Jessica deMello writes ...

Alberta Ballet`s Un-Dress Rehearsal

2011-04-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

They start in skivvies. And it`s expensive underwear, too. It's designer, in fact.

Canadian designer Paul Hardy has created the 35 unique costumes that Alberta Ballet dancers are wearing, including the cream and sienna coloured delicates that mark the first scene in its new production.

This was the media`s first full glimpse of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, the new Alberta Ballet production based on the music of Sarah McLachlan and set to open in Calgary next month.

Paul Hardy`s costumes are echoes of his critically-aclaimed runway collections. They are feminine, `sweet`as one observer called them (possibly too sweet), and made upof a complex array of materials that both defy the movement of the dancers and lend an addedtouch of grace. As Nathalie Atkinson noted of Hardy`s 2009 Fashion Week show, "Àlmond is the rare dot of colour" and these clothes will "photograph beautifully."

Not to mention the dancers themsleves. A full cast of stunning and strong dancers are on display here. Fumbling Toward Ecstasy is about, fundamentally, women. The ballet,like McLachlan`s album of the same name, traces the life of a woman from birth to death, through love and sorrow. In the cast are women ranging from children to 53 years old.Principal dancer Galien Johnson, 31, will dance her final ballet in this cast. Her daughter,1, will dance her first.

Those familiar with choreographer Jean Grande-Maitre`s previous collaborations with Elton John (Love Lies Bleeding) and Joni Mitchell (The Fiddle and The Drum), will recognize a few of his favorite tricks here. Grand-Maitre`s signature is all over those hip shimmies and deep plies, sky-high lifts and sharp, measured leaps. The result is classic ballet at its most demanding form, blended effortlessly with the relevance and youthfulness of its dancers and score.

In a word, at first glance, it`s stunning. Buy your tickets soon.

CBC Radio: Cricket World Cup

2011-03-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

Listen to my piece on CBC Radio One (The Homestretch) about Cricket fever in Calgary:

http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2011/03/30/cricket-world-cup/

CBC Radio: Election & The Press

2011-03-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Listen to my piece on the media's role during an election on CBC Radio One:

http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2011/03/29/election-coverage/

CBC Radio: Under The Skin

2011-03-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Listen to my interview on CBC Radio One with Vancouver-based choreographer Wen Wei Wang, as his show "Under the Skin" debuts in Calgary:

http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2011/03/23/under-the-skin/

CBC Radio: Kenny "One Tuff Indian" Frank

2011-02-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Listen to my piece on CBC Radio One about Blood Tribe boxer, Kenny "One Tuff Indian" Frank, who is training to become Canada's next heavyweight boxing champion:

http://www.cbc.ca/eyeopener/episode/2011/02/22/first-nations-boxer-heads-to-canadian-championships/

CBC Radio: Oil Sands Labour Shortage

2010-11-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Listen to my piece on CBC Radio One about a new strategy by oil sands companies to combat labour shortages:

http://www.cbc.ca/homestretch/episode/2010/11/25/oil-sands-2020-labour-shortage/

Grand Expectations: Love Lies Bleeding Opens

2010-05-08T09:40:00.001-07:00

Elton John touched down in Alberta on Thursday night, though the man himself wasn’t there.

The occasion was the world premiere of Love Lies Bleeding, an Alberta Ballet production, based on Sir Elton’s music, that bends the rules of genre and gender. The over-the-top costumes, pop music — to which the performers often lip-synched — and the sometimes over-used multi-media staging may have snubbed the traditional tutu crowd, but it certainly justified the budget. Artistic director Jean Grand-Maître’s ballet was expensive — over $1-million, in fact. The song and subject choices also had people wondering. And now the question is: Was the risk worth it?

The inspiration, subject, and artistic advisor to the production couldn’t attend opening night, though his blessing will determine whether the show travels. Presumably, Sir Elton will watch a recorded version of it and rely on feedback from his “people” who were there.

Grand-Maître, speaking before the curtain rose, admitted that “my knees are shaking” and said he had received flowers from Sir Elton that were so large they blocked his dressing room door. This isn’t his first experience with pop stars — he produced The Fiddle and the Drum with Joni Mitchell in 2007, and he’ll work with Sarah McLaughlin next year — but he’s still cautious. “Let’s hope this ballet has a future,” he told the VIP after-party crowd, “I think it has a chance.”

The ballet opens with Elton — played by the powerfully graceful and charismatic Yukichi Hattori — watching a younger version of himself, riding a tricycle in circles on stage, while old news footage plays on a giant screen behind them. These brief clips are interspersed with Elton’s performances and red-carpet appearances, apparently setting the scene for the decades through which he has lived.

Elton is dressed in a skin-tight, sequined, baseball suit. He leaps onto a smaller, rotating stage while the rest of the company, also in blue and white sequined baseball uniforms, flood onto the stage and dance around him. Bats are knocked against the platform while Elton raises his arms to the sky. It’s a weird start, and, perhaps because it’s opening night, a bit uncoordinated.
“We had those baseball bats and were saying to ourselves... OK, here we go,” dancer Melissa Boniface told me later, “Then the crowd’s reaction in the first few minutes was like — pow! — and we were off. We were really there. The crowd loved it.”

Grand-Maître is known for theatricality. Here, though, his flair has been both unleashed and harnessed, directed and trained onto a specific subject. Not that it’s an easy subject.

In the ballet, the most classical dances are between men, and involve love, sex, or both. Two heart-wrenching pas de deux tell the story of love and loss in a gay relationship. The first, set to the song Sixty Years On, was danced by Mark Biocca and Kelly McKinlay. (McKinlay also plays the title role on other nights.) There is a large sword/cross hanging above them as they dance, embrace, pull apart. The sword drops lower and one dancer drapes himself on it, and swings from it as well. The prop, and the song, make the AIDS theme very clear, perhaps too much so. It is, after all, a beautifully tragic piece of choreography on its own.

There are two other homo-erotic pieces, more in keeping with conventional ballet. The first, strangely enough, involves drag queens. Yes, three tall, muscular, heaving men in garish make-up, frilly black dresses and six-inch stilettos.

The second, set to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, includes a chorus of men in nothing but shiny gold loin cloths and white afro-wigs. And yes, it’s good. The choreography of the entire ballet is punchy, bold, athletic and compelling. Hattori is lifted, contorted, spun around en pointe, and dragged across the stage. The company was tight and expressive.

It is a liquid scene that had audience members shivering and nearly on their feet with applause. That piece left a moment of silence though, for all its ballet beauty, the dancers finished in an explicitly sexual position, shadowed onto the screen behind them for emphasis.

“I was surprised by how erotic it was,” said Alykhan Velji, who was in the audience with partner Jason Krell, “Calgary is a little gayer now.”

Drug addiction is the second demon in this story. That, too, is made literal when the words “Introducing the Inner Demons” appear on the screen behind three bowler-hatted Clockwork Orange types, who slink across the stage now and then, leaving clouds of white powder in their wake.

Despite the heavy themes and literal storytelling, there is some nuanced and compelling ballet here. The choreography is fresh, and this very international company is first-class. The music and costumes are seamlessly incorporated into both. The lighting and staging are also spectacular. Pierre Lavoie has gone easy on the lights, allowing shadows to play a role in each scene. At one point, an entire dance is seen only in tiny red lights, which are wound around the dancers, moving across a starry night sky. It is exquisite.

The audience was buzzing, both during the intermission and then again after the show and the three curtain calls.

The Calgary critics and audience loved it, of course. The ballet is a sensation by any standard, far beyond the scale of productions normally found here. But will Elton love it? Will the world?

Tickets for the opening night performance were sold out within hours of their release. Amongst the audience were Calgary’s elite. Mayor David Bronconnier, who said he loved the performance, declined to answer any questions about the on-going race to fill his seat. David Swann, Alberta’s Leader of the Opposition, chatted about health care and the mayoralty race but was clearly distracted by the buzzing crowd of boas at intermission. Pink boas and star-shaped sunglasses were sold in the lobby. Neither Bronconnier, nor Swann, nor provincial Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett, were spotted wearing them.

Board members of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle came as a group to see the show. They were suitably impressed, calling it fabulous and triumphant, but when asked if their company would mount the show there were head shakes and frowns, “No way!”

Later, I asked another of their group if it was true that they would not mount a show like Love Lies Bleeding. “I wouldn’t say never,” she said carefully, “It’s — bold.”

Love Lies Bleeding plays tonight and tomorrow in Calgary and May 11-12 in Edmonton

Published in National Post on May 8 2010, and on www.NationalPost.com on May 7 2010
CLICK HERE TO READ ONLINE

Modern Don Giovanni gets Mixed Reaction

2010-05-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

When the Canadian Opera Company (COC) introduced a modern staging of Strauss’ Salome in 1996, directed by Atom Egoyan, the reviews were positive but cautious. Staged the following year in Vancouver, it was called “effective”, “tastefully erotic” and “a bold, modern look at the ancient tale.” Three years later the COC mounted La Traviata in a similar way. It was called “controversial” and the costumes likened to “Eurotrash” but sold out in two separate runs, and very quickly. The audience had spoken.

The ensuing trend of modernizing old classics in this country – Egoyan and fellow famous directors François Girard and Tim Albery mounted a stark, contemporary Ring Cycle in 2006, and in 2008 Hip Hopera (a blend of DJ turntables and memorable arias) was introduced – has provoked reaction both good and bad. Egoyan’s Die Walkure received both a standing ovation and loud, persistent boo-ing when it opened in Toronto.

“There are people who take tremendous pride in their ability to publicly disclaim something,” Egoyan said at the time, “I just couldn't help but boo back. It was just fun.”

The staging of Calgary Opera’s Don Giovanni then, which premiered last week as the final production in their 2009/2010 season, was not without precedent in this country or around the world. The minimalist, modern sets were inspired by CEO Bob McPhee’s recent viewing of European operas, which depicted costumes, context and sets as contemporary as the 1940s.

And while there wasn’t any boo-ing on opening night, there was no standing ovation either.

Don Giovanni is set in a glass windowed office tower, somewhere in the Western World, it would seem. The costumes could be taken from any boardroom meeting; well-cut suits, skinny ties, artful glasses for the men, and slim-legged trousers with pumps under beige trench coats for the ladies. The protagonists are given new roles as well. Leporello is a personal assistant; Zerlina and Masetto are the building’s cleaning staff (this works wonderfully well), and Elvira is a public relations executive.

The captions, projected in English above the stage, were also given a modern touch with phrases like, “He’s just not that into you.” With the majesty of Mozart’s music, and the compelling talent of the company (Brett Polegato in the title role and the three sopranos are immeasurably good), it’s difficult to see how it could go too wrong. The same can’t be said for this weekend’s take on ‘modern meets classic’ when likely much of the same crowd will sit in the same theatre to watch Alberta Ballet’s Love Lies Bleeding, set to the music of Elton John. Expectations – and ticket sales - are high, but the concept itself has received mixed reviews from established patrons. If subscription sales are any indication, for both companies the risk has been the reward.

Present at the premiere of Don Giovanni were Ann Lewis-Luppino, CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Grande-Maitre, artistic director of Alberta Ballet, Sharie Abramson of Western Sky Creative, and fashion designer Marilyn Milvasky.

Published in National Post, May 8 2010

Niall Ferguson Speaks at Teatro, Calgary

2010-05-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Murray Edwards, the media shy millionaire who co-owns Lake Louise and the Calgary Flames Hockey Club, and is said to have the largest individual stake in the oil sands, is a patron. So is Ron Mathison, who specializes in “corporate turnarounds” and is the CEO of Matco Investments. Together with their wives, they sat with Deborah Yedlin, the whip-smart business columnist for The Calgary Herald, and the night’s honoured speaker, at the final instalment of the Salon Speaker Series at Teatro Restaurant.

The featured guest was Niall Ferguson, Harvard historian and prolific author. He began his lecture with a fair warning.

“Some you may be thinking, with a certain dread that I am going to talk at tedious length about the global financial crises, and use words like leverage, credit default swaps, synthetic collateralized debt obligations squared,” he said, “But I’m not. It seems to me we hear all together too much about that. We’re so focused on the small print of this financial crisis. From a historian’s view, under the gaze of eternity, who really cares?”

