books

Anger and Angst: Jason Kenney’s Legacy and Alberta’s Right analyzes the UCP’s governance of Alberta, the driving forces behind their agenda, and the personalities behind them. Co-edited by Ricardo Acuña (Parkland Institute’s executive director) and Trevor Harrison (former director of Parkland Institute), the book critically examines the extraordinary years of the UCP's time in office up until 2023, a period that is arguably the most chaotic in Alberta’s political history.

The Bottom Line summarizes a huge body of evidence to get to the truth: private health insurance is more expensive and actually reduces access to health care. Evidence reveals that a manufactured cost crisis is driving the push for more private health insurance. This book examines the implications of the recent Supreme Court Chaoulli decision in Quebec, and offers vignettes of life before medicare. The Bottom Line concludes that the Alberta Conservative government is needlessly pursuing a US-style health system.

A right-wing populist in an oil-rich province, Ralph Klein has been a one-man wrecking crew, dismantling Alberta's public sector and remaking the province into a freewheeling, capitalist paradise. This book re-examines Klein's Alberta after a decade of deficit-slashing, tax-cutting conservatism.

Some of the most intense effects of globalization can be seen in rural communities. Despite a booming world economy, rural communities-and the people who work in natural-resource industries like farming, forestry, mining or fishing-have been hard hit by recent international trade agreements. This collection looks at changing rural life, across the country and around the globe.

The Government of Alberta under Ralph Klein has asked a reasonable question: can health care be better provided partly as a private, for-profit product rather than as a not-for-profit public service? But -- despite the claims of advocates for market-driven medicine -- private hospitals are neither cheaper nor more efficient than public ones. Clear Answers summarises the huge body of evidence showing that they are more expensive and less efficient.

Education has become a battlefield, the classroom the arena where the contest is fought. Alberta stands as a model of radical education reform in Canada. But reform is not necessarily right or good, especially if undertaken without the consultation of those most affected by it. A range of commentators – teachers, scholars, parents, and others – discuss the conflict in Alberta's schools.

Alberta had the tightest controls on spending in Canada during the very period when the Klein government has claimed costs were soaring out of control. Now, public programs in Alberta – including health care – have become the most poorly supported in Canada.