After a whole year as Premier, Stelmach wanted to set up edstelmach.ca. But a poli-sci student had already bought it for $14 and was redirecting it to his left-of-centre blog. Steady Eddy threatened to sue. Oops. It only galvanized Cournoyer and helped make him a popular political commentator.
The City-owned zoo rebranded and made expansion plans, even raised some cute red panda cubs, but nothing got it attention like Lucy the Elephant. Animal-rights groups say she’s too sick, too cold, too cramped and too lonely.Bob Barker even came to the zoo and offered cash to move her to a California sanctuary. The mayor told him to get a job and the zoo kept the elephant.
When a St. Albert couple took offence to a Habitat for Humanity project they thought would attract derelicts to their affluent community, they had their say in a letter to the St. Albert Gazette claiming, among many things, that low-income people will bring drugs with them and their children won’t fit in at school. Then the country had its say. Some thoughts are better kept to oneself.
While Edmonton stretched to the limits, so followed its families. Inner-city school populations dropped significantly, and the board decided it was only sensible to close them, against the wishes of the people living in mature neighbourhoods. Residents retaliated by voting in the trustees who promised to stop the closures – and they have … for now.
These alt-weeklies have squabbled since 1995 when See publisher Ron Garth lost his magazine to a newspaper chain as a forced settlement over an unpaid bill, then took it all back (power bars included) in the night and started Vue. They competed for advertisers and talent until 2011, when a B.C. publisher bought them both and dissolved See.