Instead, Ferguson widened his gaze and asserted that the current financial crises (“Because it ain’t over yet,” he assured the audience) has “accelerated a fundamental shift in the global balance of economic and geo-political power from The West to The Rest” and therein lies its legacy.

Speaking for almost thirty minutes with a good dose of humour and without notes, Ferguson held court. The audience of maybe one hundred A-list mover and shakers sat in rapt attention, chuckling at his jokes and nodding at his insight. In short, Salon organizers Rudyard Griffiths, Peter White and Patrick Luciani had delivered yet another compelling speaker from among the top minds south of the border. They perform similar feats in Toronto, Montreal, and Vero Beach, Florida.

Ferguson pointed to a series of “killer applications” which allowed Western nations to dominate global affairs over the past thousand years, and conversely questioned those which now see “the rest-erners” rising in power. It was a much more succinct and engaging version of his article on the same subject in The Financial Times earlier this month.

The “killer apps” as he calls them include competition (in the form of market capitalism), the consumer society it produces, the work – and capital accumulation - ethic it demands, medicine (and its effect on life expectancy), law and property rights, and representative government.

“Experiment after experiment in the age of industrialization failed, with the sole exception of Japan,” he said, “The Japanese did something very interesting. They simply copied everything that The West did. The haircuts, the clothes, naval uniforms ... they even started to brush their teeth like us. They decided to replicate Western society, and you know what? It worked.”

The “killer apps” are no longer the monopoly of The West, he concluded, and while the rise of The Rest can largely be credited to mimicry there is one exception: China. The Chinese do not have private property rights or rule of law, he noted, and the question to his mind remains whether, despite this, they can become the largest economic and political power in the world.

The guest list reads like a who’s who of Calgary. Among those present were philanthropist Jim Palmer, partner at Burnet Duckworth Palmer LLP, former Senator and Chairman of MacLeod Dixon Dan Hays, president of Global Public Affairs Randy Pettipas, investment guru Terry Shaunessy, dean of the Haskayne School of Business at U of C Leonard Waverman, and publisher of Alberta Views magazine Jackie Flanagan.

Published in National Post, May 1 2010

A Place of His Own: Chef Michael Noble

2010-05-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

Driving along a near-empty street bordering downtown Calgary, I pass a strip mall, a gas station, a series of lonely fast food joints, the windowless brick face of a recreation centre and the vast, dirty parking lot of a Tim Hortons.

Yet another strip mall appears on the left hand side of the road, beyond four empty lanes of freeway and a massive parking lot, and I see it: the sports pub Kayne’s on 17th Avenue S.W.. This is where Michael Noble — celebrity chef, mentor, man-about-town, Iron Chef contestant in Japan and Bocuse d’Or competitor — has asked to be interviewed.

Inside, the music is too loud. Large-screen TVs hang from every corner of the room and around the bar. There is no waitress, so I sidle up to the bar and lean between the surly patrons to ask for Noble. We are yelling back and forth, the bartender and I, but somehow the message is relayed.

Moments later, I am flipping through a stack of oversized plastic menus heaped on a small table next to the door. They are well designed, with big, bright lettering and alluring descriptions of the food. The text inside the front cover is all about Michael Noble — he has shaped Kayne’s menu, the design of the pub and has even been consulted on the staff. I am intrigued — and confused. Why is this hotshot chef designing a sports bar menu?

The man himself is suddenly beside me: tall and broad, with a contagious smile and firm handshake. “I’ve had to pay my mortgage, too,” he says, with a laugh. And now, Michael Noble, 48, is about to change his life — again. After a successful career in hotel restaurants from Vancouver to Nice, and a quick-ignite celebrity earned by international television spots and high-profile events, Noble went behind the scenes. By 2002, he had moved to Calgary and launched Catch, giving it one of the best menus and the best buzz in town. By 2006, Noble had transformed Earl’s from a franchise of family restaurants into a sleek eatery with a deeper level of culinary understanding.

Now, with a roster of high-profile friends and 29 years of experience, the chef is finally working on something completely his own: Notable (which he writes NOtaBLE), a restaurant set to open next month. Delays on the completion of the new building caused Noble to push the opening from last August to June, and those in the know on the food scene, locally and nationally, have been in a protracted state of eager anticipation.

Click Here to Continue Reading on AvenueCalgary.com

Published in Avenue Magazine, May 1 2010

BC Get-Aways: Saturna's Charms

2010-05-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just off the coast of British Columbia, flanked by pods of travelling Orcas and smacked with fat purple starfish is Saturna Island. A peaceful hide-away, Saturna is one giant, rolling mountain that affords tremendous views of the Pacific Ocean (where, it’s true, Killer Whales are often sighted), lush forested valleys and four vineyards. The perfect weekend there begins with a three hour ferry ride from Vancouver through the Southern Gulf Islands ($15.70 per adult plus $58.30 per car, or $2 per bike). Sailing through thin fog, you’ll spot otters, sea lions and perhaps a whale or two. Mounds of thick forests emerge from the haze, and the taste of salt air on your lips will stir the initial cravings: salmon, oysters, fresh berries, wine. You’ll find it all on Saturna. Upon arrival, stop at Saturna Cafe for supplies and a gourmet picnic prepared by head chef, and German ex-pat, Hubertus Surm. Drop your bags at the Breezy Bay Bed & Breakfast ($95 a night with private beach), hop in a kayak and head to Thomson Park, where you’ll find fresh oysters just laying around on the beach ready to be thrown on a campfire. Finish your day with a sampling of Pinot Noir from nearby Falonridge Vineyard, so named for the rare Peregrine Falcons that circle above.

Published in National Post, May 1 2010

CBC Radio: Good Enough to Marry

2010-04-22T09:44:00.001-07:00

Listen to my piece about a new book called Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough on CBC Radio's The Homestretch

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Rich by 40 & Portobello Market West

2010-04-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

They drove fifteen hours to be there. Alana Clauson and Sophie Jourborne of Unik Print Shop made the trek from Northern British Columbia to Calgary for a mere two day stint at the new Portobello West Market. The fashion and art show took place last weekend on the Stampede Grounds, inside the Big Four Building. It is the second time the market has come to Calgary, and the first for Unik.

Although the market is a small one, with about thirty vendors, the selection is unique and diverse. Olga Cuttell, whose prints, pendants, and knick knacks were on display on the show, says there is an appetite for her kind of work in Calgary. She has also been a part of the Portobello West Market in Vancouver.

“People in Vancouver are spoiled with so many markets,” says Olga, “Calgarians are hungry for something hand-made, which is nice. Customers here are very relaxed and excited by the work.”

Many local vendors at the market also sell online, like Natalie Gerber and Christine Norman of The Killer B’s. The Portobello Market West will make another appearance in Calgary next fall, and happens in Vancouver on the last Sunday of every month in the Rocky Mountaineer Station.

Later in the week, Lesley Scorgie released her new book, Rich by 40. Her book launch was held at Pages Bookstore in Kensington, and attracted a healthy number of fans. Scorgie first came into the public eye when she was just seventeen years old. At that time, she was was featured on The Oprah Winfrey show as an ordinary person with extraordinary wealth. Scorgie started investing her meager income before she started high school. After university, she wrote her first book, Rich by 30.

The new book is written for young couples, who are making “more sophisticated choices,” she says.

Scorgie says young couples often make the mistake of thinking they are in total agreement in money matters, when that is rarely the case. “Financial compatibility is just as important as choosing someone who is aligned with your personality,” she said.

The book outlines the steps young couples, and singles, under forty years of age should take to increase their “net worth” and reduce their debt. In her book, Scorgie admits she did not come from money but rather began at an early age to take control of her financial future.

“I don’t believe in get rich quick schemes,” says Scorgie, “That kind of thinking brought the market to its knees over the past two years. But people who were in it for the long term, they are now seeing some returns ... they’re okay now. It doesn’t matter what age you are, if you plan to be rich you can get there.”

Published in National Post, April 17 2010

Elton: Behind the Scenes of the Ballet

2010-04-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Jean Grand-Maitre presents a complex, toe-tapping portrayal
of the legendary Sir Elton John

Half a dozen couples stand, stiff and silent as mannequins, on the hardwood floors of a large dance studio. They seem to be embracing; their faces close to each other as if whispering a secret.

The room is hushed as rollicking gin-house piano music fills the air. There is a clap, and a sharp voice begins to count, yelling: “One! Two! Three!” in time with the music’s beat. With each shout and clap, the dancers move swiftly into a tightly controlled pose of classical ballet: one woman is lifted high above her partner, another’s leg is resting above a shoulder, and another is angled away from her mate, tango-esque. The process is repeated; every clap of hands and shout reveals a new pose.

It is, purposefully, a tableau reminiscent of the opening scene in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret: mechanical and slightly disjointed, yet performed with the stunning agility and grace of highly trained dancers. There is something both beautiful and tragic in this sequence, like watching over and over the moment a carefree child is struck frozen by fear. And then, bizarrely, there is a man on roller-skates weaving his way between the partners. The music is almost deafening; familiar but new as well. Behind him struts a sinister, bowler-capped fellow, clicking his heels like a hedonistic jazzman. It is a captivating scene.

Click Here to continue reading this story
on Avenue Magazine's website

Published in Avenue Magazine (Calgary & Edmonton editions) April 2010

Calgary fans the Flames til the end

2010-04-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Calgary Flames have lost their chance to play for the Stanley Cup this year. A final game against the San Jose Sharks earlier this week clinched it. A few days earlier, though, the team’s hometown of Calgary had kept the dream alive with a Saddledome jam-packed with red jerseys. The Flames played the Phoenix Coyotes and won.

Spirits were still high here after an impressive performance by Flames captain Jerome Iginla at the Vancouver Olympics. Goalie Miikka Kiprusoff is another fan favourite, widely cited by analysts as having the best season of any player on the team.

The Flames had played erratically, however, loosing nine games in a row, and the expectations were low. Despite all this, the mood at the Phoenix – Calgary was upbeat. The Warner family travelled from Manitoba to see the game, and even Habs fan Tracey Kendrick donned The Flames jersey.

“We didn’t really even expect them to win,” said Mrs. Warner, “But maybe we brought them some good luck.”

Though they came on the ice a bit slow, by the third period The Flames were organized and aggressive, leading to a 2-1 victory over The Coyotes. Since their defeat by The San Jose Sharks, talk of why and how the team is playing has escalated. Calls for Coach Darryl Sutter’s exit and a batch of fresh players have been loud and strong.

Flames fan and hockey blogger Derrick Newman says the Sharks-Flames game was a “microcosm of the entire season. They had 39 shots on net yet failed to score more than one goal. Flames fans now will watch as other teams charge towards the cup. They will be able to watch what good hockey should look like. Fast paced and skillful players is the game now; the game has changed and Sutter has failed to adjust.”

The expectations from and critical analysts alike can be tough. Craig Cripps, president of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, says it’s something that emerging sports talent understands well.

“The pressure is enormous. We try to prepare our players and their parents for that,” he says, noting the rising pressure around his own league’s tournament this month, “The fact is that The Flames and The Oilers have had a lot of success ... and they are professionals who are paid to perform. This is a fast-paced industry. Players at the junior level understand that when you get there, if you don’t perform, you can find yourself out of a job or on another team pretty quickly.”
Published in National Post, April 10 2010

CBC Radio: The Family Treasure Hunter

2010-04-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Listen to my piece on CBC Radio - Calgary about
a man who re-unites people with their lost family treasure ... sort of.

Click Here to Listen

Reuters Chief Lauds Canadian Caution

2010-03-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

The newly minted global editor-at-large of Reuters, and former managing editor of The Financial Times, Chrystia Freeland, was the guest of honour at this month’s Salon Speaker Series. The invite-only function happens four or five times a year in Teatro Restaurant.

Her talk focused on risk and the global economy. She praised Canada’s cautious regulatory regime (prompting some guests to leave the restaurant in a huff), and spoke at length about the psyche of Americans.

“Ottawa sees itself as a policeman,” she said, “Rather than a farmer of the free market.”

“Canada is not top of mind in the U.S. but it could or should be more so in the near future,” she said, pointing to ‘economic stabilizers’ that are under-valued south of the border.

