About this ebook
A contrarian view of Alberta and Albertans from the outspoken and often controversial former Calgary Herald columnist.
In 2005, Alberta celebrates its centenary: a hundred-year stretch that has seen the province catapulted from being little more than thinly populated grassland and mountain to one of Canada’s richest provinces, one with a fair claim to being perpetually misunderstood. Albertans, of course, are passionate about their province, even when to outsiders the sentiment is baffling. For instance, can a liberal feminist like renowned columnist Catherine Ford find happiness in a right-wing, neo-conservative province? The short form of Ford’s answer is “Yes, I can. But . . .” The long version is the intimate, revealing, entertaining, and opinionated picture of the province she paints in Against the Grain.
On the surface, the province is monolithic in its politics, anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-choice in its opinions, and macho in its demeanour. But Ford shows that this is a lopsided, outsider’s view of Alberta, and to prove it she takes readers on a tour from Calgary to Banff and Jasper, Fort McMurray, Edmonton, and beyond, pointing out the good, the bad, and the plain bewildering. Tough-minded but loving, Against the Grain gives outsiders the real goods on Alberta in this, its centenary year.
In 2005, Alberta celebrates its centenary: a hundred-year stretch that has seen the province catapulted from being little more than thinly populated grassland and mountain to one of Canada’s richest provinces, one with a fair claim to being perpetually misunderstood. Albertans, of course, are passionate about their province, even when to outsiders the sentiment is baffling. For instance, can a liberal feminist like renowned columnist Catherine Ford find happiness in a right-wing, neo-conservative province? The short form of Ford’s answer is “Yes, I can. But . . .” The long version is the intimate, revealing, entertaining, and opinionated picture of the province she paints in Against the Grain.
On the surface, the province is monolithic in its politics, anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-choice in its opinions, and macho in its demeanour. But Ford shows that this is a lopsided, outsider’s view of Alberta, and to prove it she takes readers on a tour from Calgary to Banff and Jasper, Fort McMurray, Edmonton, and beyond, pointing out the good, the bad, and the plain bewildering. Tough-minded but loving, Against the Grain gives outsiders the real goods on Alberta in this, its centenary year.
About the author
In a forty-year career in journalism, Catherine Ford has lived and worked across the country, but her home is Alberta and that’s where her heart is. Until her recent retirement, she was national columnist for CanWest News Service, based at the Calgary Herald. A past president of Mensa Canada, Ford is the winner of ten Western Ontario Newspaper Awards.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
