston Manning, the evangelical populist who leads Canada’s alternate government—and here it is. By Peter C. Newman4 min

Education

The tenure trap

For a school with neither students nor teaching staff, the Technical University of British Columbia has managed to generate an extraordinary level of controversy. The fledgling institution, slated for construction next year in Vancouver’s southeastern suburbs, is at the centre of a bitter dispute between British Columbia’s educational authorities and a growing body of academics, both in Canada and abroad. By BARRY CAME4 min

COLUMN

The deadbeat Senator and the Silver Fox

The unwashed masses of the nation, as winter’s chill sets in, are always in need of amusement. Something to divert their minds from icy side-walks, salted roads and the sniffles. There is a need for a laugh. And so, to our rescue, comes Senator Andy Thompson, our own delinquent deadbeat. By Allan Fotheringham4 min

December 151997