An Albertan herself, Freeland brought a folksy, pragmatic tone to the dinner. She opened with a story about her grand-mother. Before departing to Harvard University to study Russian history, Freeland asked her grand-mother for advice. Having lived through two world wars and the great depression, her grand-mother was less than enthusiastic about her choice to study history. You need a practical skill, she advised, that will always be in need ... the world is unpredictable.

Unpredictable, indeed. Freeland began by assessing U.S. resistance to extended health care services. It was baffling, she said, that for thousands of people who would not even be affected by this change, it would become such a divisive issue. It is the end of the American era, she said, despite the fervent belief of most Americans that they have a God-given right to rule the planet. She pointed to the necessity of international experience in the workforce, and the lack thereof in the previous generation of executives.

Freeland also spent a great deal of time talking about Europe. The EU is wholly preoccupied with worry over Greece, she said. At a recent meeting in the Arctic, she said, Canadian Minister Jim Flaherty, along with the American and Japanese delegate, took a tour of igloos while the EU
representatives huddled together in a corner talking about Greece. But the idea that this most recent crises is the fault of Goldman Sachs, she says, is ludicrous. “It’s the Greek government’s fault.”

Turning back to the United States, she said, “Even for a Canadian Tory, Obama is not what you’d call big government.’

Although there were a few people in the crowd re-thinking their subscription to FT, the response overall was positive. The speech came after a three-course meal of gnocchi l’amatriciana, arctic char with caramelized endive, and a selection of small pastries.

Among the guests were Geoff Pradella, vice president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Tony Luppino, former executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta, Randy Pettipas, president of Global Public Affairs, attorney and patron of the arts Greg Forrest, McCarthy
Tétrault's Director of clients and markets Lindsay Fikowski, former bureau chief for the Financial Post Claudia Cattaneo, John Cordeau Q.C. of Bennet Jones and his sister Elizabeth Cordeau-Chatelain of Total.

Published in National Post, March 27 2010
Photo by Adrian Shellard

Re-designing Disaster: Calgary Unites for Haiti

2010-03-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

In Calgary last month, tens of thousands of dollars were raised for the earthquake shattered country. A concert at Jack Singer Concert Hall on March 10 raised $40,000 alone, for the Le Foyer de Filles Chretiennes Orphanage. It was a joint effort between Calgary and the City of Windsor. Local bands The Dudes, Woodpigeon, and The Polyjesters, played alongside the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, DJ Rob Faust, and Curiously Canadian Improv Theatre among others. CBC’s David Gray hosted the event.

At the city’s third PechaKucha night, themed “rebuild”, guests gathered at the Glenbow Museum to share ideas and inspirations. The event raised over $3,000 (donated to Architecture for Humanity) and connected via live satellite technology a group in Tokyo hosting a similar event. PechaKucha is a style of event invented in Japan by architects who wanted to share their ideas and portfolios in a timely fashion. At any given gathering, a speaker will present twenty slides, or photographs, and talk about each one for twenty seconds. That gives each presenter exactly 6.6 minutes to get their ideas across.

PechaKucha Rebuild attracted a diverse group of speakers. Catherine Hamel, a professor of architecture in the environmental design faculty at the University of Calgary, delivered a moving and poetic narrative which slide gracefully over the heart wrenching photos of her partner, Lawrence Eisler.

Jim Avery, vice-president of Sprung Structures, talked about his company’s innovative response to emergency shelter needs. His family-run business opened in 1887 as a manufacturer of chuck wagon covers, tepees and other Western-style coverings. Today, Sprung Structures provides unique and easy engineered structures which can be erected within hours and withstand the elements. Avery showed pictures of the structures at work in Cuba, New Orleans, and right here in Calgary.

Anila Umar, a youth counsellor and diversity trainer, talked about refugees who rebuild their lives in Canada; Olivier Mills of CAWST – the Centre for Affordable Water Sanitation and Technology – spoke about the relationship between organizations like his own and local, indigenous associations on the ground. He also pointed to women in any given community as the breadwinners and leaders.

Johann Kyser, a masters student in the faculty of environmental design at U of C, spoke about the power of sustainable design to transform and rebuild communities, beyond the physical infrastructure, and pointed to the parallels between the resiliency of a design and that a community. His focus was on socio-economic change, and creative, holistic approaches to it. His was the final presentation of the night. His last words were, “As we’ve seen by tonight’s presenters, even in the most dire of circumstances, human creativity and passion prevail”

Published in National Post on March 20, 2010

Cocktails for a Cause: Alberta Theatre Projects and Calgary Health Trust

2010-03-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

In a year of economic uncertainty, charity might seem like a hard sell. Not so in Calgary. The latest example of philanthropy in this town was at the Telus Convention Centre, where “celebrities” mingled with the common folk to raise money for Alberta Theatre Projects.

This was the seventeenth year for the Lawson Lundell Celebrity Hors d’Oeuvres cocktail party. It featured a silent auction, where money was raised for the Enbridge Playwrights Festival. The festival sponsors emerging theatre talent and produces new plays which are workshopped and premiered in Calgary. This year’s line-up included How Do I Love Thee by Florence Gibson Mac Donald of Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre and Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre by Montreal’s Larry Tremblay, who is in residence at Lark Play Development Centre in New York.

The 2010 winners of the Emerging Playwright Award were Toronto’s Erin Shields and Maev Beaty for their show Montparnasse, an intriguing look at Parisian literary circles in the 1920’s. The award was granted at a separate cocktail function earlier in the month, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

At the Celebrity Hors D’Oeuvres function, several of Calgary’s upscale restaurants created mouth-watering morsels which were then sold for $2.00 each. The hook was in the serving. Well-known Calgarians wandered around the oddly shaped room (it was held in a rectangular foyer-type space outside the main conference hall). In their hands were trays of perfectly assembled, bite-sized appetizers and deserts. The celebrities included a Don Cherry look-alike, City Alderman Brian Pincott, charismatic CBC Radio hosts David Gray and Danielle Nerman along with charming side-kick Jenny Howe, also of CBC’s The Homestretch, Michael Bigattini, sommelier of Willow Park Wines & Spirits, designer Alykhan Velji, and City TV's Jill Belland.

Calgary’s Apheresis Clinic at the Foothills Medical Centre also got a boost this season, thanks to a gala fundraiser hosted by Calgary Health Trust and Vendemmia Wines. This clinic provides highly specialized procedures for blood cell separation and bone marrow testing, particularly important to cancer patients, as well as research, staff education, and out-patient services.

The Great Italian Wine Encounter brought first class wine-makers to the Fairmont Palliser Hotel. An incredible spread of food, including fine cheeses, chocolate, lobster risotto and rack of lamb, were paired with extraordinary – and rare – wine tastings. Among some of the more impressive were Trinoro di Trinoro, a perfectly balanced, full mix of cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. It was represented in person by Elena Capobiano of Tuscany.

Published in National Post on March 6, 2010

Alberta at the Olympics

2010-03-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Amidst the legions of patriotic groups wandering around downtownVancouver last week, there was one province cheering as loud as therest of them. That was Alberta.

The province of Alberta, along with their creative agency brand.LIVEand arms-length organization Travel Alberta, hosted a series oftargeted events around the city of Vancouver and in Whistler. The efforts cost the province over $6 million dollars this year alone, in addition to $14 million which has been spent over the past three years.

The ‘Alberta Station’ was once a rarely-used train station in arun-down part of town, but it has good bones. The marketing team transformed it into an open, loft-like space where enormous windows afforded cocktail party views of the entire downtown and the high ceiling allowed spotlights to fall upon a dance floor. A giant glowing sign with Alberta’s brand on it was visible from the streets aroundand the skytrain above, where thousands of visitors and locals weretravelling every day.

It was there, in Alberta Station, that a reception for “Sports Heroes” and Jean-Grande Maitre took place last Sunday night. Grand-Maitre, artistic director of Alberta Ballet, wasin town as the official choreographer for the opening and closingceremonies, as well as the nightly victory ceremonies where medalswere awarded daily.

Inside Alberta Station hung larger-than-life paintings of Canadian athletes, commissioned by the Canadian Sport Centre in Calgary. At the‘sport hero’ reception were Lindsay Blackett, provincial Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, Maelle Ricker, the first Canadian womanto win a gold medal in the 2010 Olympics, fashion designer Paul Hardy and supermodel Heather Marks, president of Calgary Arts Development Dr. Terry Rock and his family, former chair of the Calgary Chamber ofCommerce Lois Mitchell and her husband - who is the former commissioner of the CFL - Doug Mitchell, Patrick Jarvic of VANOC and many others.

Alberta didn’t stop at the station; another outreach vehicle was thetrain itself. The Rocky Mountaineer luxury train has four passengercars, several dining cars, and two bar cars. On it, at 5:00 am everyday, were members of the Alberta government, representatives from Travel Alberta and The Calgary Stampede, assorted industry partnerslike Karo Group, the creative branding company taking over TravelAlberta outreach activities this Spring, and other members of the media and various industries. That included everyone from United Kingdom tour groups, who bring visitors to Alberta each year, to Tokyo television producers, to the president of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

The Alberta train took a three hour journey, parallel to the highway and the coast, from Vancouver to Whistler. On board, guests were treated to Alberta cuisine, local music and white cowboy hats. Once at Whistler, ski events were not far away. The Whistler Golf Club was also transformed into the ‘Alberta Hospitality Centre’ where guests were treated to Edmonton popcorn, Banff sponge toffee, Calgary chocolate and Calgary Stampede – branded trail mix. On the return journey, guests enjoyed a host bar, champagne toast to the athletes, samples of Alberta cuisine including beef skewers and lamb burger sliders.

There are approximately 70 seats available on each car; general tickets were sold to industry leaders for $500 per person.

Back in Vancouver, Alberta had some prime real estate for its outreach activity. Each province and each country had a ‘house’ at the Olympics. Soci House, for example, which hosts the Russian athletes, government and industry officials, is normally the Vancouver ScienceWorld. Today, there are five to six hour line-ups to enter the domed structure. Alberta House is on the corner of Robson and Beatty, acrossthe street from BC Place where thousands of spectators pour out every evening. The street front of Alberta House is an outdoor heated patio where Alberta artists from jazz to hip-hop performed.

According to Blackett, this is not the Alberta most people would expect to see represented on the world’s stage. Indeed, while Alberta band RezOfficial played on Monday night – following a big win by Team Canada against Germany, and cheers for Calgary Flame Iginla – one spectator asked, “They have hip hop in Alberta? I thought it was going to be all twang guitar.” Another reveller on the plaza seemed unsure of which house he was actually in.

So is all this marketing activity working? Perhaps the best answer is from that of a Swedish man on Alberta’s plaza. When asked what he thought or knew of Alberta, the man replied ‘Spirit to achieve. Freedom to create' - Alberta's official tagline.

Published in National Post, February 27 2010

CBC Radio: Alberta at the Olympics

2010-03-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

Listen to my piece on CBC Radio - Calgary
about this province's investment in the Winter Olympics.

Click Here to Listen

Posties at The Oscars

2010-03-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

I'm in a screenshot with Conrad Black!

Lois and Lieutenant Governor Bid Farewell

2010-02-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

Calgary’s Salute to Excellence

At the gates to Stampede Park, guests were asked, “Who sent ‘ya?” Upon replying, “Al Capone” they were shown a parking space and guided to the entrance of BMO Centre. A Calgary Flames hockey game was in full force in the Saddledome next door, and guests passed through the
twisting hallways of BMO Centre, past an adjacent RV Show on their way. Though unintentional, the scene did feel reminiscent of a hidden speakeasy. Who would suspect a swinging black-tie function would be right around that motor home?

At the entrance to the main hall, actors dressed as Al Capone, his cronies, and a picketing temperance society mingled. Faux cops with billy clubs and moustaches roamed through the hall. Guests arrived in flapper outfits: headbands, layered, straight-line dresses, and top
hats. It was all part of the Chamber of Commerce’s annual theme gala. This year, it was called Prohibit This! Last year’s theme was disco.

Despite the levity of the evening, it was an emotional affair. The annual ‘Salute to Excellence’ is also a time for the chair of the Chamber to pass the gavel to a successor. In this case, the vivacious and popular Lois Mitchell stepped aside to welcome Simon Vincent. It was also the final gala for Lt. Gov. Normal Kwong, who is retiring this year. Heather Douglas, the president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, also spoke.

