April / May 2005

Editorial, Privatization, Government surplus, Minimum wage.

As public institutions contract out services to for-profit companies, meaningful jobs become low-paid jobs that diminish workers. As our provincial government concerns itself with the interests of business rather than workers, many working people face a bleak reality.

Who Stands Up for Workers? Are union leaders up to the job? by David Bright

Alberta Federation of Labour, Alberta Advantage, social unionism, workplace fatality, right to strike, Audrey Cormack, Les Steel, Kerry Barrett.

The labour movement struggles for efficacy in the face of the province's hostility to organized labour.

Spare Change: Raising the minimum wage is only a start

by Wayne Arthurson

working poor, service sector, Clint Dunford, unemployment rate, cost of living.

Raising the minimum wage won't substantially change the lives of the working poor; it is a gesture towards solving an enormously complex problem.

It's Not Working! Jan Goodwin chooses voluntary simplicity; Ernie Zelinsky debunks the work ethic.

Lifestyle, solace, morality of work, workaholism, GNP, environment.

How hard we work or what we own shouldn't measure success.

The Art Drain: Why artists are migrating from Alberta to Quebec by Natasha Pashak

Montreal, photo essay, Fubar, ACAD, creativity.

The profiles and insight of Alberta artists Eric Amber, Atom Deguire, Candice Tarnowski, Elisabeth Belliveau, Jamie Quail, Keith Christian Wyatt, Wil Murray, James Martin, Brigitte Dajczer, Rebecca Singh, David Lawrence, Mike Dowse, Paul Spence, and John Hazlett.

Acrostic
Every issue we offer this unique puzzle by J.B. Hohm. Solve it to reveal a quote by an Alberta author.

Numbers
Numbers and statistics illuminate and entertain in one of our most popular pages.

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