Noting the 1930's theme, all three made mention of the past year's accomplishments. For Kwong, 1929 holds a special significant because it was his birth year. For Douglas, this has been a year to overcome the challenges of a serious spinal surgery and a rocky financial foundation for small business. She also mentioned sponsoring George W. Bush's trip to the city as one of the Chamber's highlights - love him or hate him. For Mitchell, it was an emotional event because she was stepping down as chair, and received special congratulations from her husband, Doug Mitchell, who is also a past Chair of the Chamber.

PSAC raises $4.1 million for charity

2010-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

STARS earns their spurs

Everyone loves Western wear ... at least in Calgary. That’s according to Debra McAdam, a communications consultant originally from Vancouver, and Elizabeth Aquin, the senior vice-president of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC). And they should know. The two women were driving forces behind the sixteenth annual STARS & Spurs gala.

The gala evening took place at the BMO Centre on the Stampede grounds. Guests were invited to wear their best Western attire, and they did. There was a hat-shaping station next to the giant milk can where raffle tickets were dropped. A lone fiddle player welcomed guests into the massive room.

Once inside, attendees meandered through a silent auction. Prizes included: a romantic weekend for two at the Fairmont Banff Springs or the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, a sightseeing tour in a Cassna 182 airplane, ballet tickets, priceless works of art, and frozen semen for thoroughbred stallion breeding. There was a live auction, too, where a Team Canada Hockey Jersey (signed by Sidney Crosby), and a golf trip for two to Fox Harbour Resort in Nova Scotia were the first to go.

Over the past sixteen years, PSAC has raised $4.1 million dollars for the charity, STARS. Founded in 1985, the Alberta Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society has a base of operations in Calgary, Edmonton, and Grand Prairie. It is a non-profit charity. STARS provides emergency air lift and medical procedures, employing a team of high trained and specialized doctors, nurses, pilots and others. They also provide emergency fire dispatch, and are available twenty-four hours a day to labourers in remote areas – a facet of their work of particular interest to PSAC.

Elizabeth Aquin explains that many PSAC employees work in remote and dangerous territory, where traditional forms of emergency support are unable to reach them.

At the gala also was one of the STARS helicopters, and a virtual training machine. It is a tricky business, landing a helicopter in a heavy fog or woods or on a mountain top, and then treating a patient in the cramped space while the machine rolls and pitches toward a hospital.

A three course meal was served. The entree was Alberta prime rib beef with Burgundy wine and shallots. For desert, a large chocolate ganache cake was brought to every table with sparklers on top. The occasion was also celebrating the 25th anniversary of STARS. In keeping with the theme, each guest was given either a bolo tie or a red lace garter belt with mini-pistol with their place setting. Aquin and McAdam said they tried skipping the Western theme one year and it just didn’t work. People like it and feel comfortable in their boots, they said. Canadian country music singer Jessie Farrell provided the entertainment.

Other guests included The Honourable Ron Liepert, formerly the Minister of Health before a shuffle landed him as Minister of Energy just one week before the gala, Dr. Gregory Powell, a founder of STARS who was recently appointed a member to the Order of Canada, Al Buchignani, the former executive vice president of ENMAX and current chair of the STARS board, and Roger Soucy, president of PSAC.

Published in National Post, February 13, 2010

Bill Brooks Gala Shares the Love

2010-02-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

The Bill Brooks Gala has been called the hottest ticket in town for years. This year, though, it surpassed all expectations.

A fundraiser for prostate cancer, the party overtook the chic Hotel Arts. A live band got people on their feet early, and kept them swinging late into the night. Hor’s d’oeuvres were plentiful and included mini duck confit sandwiches, sushi, and lamb chops. The theme – “love the glove” – inspired some colourful fashion accessories. Otherwise decked out in black tie, guests were seen in boxing gloves, Olympic mittens, and even an “Edward Scissor hands” type costume.

What really had people talking, though, was the amount of money Bill Brooks raised for his cause. Despite the recession, the gala received its highest levels of corporate sponsorship and its largest number of ticket sales this year. In sum, the evening raised $570 000, all of it to be donated to the Southern Alberta Institute of Urology.

The institute is expected to open next month in Calgary. It will have been built entirely on community fundraising projects, like this gala, which together have totalled close to $30 million. Other donors include the University of Calgary, the Calgary Health Region, Betty and Sam Switzer Foundation, the Flames Foundation for Life, and the Rotary Clubs of Calgary.

The Southern Alberta Institute of Urology will research, treat and diagnose illness related to the urinary tract. That includes kidney stones, sexual health, and all kinds of cancer, particularly prostate and kidney cancers.

Bill Brooks, a notorious socialite and popular media personality in Calgary, began this event after losing an uncle to prostate cancer twenty years ago. According to many guests at his party, he has a knack for drawing people into his crusade.

Irene Price, president of West Canadian Direct Marketing Services, says her company receives thousands of requests for sponsorship. The cause is a personal one for executives at her firm, who were happy to support it. But she says it was Brooks himself who earned the sponsorship.

“He called me up and was so nice, and so sincere, I just wanted to help him!” she explained.

Other sponsors of the event included Safeway, who provided a re-useable grocery bag full of prostate-friendly food to each of the six hundred and seventy-five guests.

Spotted at the soiree were Rob Mabee, owner of Axis Art Gallery, and pal Eileen Stan, radio talk show host Dave Rutherford, designer and host of City TV’s My Rona Home Aly Velji with partner Jason Krell, a public relations guru, the vice-president of Hotel Arts Mark Wilson, and gala co-chair Larry Clausen, who is also the vice-president of Cohn & Wolfe for Western Canada.

Published in National Post, February 6 2010

Bridal Fantasies in Alberta

2010-01-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

A flurry of holiday proposals means big plans – and big business – right across Canada.

Here in Alberta, retailers in the wedding industry were out in full force last week at two separate wedding shows. The first, ‘Bridal Fantasy’, was held at the Telus Convention Centre in downtown Calgary on January 17 and then at the Northlands Edmonton Expo Centre on January 24. The ‘Bridal Fantasy’ brand extends to a popular magazine of the same name, found on newsstands across the province, an online blog, and a jewellery line.

Also on January 24, the Roundup Centre at Stampede Park was the scene of Calgary’s ‘Wedding Fair,’ where over two hundred “wedding experts” doled out free advice.

Attending Bridal Fantasy was an especially fruitful trip for engaged couple Omar Macalam and Margarita Chua. At Calgary’s Bridal Fantasy show, they not only found the perfect bridal gown – off the rack and on sale – but also won a raffle prize in the form of a large gift basket from Ideal Protein.

On display were retailers and their wares from every aspect of the wedding industry: cakes, music, clothing, jewellery, table settings, and even two giant Hummer-limousines for a wedding or stagette party. A fashion show, complete with a Disney-esque castle in the background, displayed gowns and formal suits from Jennifer Scott Bridal, Beautiful Bride, and Derks Tuxedoes. A group of children in little white dresses and mini suits stole the show with their choreographed dance down the catwalk.

The Bridal Fantasy show attracted approximately three thousand shoppers in Calgary but broke records in Edmonton with a jaw-dropping nine thousand patrons; a third of whom were brides-to-be.

Gay Derk, president of Bridal Fantasy, says her show is part of a typical engaged couple’s full experience. Having been a part of thousands of weddings in this way, she has some time-tested advice for those planning a wedding.

“Have fun with it and have open, honest communication,” she says, “So many people get freaked out over what their mother wants, or his father wants, or their sister wants. Just forget it. Enjoy each other, have fun with your friends. Pick three things that are ‘hard and fast’ must-haves and let the rest go. Pick three things, talk about them honestly, and write down your budget. That’s what I tell people.”

Naturally, Derk married into the wedding industry. Her husband, Darryl, and his family have run Derks Formal Wear for almost thirty years. As a young couple, Gay and Darryl were burglarized. With a new baby in the home, she watched in horror as her new husband was pushed out a window. For three years he required intense physio-therapy every day. Meanwhile, Gay (who has a background and degree in pharmacology) ran the family’s tuxedo and bridal gown shop. She doubled its profits each year. When Darryl recovered, she had found her passion. Bridal Fantasy was born.

For those who missed it, a third wedding show, Calgary’s Bridal Expo, will take place in September at Stampede Park.

Published in National Post, January 30 2010

So You're Engaged: First Reactions

2010-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

It was like being inside a pinball machine. Text messages, e-mails, and phone calls flashed and rang noisily all around me. Dozens of hands reached out to pinch my arm; dry, anonymous lips kissed my cheeks frantically, and there was a lot of joyful, incoherent yelling. It was mere hours since I had arrived home for Christmas, engaged, and the whole city of Vancouver seemed to be on high alert. I was jet-lagged and confused, but happy.

Why were all these people so excited for me to get married? Had they lost hope? How did they all know I was engaged? Did my parents tell the media? Who told my new fiancé he was getting a canoe as a dowry? What was I thinking, flying straight out of vacation and into one of my father’s giant holiday parties?

It began in Jamaica with a rush, post-proposal, of my future life as a future wife flashing before me. When I had calmed down, having examined the ethical diamond ring and my boyfriend’s super-hero posture carefully, I suddenly saw our future first home filled with our future freckled kids, our future careers, conflicts, Christmases, retirement, and travels around the world like a super quick slide show. This was our life. Then just as suddenly my vision narrowed and I saw a frantic work-out scheme, a desperate bid to quit smoking, a stunning couture wedding gown (ok, my imagination was running), a huge celebration, and an exotic but affordable honeymoon. This will be our wedding.

What I did not see, what I could not imagine, was anyone outside of my beau and I. But there they were, waiting. And that, it seems, is our engagement.

When you announce your intention to get married, it does funny things to people. Some are overjoyed, inappropriately thrilled by your decision to be locked in, while others are blasé. Everyone has advice, and the wedding is prime topic for dissection. “When is the wedding?” I was asked repeatedly the day after I became engaged; as if the event had been all planned out except for the leading man. Someone told me to order wedding cake “by the pound,” which I’m sure isn’t the way you do it. One person suggested, since we’re getting married in Toronto but hail from different parts of the country, that we have multiple weddings. Yes! A wedding tour! Let’s take this show on the road! Anything seems possible when you agree to get married.

Then there are the friends and family members you love, and who love you beyond reason. They have championed you as a couple, and supported your individual efforts. They are a warm cocoon between the couple and the world outside. And you need those people, because outside that cocoon is the real world, just waiting to freak you out with divorce statistics, mortgage rates, and speech requests. And orbiting around all of you are a flurry of trade shows, magazines, planners, cake-makers, banquet halls, DJs, and other honest retailers who simply want to share in your joy by selling you stuff – expensive stuff that must be colour coordinated.

Becoming engaged had a strange effect on us as well. Emotionally, I was on a roller-coaster ride for a solid month. A missing ingredient in my favourite salad was enough to bring tears. I quit smoking, joined a gym, and began scrapbooking favourite pictures from the wedding magazines I now buy at the grocery store every week. Scrapbooking! For my partner, babies have become an obsession. He watches National Geographic documentaries about baby muscox and baby panthers, and wonders what will happen to Brad and Angelina’s kids if they split. None of this is normal.

My soon-to-be mister proposed on a balmy night in Jamaica. In the darkness we could see thousands of stars above us, and the white fringe of waves as they lapped at our feet. A very brief, tiny moment before he uttered the words, I knew what was coming. My breath caught in my throat, and after saying “Yes!” my mind rushed into a stunned, wordless state of surreal euphoria. Nothing existed in that moment except for us, and this massive – perhaps insane – commitment we had just made.

It felt like skydiving: when you can’t remember the parachute, or the months of preparation, or the other people who have done this so many times before you, because the sheer fact that you jumped has stolen all other senses.

So, you’re engaged. Things will happen quickly, and it will feel like getting married is the most important, sensitive, and expensive duty you’ll ever have.

My advice to you, dear engaged one, is to remember that breathless moment when you first proposed or accepted; hold on to it, feel it, and put it somewhere very safe. There will be times when you need silence, calm, joy, or reminding of why you ever entered this world of hurt willingly. That’s when you can go back to that moment. Let your mind circle around how you felt, what you said (if anything), and remember what it was like to have nothing in your head except the sound of your heart. That moment is the first thing you’ve created for your future wedded selves. Marriage is a hopeful step, but engagement is the big leap.

Congratulations!

Published in The National Post, January 30 2010

Up next: Eeeek! Wedding dress week! Do they fit and flatter? Will it look tacky in photos ten years from now? Is it really worth the price of a down-payment or a trip to Europe? Was inviting three people to watch me self-consciously try on expensive clothes a bad idea? Does the new Holt Renfrew store in Calgary have a magnetic force around it?

No Exit: four more shows in Calgary

2010-01-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

Jean-Paul Sartre's 1944 play No Exit is on stage as part of The High Performance Rodeo festival.

Two of Vancouver's most innovative theatre companies: Electric Company Theatre and The Virtual Stage are set to wow another four audiences in Calgary before returning home.

It is a four person, one-act play featuring enormous talent in all its players, particularly Laara Sadiq as the sexually charged Ines Serrano, who has died of gas.

Set in Hell (represented by an anonymous hotel room), we watch as the three strangers struggle with corporeal desire in all its forms, from wanting a toothbrush or sex to needing the attention of others.

This last thing; the thing the characters covet the most - to be seen, heard, admired - and its opposite - the power to witness, observe, provoke - is where this production really crackles.

Here are three good reasons to see this play, while you can:

1) Seamless production: From the fascinating blend of live film projection and on-stage acting, to the clever lighting, score, and set design (we see, at one point, our guide the Bellhop at a desk with large piles of folders marked "said" and "unsaid") this is a captivating, 90 minute performance.

2) It's uncomfortably comfortable: Don't get too cozy. As Sartre reminds us, the more we see ourselves in the characters, the more necessary their hell becomes. This show draws you in, and then gently pokes at you .... I should say no more.

3) It's entertaining: Good art should always be entertaining, even if it's uncomfortable. This show is marked by outstanding performances from all four lead players. It is dark, funny, and most of all intriguing. Plus, the audience is always entitled to a behind-the-scenes tour after the performance, and believe me, you'll want it.

The four remaining shows in Calgary take place at the Max Bell Theatre:

Friday, January 29 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, January 30 at 2:00 pm
Saturday, January 30 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, January 31 at 2:00 pm

Tickets can be purchased through the Epcor Centre or on The High Performance Rodeo website.

Published on TheAmpersand.ca January 29, 2010

Vero Bistro hosts Vine and Dine

2010-01-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

While thousands gathered to cheer the arrival of an Olympic Torch in Calgary last Monday, a more intimate crowd was applauding the efforts of Chef Jenny Chan.

To them, her accomplishment was no less heroic than a gold-medal winner. That night, she and younger brother Frankie Chan prepared and plated a six course meal for almost 50 people; the full capacity of her small, upscale restaurant in Kensington.

Her partner, Mike Berg, is the restaurant’s manager and one of its few servers. He and co-workers were also given big praise, having slid deftly between tables, dropping gorgeous food with polished flare.

It was a ‘Vine and Dine’ event, meaning Linda Garson, an expert in wines, paired each course with a little known wine. She explained the history of each vineyard and grape, and why the choice was perfect for each dish.

A lobster bisque was first on the menu, complete with generous portions of lobster claws and a dash of Pernod. The matching wine came from Australia: Xanadu Next of Kin Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon.

The fresh crispness of it set the salty, cream soup in perfect balance. The following courses included a Dungeness crab cake with scallops and shrimp and exquisite hand-rolled sweet potato gnocchi drizzled with a sage brown butter and balsamic reduction; its sweet earthiness was paired perfectly with smoky bits of wild boar bacon, sweet candied almonds, and sharp gorgonzola cheese.

In a rare display of bias, Garson, who is set to visit winemakers in Italy, Chile and Argentina this season, announced her favorite wine that night: Chanson Pouilly Fuisse.

“This is delicate wine making,” she said of the Burgundy-region wine, “Chardonnay doesn’t have to be bright yellow, wheaty and steeped in oak … it can be like this, the perfect blend of acidity and sweetness. There is a subtle taste of oak, but not over-powering or artificial. This is how Chardonnay was meant to be.”

The same might be said of Vero Bistro. Confident, bold and complex flavours are matched by a comfortable, unpretentious setting. There are capable servers, a more-than-full bar, some of the freshest oysters in town, and a lively neighbourhood into which guests tumble after a long night of good food. Some Vine and Dine regulars said it was the best setting they’d experienced. It was, commented one patron, as if you had gone home for a special occasion dinner and your mother had been trained at Le Cordon Bleu.

Among the guests were Don Campbell, band leader for Estelle dance orchestra, Andy MacDonald, the new manager for Rouge Restaurant, and Johann Kyser, project manager for Alberta’s 2011 Solar Decathlon project.

Published in National Post on January 23, 2010

Sexy clown act sells out in Calgary, heads to Toronto

2010-01-22T17:47:00.000-08:00

Audiences in Calgary have been lining up to date this clown: Mimi, French from France, funny.

Rebecca Northan, a classically trained actress and comedienne, created Mimi (and became Mimi) for a short, naughty piece in the Luminato Festival's Spiegeltent'ntavern last year. Now, what started as a ten-minute cabaret show, has become a wildly popular, fully improvised 90-minute work of art called "Blind Date." Sold out during its first run at Toronto Harbourfront Centre, the show is now on stage in Calgary as part of the High Performance Rodeo.

With only four shows left, tickets in Calgary are hard to come by. Previous shows during this month's festival have been sold-out. Blind Date returns to Toronto on March 3, 2010 for a five-day run at The Harbourfront Centre.

The premise is simple: Mimi, a Parisian clown, is stood up by a blind date. She waits, then becomes impatient and hauls someone on stage from the audience.

How does she choose them? "The same way you pick someone you're going to date," she says, "It's just a feeling, a chemistry."

What follows is a true blind date, with all its inherent absurdities, sexual tension, and akward attempts to impress, on display for a full audience to see. Northan, who has done everything from Shakespeare to street performing, says she never takes a paid, seated audience for granted. Neither does she ignore the uncomfortable feelings of her guest.

"Wearing a clown nose reminds everyone that it's just for fun," she says, "The guys [from the audience] are usually pretty nervous, and I just gently remind them to relax. After all, that's the most interesting thing in the world; just watching someone be themselves."

Blind Date shows in Calgary January 22 and 23, at 7:30 pm and 10:00 pm in Lunchbox Theatre.

Harbourfront Theatre in Toronto will produce the show March 3 - 7, at 7:00 pm in The Brigatine Room.

Published on The Ampersand January 22, 2010

This is My City: Homeless Make Art, Stake Claim in Calgary

2010-01-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

A series of performances and exhibits this week will showcase the artistry of Calgary's homeless.

This is My City began last year, as a municipal-led program engaging homeless citizens in art-making. Theatre, photography, music, and visual art instruction was introduced at local drop-in centres and shelters by artist-mentors. Now, those creative expressions and more will be on display as a part of High Performance Rodeo, a month-long festival of the performing arts.

"Theatre is a self-esteem builder and a communication builder," explains Aviva Zimmerman, an artist-mentor and the project coordinator for This is My City, "Those are skills anyone should have; to look someone in the eye and speak clearly, to be confident in their ideas. It also feeds the soul. Art provides meaning for our lives and creates a sense of community."

Good art has long been a powerful ally to Calgary. While cowboy hats and oil rigs have become iconic symbols of this boomtown, a thriving - and expanding - cultural sector has provided space for dialogue and diversity. Giving voice to those who are most often silenced, or simply silent, is a driving force behind this project too.

"It was never meant to be a solution to the problem," Zimmerman explains, noting the disparity between Calgary's "paved with gold" image and the "overwhelming number" of people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

It will, though, draw some much needed attention and validation to a growing population in crisis. "It's overwhelming to see hundreds and hundreds of people who are in misery," adds Zimmerman, "Especially in one of the richest cities in a country with such a high standard of living. It is a crises in evey major urban centre in Canada."

This is My City includes the interactive "Power Play," whereby members of the audience may step into a role and attempt to change the show's conclusion. There is also a free art exhibit at the Epcor Centre and Glenbow Museum, a musical performance of the Land's End Chamber Ensemble and The Drop-in Singers at the Grace Presbyterian Church, and a showcase cabaret of various performers tomorrow, January 20 at the WR Castell Library. The week ends with a free symposium on art as a form of social justice, led by the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean and her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond.

A full listing of This is My City events can be found at www.hprodeo.ca/2010/this-is-my-city.

Published on The Ampersand, January 19 2010

High Performance Rodeo Round-Up

2010-01-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

Month-long festival of performing arts kicks off in Calgary

The High Performance Rodeo is a four week festival of music, theatre and dance. It is a place where emerging artists may showcase their work, and established shows find an eager audience. Here, you can see what good art is supposed to be - provocative, entertaining, and insightful - and, sometimes, art that is just the opposite.

The festival opened with a celebration of the highly unusual. Calgary’s Epcor Centre became the scene of a musical-circus-burlesque midway. Indie bands played while artists and art-lovers alike mingled. Cocktails were served in a velvet-draped lounge. While an “H1N1 Kissing Booth”, pornographic puppet show, and glass-walker kept the masses entertained on the midway, multiple shows were taking place around the city.

The most highly anticipated was Tubular Bells, a collaboration between Alberta Ballet, Honens Piano Competition, and the Bergmann Piano Duo. Choreographed by acclaimed local dancer Yukichi Hattori, the piece is set to an adaptation of a 1970’s rock-instrumental album. It was performed live by four internationally renowned pianists, on stage with the ballet company. It has been over a year since the show was performed here.

According to Michael Green, the festival’s curator, the mix of emerging and expected performances continues to grow the audience. “There is a demographic that will rush out and see anything that’s new,” he says, “And then there are those who look for something that’s established; that audience, in Calgary, is ripe, ready, and raring to go.”

“The High Performance Rodeo audience is the most sophisticated in Canada,” Green says, “There hasn’t been another festival - like this one, running for so long - anywhere else in the world. This audience is used to seeing very inter-disciplinary, challenging work. The kind of stuff you don’t see everyday is the mainstay of this festival.”

The hot tickets for next week include performances from Vancouver, Mongolia, and Calgary’s urban under-belly.

Electric Company Theatre from Vancouver is bringing Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit to stage beginning January 27. The show blends live theatre with live film, shot behind-the-scenes and shown on giant screens on-stage. An interactive tour of this mysterious set is included with a ticket.

Tono, a cross-cultural dance show which features live throat-singing, will start January 28. The show features performers from Canada, Mongolia and China. It will be a part of the Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver this winter.

Perhaps most important and unusual is This is My City, a sub-festival of performances based on a year-long project by the City of Calgary to engage homeless citizens in artistic expression. There are short plays based on the personal stories of homeless Calgarians; there is a concert by The Drop-In-Centre Singers and the Found Sound Orchestra; there is a unique exhibition of artwork by the homeless; there is a musical performance by the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble of Marcel Bergmann’s latest composition, written specifically for this event; and finally, there is an open, free symposium led by The Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, on the power of art to promote social justice. The ‘Art Matters’ and ‘This is My City’ Symposiums take place all day at the Glenbow Museum on January 24, 2010.

Published in National Post, January 16 2010

Choklat Snobs Keep it Simple

2010-01-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Holiday Hootenany Preceeds New Year's Indulgence

There are only two places in Canada that make their own chocolate, according to Brad Churchill, and one of them is in Calgary. It’s called Choklat, and every Monday the public is invited behind the counter of Churchill’s shop to see just how the magic happens.

Last week, a small crowd gathered at 7:00 pm for the ‘Choklat snobbery tour’ in Inglewood. They were greeted by a warm cup of rich drinking chocolate, piled with whipped cream, and sweet smells wafting through the room. In less than thirty minutes Churchill gave a run-down of chocolate’s history; from cocoa as currency in the 15th century to the thick, spicy hot chocolate made by Spanish explorers in the next, to the innovations by a British Quaker named Mr. Cadbury, an Italian traveler named Mr. Ghirardelli, and two Swiss men called Henri Nestlé and Rudolphe Lindt which slowly formed what we now know as common, edible chocolate.

“For hundreds of years the art of making chocolate has been surrounded by this mystique, this air of mystery,” Churchill told his little group, “I’m breaking that wide open.”

A self-proclaimed “red-neck from Alberta,” Churchill has tried to purge his practice of the pretention often found in other confection stores. There is no elaborate packaging here, just the simple foil wrapping with smart turquoise lettering. Even the shop’s name - Choklat - is to this end; “I figured I would spell it phonetically and just be clear about what people are getting,” he explains, “It’s just that - real and simple.”

The tour includes an education on cocoa beans and their suppliers, and then a walk-through of how the chocolate is made. Churchill has managed to nurture relationships with small growers in Venezuela and has the distinct advantage of a family member in the freight business. This means his shop has access to rare, hand-sorted, good quality beans. He roasts them, separates the shell from interior (called “nibs”) and refines them with sticky fresh vanilla beans, cocoa butter
and sugar. The result is five pure and distinct chocolates from five unique cocoa bean types.

They are sampled alone, relative to a Lindt bar, and finally paired with desert wines, champagne, and sherry. One combination, a particularly well-aged sherry with the slight dried-fruit notes in the dark Cayuga cocoa, has been known to make some guests weep.

While Choklat and its decadent behind-the-scenes tour have gained in popularity, Churchill is already looking at the next step. He wants a larger space to begin with, one with a seating area where patrons can relax while indulging in a brownie or cup of hot chocolate. A Willie Wonka style chocolate waterfall and river has also crossed his mind.

A good introduction to the New Year, Choklat’s ‘snobbery tour’ followed on the heels of several holiday parties in Calgary. The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) had its fête at Centini’s Restaurant, where several Alderman were spotted including Druh Farrell who was asked by the M.C. if she wanted to start her bid for the mayor’s seat immediately. Lorraine Royer of Global Public Affairs, US Consul-General Laura Lochman, and Enbridge executive Art Meyer were also present. The Lougheed House hosted its annual design and décor
event. This year featured rooms decorated by Janet Farnham, Kevin Gray, and Charlene Threatful. Among the guests was Joe Lougheed, a lawyer with Fraser Milner Casgrain and son of former premier Peter Lougheed. He was taking guests through his great-grandmother’s old bedroom and explaining how she might have lived.

Published in National Post on January 9 2010

An International Christmas Feast in Calgary

2009-12-12T17:19:00.000-08:00

Vine and Dine Gives Perfect Holiday Pairings

Christmas came early in Calgary, as over one hundred excited guests gathered on the 35th floor of International Hotel and Suites to celebrate the holidays with fine wines and food from around the world. Vine and Dine, the popular food and wine club hosted by Linda Garson, organized the event.

The menu featured six small courses, each paired with wines from a different country. First there was Portuguese bacalhau da consoada - poached cod with egg and cabbage - matched by Casal Garcia Vinho Verde. Vinho vedre literally translates to ‘green wine’ and speaks to the youthfulness of this blend, which is bottled without aging and meant to be drunk right off the shelf. The wine comes from the north of Portugal. It is fresh and slightly bubbly, a perfect balance to smoky, earthy flavoured food. Then a taste of Chilean sea bass arrived, with a sample of Botalcura Chardonnay/Viognier. The highlights of the meal were yet to come, though, in the form of a succulent braised wild boar belly from Italy and French-style smoked duck breast with toasted pistachio nuts. Those were paired with Masi Campofiorin and Coudoulet de Beaucastel, both full-bodied reds. Typical Canadian holiday fare was provided in the form of turkey with gravy and stuffing, paired perfectly with Gray Monk 50 Red from the Okanagan Valley.

Although she had not tasted any of the dishes prior to the event, Garson was pleased with the pairings. The menu was created especially for the occasion, in partnership with the multi-cultural talent of the hotel’s kitchen staff.

“None of these are available on the typical menu,” explained Carrie Larose of International Hotels, “We wanted to show that the hotel can really provide whatever you want for catering or functions. We also want to provide food that is not typically found in Calgary - or hard to find - and cater to that niche.”

Guests ranged from regular Vine and Dine attendees, like Heidi Wiebe and Wendy Walters, to pure vino-philes like importer Jocelyn Morgan, to culinary adventurers like Ann and Jim Murphy, who are set to travel through Southeast Asia with local food critic John Gilchrist next month. Their trip is organized through the University of Calgary, where Gilchrist teaches, and will include a two-day workshop on ‘Food and Culture’ at the campus before a two week trek through Thailand and Cambodia.

A large and jovial group of sixty-five patrons dominated one side of the room. They were managers of Boston Pizza franchises, enjoying a company Christmas party in high style. Dennis and Betty Bailey, owners of several Boston Pizza restaurants in the Calgary area, were among them.

After each course, there was a draw for two prizes: a bottle of one of the wines sampled, and a gift bag including chocolates and other treats. The majority of the randomly awarded prizes went to the Boston Pizza crowd. After dinner, the tables of the ballroom were cleared to allow dancing late into the evening.

Published in National Post on December 12 2009

Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business in Calgary

2009-12-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business [CCAB] was in Calgary last week for their annual gala dinner. It has been twenty-five years since the organization was founded. Earlier this year, an anniversary party was held in Toronto, where John Ralston Saul was the keynote speakerand Rick Mercer delivered a pre-taped welcome address.

In Calgary, the celebration focused on economic development and the success of private-public partnerships. “Alberta is a dynamic place to be, and to learn about sustainable partnerships,” says Clint Davis, president of the CCAB. “This province is an economic driver for the country, and you’re also talking about a strong First Nations community, politically.”

Held at The Westin Hotel, guests mingled around hors d’œuvres and an open bar before sitting down for a full four course meal. Salad and soup were served before a turkey and lobster duo, which was finished with a seared berry desert. The food was paired with excellent selections of wine from Nk’Mip Cellars, Canada’s first Aboriginal owned and operated winery. It is found deep in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.

While networking was high on the agenda, the gala was also the launch pad for the CCAB mentorship program. The initiative partnersAboriginal entrepreneurs with experienced leaders in Canadianbusiness. Applications will be accepted as of January for partnerships in Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

“It’s a fascinating time in Canada as it pertains to the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business relationship in this country,” says Davis.

He points to the increasing number of young, urban, educated Aboriginals in Canada as a timely remedy to labour shortages. Davis adds that other factors in the growth of Aboriginal influence include a “groundswell of support for corporate social responsibility” which further connects Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business communities, roughly five million dollars in investment capital from settlement claims, a panache for entrepreneurial activity, and the legal ‘duty to consult’ before developing on traditional Native land.

While yet another First Nations community in British Columbia - the Gitxsan of Hazeltown - considers giving up their rights under The Indian Act, Davis says change continues to come quickly. “There’s no doubt that The Indian Act in and of itself is a barrier to economic development,” he says, “[Relinquishing it] certainly has an impact on how government and business works together. But I think it’s a very good thing. It builds capacity within the community, and it opens up more opportunity to attract investors."

Those who attended the Calgary gala included: Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey of Loon River First Nation, Woodland Cree Chief Joseph Whitehead, director of education for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Dr. Noella Steinhauer, Jess McConnell of
ConocoPhillips, Maria MacAulay of Enbridge, Vicki Reid of EnCana, and Bonnie Veness of Suncor.

Published in National Post on December 5 2009

Rosenberg Talks Risk at Teatro

2009-12-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

David Rosenberg was the guest of honour at the latest Salon Speaker Series event in Calgary.

The theme for this season is Risk and the Global Economy. It’s a topic with which Rosenberg, who left Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in New York to join the Canadian firm Gluskin Sheif earlier this year, is intimately familiar.

After a champagne reception and impressive three-course meal at the posh Teatro Restaurant, guests settled in for the main event. Salon speakers are requested to make opening comments, unscripted, for approximately 30 - 40 minutes before taking questions from the audience. The generous portions of lamb with caramelized root vegetables had barely been cleared, the mouth-watering array of sweets hardly explored, when Rosenberg launched into his monologue.

Dubbed the ‘double dip guy’ by at least one guest (because of his two-pronged recovery forecast), Rosenberg prompted a rush of murmurs with his opening: “You have to make your bets against the consensus,” he proclaimed, “The consensus gets it wrong about eighty percent of the time. But maybe this year is one of those times the consensus actually gets it right … right now the consensus is on some sort of v-shaped recovery.”

He was quick to win over his audience and declare his intentions.

“I am a financial market economist,” he said, “I’m a Wall Street guy and I’m a Bay Street guy. I’m here to talk about how to take the economics…what it means for your investments, and how to stay out of trouble. It’s about how much risk you want to take on, in order to get your return.”

True to the evening’s theme, Rosenberg’s talk centered on risky endeavors. First there was the Obama-Bernake analysis. Calling the United States economy a “fiscal train wreck,” he predicted that the sanctioning of a low dollar would boost their economy, promote exports, and protect balance payments. Then there was full-blown derision for the equities market, which he claimed “as a culture is dead”.

A director of Gluskin Sheif and regular Salon Series patron, Wilf Gobert, agrees on both counts.

“What he’s saying is that people are so focused on equities as the only investment,” Gobert said, “But the reality is that there are a lot of different investments available, including gold and bonds. And the attractiveness of alternative investment has grown, as a means of diversification in asset risk.”

Unsurprised by much of what Rosenberg had to say, Gobert says the economist “can be bullish at times,” citing his optimistic perspective on commodities (and therefore commodity equities) but agrees with his assessment of the American dollar.

“He’s bearish on currency because it’s the only major policy lever left in US government to try to stimulate their economy,” Gobert said.

And what does this mean for Canada, and more to the point, Alberta?

“Like all exporters in Canada, a low US dollar hurts the oil patch,” explains Randy Pettipas, president of Global Public Affairs and a regular guest of the Salon Series, “Your expenses are in Canadian dollars and your revenues in US dollars. It's worth noting though, that historically as the US dollar weakens the price of oil rises providing some compensation.”

Other guests at the function included D’Arcy Levesque of Enbridge, John Cordeau, Q.C. of Bennett Jones LLP, Dave MacInnis of Chevron Canada Ltd, Mark Kryzan of Shaunessy Investment Counsel, Jim Palmer of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, Wouter Raemdonck of Total E&P Canada Ltd, David Bercuson of the University of Calgary, and Nicholas Kohler, Calgary Bureau Chief for MacLean’s Magazine. Rudyard Griffiths, co-founder of the series, skipped the event to be with his wife and new-born baby in Toronto.

Published in National Post, November 28 2009
Photo by Adrian Shellard.

Calgary Spies with the Geminis .... A Film Studio?

2009-12-03T09:40:00.001-08:00

The 24th Annual Gemini Awards for Excellence in Canadian Television brought top industry talent to Calgary last week for a series of meetings, galas, and a glittering award ceremony, broadcast across the country. Held in a different city each year, this is the first time The Geminis have come to Calgary.

On-screen talent Brent Butt of Corner Gas, Arlene Dickinson of Dragon’s Den, Erin Karpluk of Being Erica, and Tom Jackson, most famous for North of Sixty, mingled with the behind-the-scenes folk who make it all happen, like local acting instructor Karen Ryan, Calgary film commissioner Luke Azevedo, Vancouver producer Ed Hatton, and Tom Cox, executive producer of SEVEN24 Films. While out-of-towners were kept entertained, local industry got a huge boost from their provincial ministry.

It’s taken almost three decades of planning, bargaining, lobbying and hoping, but a permanent, full-service film studio and post-production centre seems to finally be on the horizon in Calgary. During last week’s haze of Gemini Award parties, Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett unveiled an “agreement in principle” with the owners of Canada Olympic Park to buy a piece of their land and build a 75,000-square-foot facility there. The agreement comes less than two weeks after plans for a Canadian Sports Hall of Fame on the same site were announced. The province has promised $10 million to the Hall of Fame, and indicated partial funding support for the estimated $26 million studio development. At another function, Blackett also revealed $800,000 in new provincial grants for creative projects.

“For us it’s amazing”, says Azevedo, “It’s more than just sound studios: there is potential for sustainability, there are plans in place to allow us to link with post-secondary, to help create a training grounds, to help us become the diverse economy that we always talk about. Although we’re in a downturn economy, this is one of those things that will help us recover on a global scale. In my opinion, without a sound stage it’s also very difficult to grow our industry to where we want it to go. And since 80% of the work is done in the Southern quadrant of the province, we do need to facilitate that. This property will allow us a quick transition and a quick build.”

The Glenbow Museum, Westin Hotel, and Teatro Restaurant were all venues for hot ticket parties last week. After the funding announcements were made at the museum, insiders mingled, munched and mused across the street at the Women in Film and Television Alberta (WIFTA) party. Guests dined on scallop ceviche, fresh oysters, seared duck breast, and pork belly appetizers while a seemingly impromptu drum circle and live jazz provided entertainment.

Marni Fullerton, the recently elected president of WIFTA, says the timing was perfect for both a party and the new grants announcement. “We wanted to sort of ‘present’ Alberta, as the rest of the industry from across Canada descended,” she says, “[The funding announcements] are a really positive sign that Alberta is serious about long term development and sustainability in film and television in this province, and I applaud Lindsay Blackett for taking that initiative.”

Big winners at the next evening’s gala award ceremony included The Rick Mercer Report for best comedy, Flashpoint for best drama and best direction, and The Dragon’s Den for best reality series.

Published in National Post November 21, 2009
Photo by Adrian Shellard

Saskatoon: A new heart for the old west?

2009-11-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

Canada West Foundation, a forty-year old think tank headquartered in Calgary, has opened a new office in what their senior economist has called “the top-performing province in the country” - Saskatchewan.

At a dinner in Saskatoon’s Delta Bessborough hotel, Premier Brad Wall and local mayor Dean Atchinson were joined by high profile guests from the Western provinces including former Attorney General for British Columbia Geoff Plant, former Saskatchewan Minister of Finance Janice MacKinnon, former Manitoba MLA and current president of the Business Council of Manitoba James Carr, former Alberta MLA and current chairman of The Western Financial Group Jim Dinning, Member of Parliament for Blackstrap Lynne Yelich, and Cameco Corporation’s Gary Merasty.

Calgary-based PetroBakken (a PetroBank company) was a lead sponsor of the event. Two weeks ago, in the small town of Kerrobert Saskatchewan, the company unveiled a homegrown technology called “Toe-to-Heel-Air-Injection” or THAI, designed to recover heavy oil in an efficient and sustainable way. The province’s Premier and Minister of Energy were on hand for the project’s announcement, which they claim will make major strides in extracting the estimated twenty billion barrels of heavy oil under the province, while preserving other valuable resources like water and natural gas.

Saskatoon berry wine was poured while Jim Gray, outgoing chair of Canada West Foundation, provided the opening remarks. “Think of the great assets of this province,” he said, “We have energy, food, and water. Then think inside of that triangle: We have technology, we have innovation, we have the people, and we have the quality of life. That’s your future, in Saskatchewan. It’s a marvelous future, and well deserved.”

The premier was introduced by CEO of Petrobank Energy John D. Wright. Guests from Alberta - already fearful of a shrinking competitive advantage at home - squirmed in their seats as Wright praised the “excellent leadership” and economic strength of Saskatchewan.

“I want to share with you that Petrobakken, and our parent company PetroBank, see Saskatchewan as the province for investment in Canada,” Wright said, “From the communities in which we work to the halls of the legislature; we’ve been welcomed with open arms. There couldn’t be a better place to do business in our experience. We will invest all that we can into this province.”

Wall picked up the praise, even adding fuel to the fire with a slide show depicting the Calgary Stampeders taking hits from the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Slogans like “You don’t stand a chance” over pictures of the football teams appeared on a large screen. Taking a more serious tone, the premier talked at length about the disparity between economic power in Western Canada and political power centralized in the East. Calling upon the National Energy Program, the musings of John A. MacDonald, and the notion of ‘easy money in the oil patch’, Wall framed his comments with “the disconnect; the lack of understanding between fellow citizens in the same country.”

“Some would say you’re not paranoid if they really are out to get you,” Wall said.

Charged with provoking debate and testing “national policies against regional aspirations,” Canada West Foundation certainly had good fodder for its opening in Saskatchewan. The premier went on to talk about the limits on a cap-and-trade scheme in the province - “We know we have to pay our share,” he said, adding the money must be re-invested in environmental technology in order to be “on in Saskatchewan” - and the growing alliances between the Prairie provinces in Canada and those in The United States.

Jack Vicq, former associate dean for University of Saskatchewan, will head up the new office in Saskatoon.

Published in National Post, November 14, 2009

A Sunday at the Opera: Manon opens Calgary's season

2009-11-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

Calgary Opera gave its patrons a sneak-peak of its season-opener last Sunday, as the cast of Manon performed recital-style in The Petroleum Club. The first of three “opera brunches”, the event allowed guests to feast on an expansive buffet before company members took the stage one at a time to sing a song of their choosing. On the menu were: eggs two ways, Belgian waffles, toast, three types of salad, fruit (strawberries, raspberries and lots of melon), bacon, sausage, potatoes, grilled veggies, brownies, cookies, cakes, croissants and more. Tickets were $65 per person.

Bob McPhee, the CEO widely credited with keeping Calgary Opera financially stable through uncertain times, acted as master of ceremonies, first introducing accompanist Gordon Gerrard. In September, Gerrard was awarded the Enbridge Arts Award for Emerging Artist at the Mayor’s Evening for Business and the Arts, an event which McPhee co-chaired with Jim Stanford, former CEO of Petro-Canada .

M.C. McPhee also welcomed special guests in the audience: artistic director of Edmonton Opera Brian Deedrick was in attendance, having been appointed the stage director for Manon, as well as vocal coach Michael McMahon, resident conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Mélanie Léonard, and former Toronto Star music and dance critic William Littler.

Matthew Cassils, a baritone from Montréal and a new member of the Emerging Artist Development Program, opened the show. Then came the widely celebrated Peter McGillivray, who sang “Avant de quitter ces lieux” from Faust. Michelle Minke, Lauren Phillips, and Michel Corbeil all gave charming performances. The two stars of Manon, however, certainly stole the show.

American tenor Richard Troxell has joined the cast as des Grieux, the handsome and impetuous horseman who falls in love with Manon at first sight (and in the first act), and compels her to dodge life in the nunnery in favour of eloping to Paris. At the brunch, Troxell opened with an amusing story of bear-sighting in Alberta before launching into a heart-breaking version of “Oh, Danny Boy” - proving he could sing Happy Birthday and have an audience in tears. Nathalie Paulin, who plays Manon, sang “La Vie en Rose” while pulling McMahon from the audience for a brief dance. Paulin and Troxell have both performed with l’Opéra de Montréal (Troxell as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly Poulin as Mélisande in Debussy’s Pélléas et Mélisande), in addition to appearances around the world. For the finale, the singers performed a duet from Carmen, leaving no doubt their version of lovers in Manon will be phenomenal.

Calgary Opera’s Manon begins November 21; the next opera brunch will be held in January with the cast of Mark Adamo’s Little Women.

A Worthy Romp in Calgary

2009-10-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

It was everything you’d expect from a night out with the girls: candy, drinks, gossip and make-overs. Pink décor overtook the usual dark-and-trendy vibe of Calgary resto-lounge Belgo; professional hair and make-up stations greeted patrons, while a mobile spa awaited them further into the fete. There was even a semi-secluded area with plush couches and big screen TV called ‘the man cave’. Girlish glee aside though, there was something heavy weighing on the minds of party-goers last week: breast cancer. The ultra-feminine, hipster-oriented affair was one of many hosted by Rethink Breast Cancer across the country, designed to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research.

Founded in 2001 by MJ DeCoteau (who attended the recent Calgary event), Rethink Breast Cancer has become one of the nation’s leading sources of information and inspiration for women under forty. DeCoteau was featured in MacLean’s Magazine as one of their “10 Canadians who made a difference” and in Chatelaine as one of the ten women they’d like to see run the country. The organization was also noticed by Marketing Magazine for their innovative communications strategy. Rethink events, like last week’s “Rethink Romp” at Belgo, are designed to be appealing, approachable and accessible for young women because traditional medical literature is often the opposite.

Alongside parties in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto (including a breast film festival at the Royal Ontario Museum in November) Rethink has partnered with retail and fashion brands like Joe Fresh, Roots, Gap and Telus to deliver attractive fundraising merchandise. The organization’s style and results are what prompted Calgary chair Tasha Westerman to get involved after she struggled with the disease and won.

“I was looking for something that was young and hip,” she says, “Something where women could talk about what matters to women, like fertility and appearance, and that would reach out in a supportive but fun way. The experience [of having breast cancer] can be very isolating.” Westerman got in touch with DeCoteau, and together they put together the first Rethink event in Calgary.

An impressive silent auction had party-goers betting and bargaining late into the evening. Items included a Gold’s gym membership, a weekend get-away to Banff Park Lodge, WestJet round-trip tickets to a location of your choosing, and a fabulous basket of chocolate, cheese and other treats. Money raised by Rethink Breast Cancer directly supports young medical researchers in their professional and academic development, family and youth support programs, and BreastCancerNowWhat.ca, an informative website for breast cancer patients.

Guests of the romp included public relations guru Jason Krell, stylish editor of VitaminDaily.com Malwina Gudowska, Wax Creative copy-writer Stephanie Bialik, Calgary Economic Development’s Sarah Cott, Telus’ Rick Salahub, Vice President of Exploration for Trident Resources Mike Finn, and Souzan Basmahjian of Long View Systems.

Published in National Post on October 31, 2009

The Posties: Long, Involved Process by Steve Murray

2009-10-27T16:32:00.000-07:00

Published in National Post, October 24 2009
Read "The Posties" By Clicking Here

Fashion and Feng Shui in Calgary

2009-10-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

Holt Renfrew, a mecca of labels and luxury in Canada for 170 years (Yes, 170 years! In 1837 it was created as a hat shop in Quebec before becoming the Queen’s “furrier” in 1886 and finally Holt, Renfrew & Co. in 1900), has replaced its store in Calgary with one three times bigger. Among the boutiques newly available in the 151,000 square foot space are Tiffany & Co, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Hermes, which hosted its own launch a few days after the mother-ship’s opening.

Media tastemakers from across the country flocked to the city for a celebration of beauty and branding at the new Hermes store, just inside the 4th Street entrance to Holt Renfrew. Champagne circulated while Guillaume de Seynes, executive vice president of Hermes and Jennifer Carter, president of Hermes Canada, delighted in sharing stories of the brand’s history.

In keeping with the evening’s theme of “The Great Escape”, guests were shuttled in a limousine or by stylish cruiser bicycles to The Opera Room in Teatro Restaurant for an intimate dinner. There, Bastien Bicharzon, just weeks after his move from Paris to Calgary, was introduced as the new store’s manager. Guests enjoyed a four-course meal including lobster, beef tenderloin, a selection of fine cheeses, and seared wild strawberries with lemon thyme sorbet.

A sweetly sophisticated Vineland Estate Vidal Ice Wine was circulating just as the affair became a kind of high fashion hoe down, with Hello! Canada Magazine editor Ciara Hunt and Avenue Magazine editor Kathe Lemon standing on the dinner table to reach classic Hermes scarves hanging off the giant globe lamps above.

A round of fluorescent green shooters were ordered and passed around. Meanwhile, Tanya Kim of entertainment news show eTalk Daily, Christopher Sherman of Fashion Television, and Hunt plied local writers for information on the best locale for line-dancing and other things cow-town. Nathalie Atkinson, style editor for The National Post, Karen Ashbee of FASHION, Malwina Gudowska of VitaminDaily.com, Shelley Youngblodt of Swerve Magazine, and Bill Brooks were also in attendance. At the end of the night, each guest was gifted with a souvenir Hermes bicycle helmet and a piece of gold-embossed porcelain bearing the iconic jumping horse of its Cheval d’Orient collection.

Earlier this season, style in the home was the focus of another event, this time spanning four days. The Calgary Home and Interior Design Show took place at the BMO Centre in Stampede Park. High profile presenters included Bryan Baeumler, host of popular television show Disaster DYI, Alykhan Velji, a Calgary-based designer soon to be launching a new signature line of rugs and home furnishings, and Mag Ruffman.

For those unconvinced by scarves and showrooms, a new book about how to build a healthy, happy home was released this month at a small yet bustling function in Okotoks. Alberta author Dawn Hankins teaches Feng Shui at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Her new book, The Forces Behind Feng Shui: A Companion to Energizing Your Life, gives pragmatic advice for those seeking a positive, peaceful and prosperous environment. Among the tips are: add a touch of red into your décor to boost your financial abundance and enthusiasm for life; de-clutter your front door and make sure it is well lit to invite positive energy; and make sure the foot of your bed is not facing the bedroom door for a good night’s sleep and a feeling of security.

Published in National Post on October 17, 2009

Movie Madness for Mavericks: CIFF at Ten

2009-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

The parties were a little more modest, and a little less crowded than last year. There were more directors than cast members (read: celebrities) present, which is a good thing according to executive director Jacqueline Dupuis. The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is about the filmmakers, she says, unlike Toronto’s marketing blitz and Vancouver’s mass-appeal programming. Every speech, interview, media piece, or private conversation alluded to the festival’s financial status.

Yet these signs of the economic times hardly prevented success on CIFF’s ten year anniversary, but rather narrowed the focus to what was most important: a record number of submissions, over a dozen well programmed series of truly international films, industry panels on the future of film, and a $25,000 cash award to a ‘Maverick’ filmmaker. And there were still plenty of free drinks to go around.

The opening and closing galas were held in the same location: a large section of downtown’s Eau Claire Market, which was sectioned off with billowy white curtains, flanked by a stage at one end and the white canvas FASHION / American Express / CIFF photo-op backdrop at the other.

The opening film was Crackie, a Newfoundland tragi-comedy starring Mary Walsh and Meghan Greeley, who was in attendance with director Sherry White. White and Greeley participated in a post-screening question/answer session, moderated by local reporter Nirmala Naidoo.

Then came the Rock n’ Roll Red Carpet Party, which followed John Chester’s new documentary about photographer Robert Knight, whose expert eye and relaxed demeanor has earned him privileged access to some of the greatest rock performers of our time, from Mick Jagger to Robert Plant. The party took place at the Barley Mill, across from Eau Claire Cinemas, with both Knight and Chester in attendance.

Toronto’s Ryan Noth, Geoff Morrison, Luke Bryant and Sarah Lazarovic were in town to premiere two movies - NPP: Gros Morne and No Heart Feelings. The documentary-cum-art-project called National Parks Project: Gros Morne is a city-specific experience which combines stunning footage of our national parks (in this case Newfoundland’s Gros Morne) on the big screen with a line-up of local musicians who perform a live soundtrack to the images. No Heart Feelings, a very funny film about a group of twenty-somethings in the big city, held its after-party at the Uptown Theatre’s Marquee Room, where cast member Steve Murray (also of The National Post) was in attendance. Director Lazarovic was the first ‘visiting creative’ to earn a free hotel stay at the newly renovated Nuvo Suites, which along with Calgary Arts Development is offering one complimentary stay per month for artists visiting Calgary.

Damien Chazelle, jazz drummer and Harvard grad, was one of the ten emerging filmmakers to earn the title Maverick. His beautiful black-and-white musical film Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench was celebrated with live jazz and a hopping after-party at Beat Niq Social Club. Chazelle also participated in an industry panel on “the art of filmmaking.”

At the closing gala last week, Chris Chong Chan Fui was awarded the coveted Mavericks prize for innovation and excellence in filmmaking, for his film Karaoke. Theatre actress and director Karen Hines took home the award for Best in Alberta short film for her work on A Tax on Pochsy. Among those mixing and mingling at the party were David Lee Miller, director of My Suicide, Juliet Garcias, director of Be Good, Ian Day, Tyler Fraser and Scott Townend of the locally-made short film Greenwash Gang, Spencer Estabrooks, director of the Western zombie flick Dead Walkers, Geraldine Byrne of WADE Canada, and Dr. Terry Rock, president of Calgary Arts Development.

Published in National Post October 10, 2009

Saints and Scoundrels on Wall Street

2009-10-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Salon Speakers Series has opened its 2nd season in Calgary’s Teatro restaurant with author and New York Times business writer Joe Nocera. The theme this year is Risk and the Global Economy.

Some things at the Salon Series don’t change: the outstanding quality of a three-course meal at Teatro, for example, or the introductory remarks from a local business icon (in this case Jim Palmer, founder of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP), or the name-dropping within thirty seconds of the speaker’s remarks (last session we heard Bill Kristol’s scathing review of Al Gore’s company; this time we heard about Mr. Nocera’s casual visits to T. Boone Picken’s living room). On the other hand, some regular guests (it is an invite-only affair) have noticed some marked differences. In his introduction, Mr. Palmer, whose firm is also a title sponsor, pointed to the rather conservative nature of last year’s speakers and implored that the audience “be okay with some thinkers that are slightly to the left.”

Nocera’s gift, as a speaker and a writer, is story-telling. Energetic and knowledgeable, he spoke about the tension, the vacuum and the free-fall on Wall Street and in the White House after the collapse of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. He described scouring for information, trying to figure out what would happen next. “They had no idea,” he said, “As the debate over Freddie and Fannie was going on, that AIG was just a few days away, then Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch … it’s like all five heads of the family, in mafia terms, falling like a deck of cards.” Then he took questions.

In his book, Good Guys & Bad Guys, Nocera unravels the narrative of big business from the early ‘80s until today, giving the reader an up-close-and-personal look at how major deals close, companies grow or falter, and ultimately how a few personalities have dramatically shaped the American fortune. The book is compelling and accessible, deftly turning high finance into a good story. His descriptions of Wall Street in the mid-1980s (a chapter called “GaGa Years” is particularly good: “The scent of the market is powerful here, intoxicating,” he writes, “All around me I can see the blandishments of money, the seduction of wealth, the lure of financial security.”) are riveting. Oh, the heady climb before the fall.

For such a prolific insider, it’s a surprise that his writing didn’t offer forewarning of last year’s economic tumble, but boy can he explain it well today. And his prediction for the future? “People want to know if this will happen again,” he said, “And the answer is yes. It is inevitable that as people forget the downside of risk, they risk again, and ultimately fall into national - in this case international - insanity.”

While the question and answer period focused mainly on domestic economic recovery plans, Nocera did have a few awe-inspired comments for China (“It’s impossible not to be dazzled by China’s economic rise.”) who along with India and Brazil was given increased sway over the activities of the IMF only days prior and which, not incidentally, owns a significant portion of American debt.

Guests received a signed copy of Nocera’s book courtesy of Enbridge; other sponsors included Bennett Jones, Vendemmia International Wines, Global Public Affairs, and The National Post.

Published in National Post October 3, 2009
Photos by Adrian Shellard

Calgary International Film Festival

2009-10-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

A daily blog
following the films, parties, and general antics of this year's CIFF for The National Post

Published on The Ampersand, September 25 - October 4

National Music Centre fit for a king

2009-10-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Plans were unveiled last night for the Cantos National Music Centre in Calgary; the results of an eight month global design search and competition. Opened in March 2009, the contest was narrowed to five architecture firms by July, each of whom presented their vision to a public audience at an event dubbed Designs on Calgary. The competition was then moved to a jury made up of artists, architects, and Senator Pamela Wallin.

The new institution will build upon the historic King Edward Hotel (affectionately known as the 'King Eddy'), a legendary house of blues that was shut down by public health authorities in 2004 after falling into serious disrepair. Located in a construction-riddled, slightly seedy part of town, hopes for a revitalized neighbourhood and national koodos are pinned on the multi-million dollar development. Cantos expects up to 120,000 people will visit the centre annually within two years of its opening.

In its new life, the King Eddy will house multiple performance spaces, a museum, educational programs, and play an iconic role in the city's skyscape. It will also serve as the new offices for Cantos Music Foundation.

Allied Works Architecture, an Oregon-based firm known for its landmark performing arts spaces across the United States, will partner with local architects BKDI to design, develop and construct the new centre.

The concept behind the design is building as instrument, a theme picked up by the other competitors as well. A secondary inspiration is the Western landscape, in particular the canyons, mountains and hoodoos of Alberta.

Andrew Mosker, executive director of the Cantos Music Foundation, which spearheaded the competition and re-development, said Allied Works and BKDI were the firms that "jived most" with his staff and "best understood and paid homage to the legacy of the original King Eddy."

Published on The Ampersand, September 24 2009

Calgary's Cultural Capital

2009-10-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Three years ago, Maclean's magazine dubbed Calgary a “cultural capital”, a moniker which has been internalized and proudly reiterated by our city's citizens ever since. It was a relief to some to be recognized for something other than oil and wealth, and a source of intense satisfaction to many to be mentioned in a national (i.e. Toronto-based) publication. Finally, people took notice. But the magazine, and the country, noticed something else - “Some Calgarians wish the hype would go away” wrote Anne Kingston; they worried about losing something authentic as the city boomed.

Today, the city’s cultural and fine arts communities are feeling something different. They are adamant that the high quality of cultural experience in the city has deep local roots, and is growing organically - and rapidly - every day. Despite being on the waning side of the boom and bust cycle, the arts and culture communities have seen sustained growth. And what's more, it's not imported shows and touring exhibitions begging for attention, but the high level of homegrown talent, risk-taking and adaptability.

“Cultural capital” may not be something we are, but something we have.

Read Entire Article Here -> www.avenuecalgary.com
Published in Avenue Magazine, September 2009

Calgary Illuminates Creative Spaces

2009-09-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

It was an evening of transformations: a snowy field into a political statement, an abandoned, ramshackle theatre turned trendy restaurant and hub of cultural activity, an industrial lot used to make bricks became an iconic urban green space, and most notably, a bunch of notoriously wordy designers turned succinct, witty, persuasive showmen - and women. This was Calgary’s first Pecha Kucha night.

The concept is deceptively simple. A dozen presenters take the stage, one at a time, and present 20 slides for 20 seconds each. First conceived and launched in Tokyo six years ago, Pecha Kucha was an attempt by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham to foster creative - and concise - dialogue between designers. Now, over 200 cities have hosted Pecha Kucha nights around the world.

At the upscale Velvet Restaurant in Calgary’s Grand Theatre - also the subject of artistic director Mark Lawes presentation that evening - well over a hundred guests mingled before the 7:00 pm performance began. The audience was a who’s who of Calgary cultural elite, including former president of the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts Colin Jackson, former alderman Madeleine King, former city council hopeful Naheed Nenshi, co-owner of Beat Niq Jazz Club Connie Young, president of Calgary Arts Development Dr. Terry Rock, and well-known blogger-provocateur D.J. Kelly.

The evening’s presenters made an equally lofty line-up, including Toronto’s Joe Lobko, Tim Jones and Billie Bridgman alongside locals Jeremy Sturgess, Andrew Mosker, Erik Olson, Scott McTavish, David Scott, and Bill Chomik. The charming Karen Ball, director of community investment for Calgary Arts Development, played master of ceremonies.

The theme was “art spaces” - well chosen for its number of talented representatives in the city, and for its timing. Calgary Arts Development, which hosted the Pecha Kucha, is currently in the “heavy lifting” stages of redevelopment in the city’s core. They are part of the revitalization of Olympic Plaza, now called the ‘cultural district’, and plans are underway to carve out new spaces for creative and cultural tenants elsewhere.

At the Pecha Kucha, there was much talk of how a creative space develops and why. Bridgman talked about doing ‘as little as possible’ with old buildings in Toronto before turning them into vibrant, garden-ridden live/work spaces for artists. She pointed out the importance of light in each loft apartment, and illustrated why the designers would group bathrooms and kitchens together at the back of the space, in order that the artist living there could have maximum flexibility and illumination. Mosker talked about the international design competition launched by his organization, the Cantos Music Foundation, in order to find an architectural vision for a national music centre on the site of the old King Edward Hotel. The competition - an effort brought to life with the help of former Art Gallery of Alberta director Tony Luppino - remains in adjudication.

The next Canadian Pecha Kucha nights will be:

September 30 in Montreal, at the Société des arts technologiques
October 2 in Edmonton, at The Myer Horowitz Theatre
October 23 in Waterloo, at The Button Factory, and
December 2 in Calgary, again at The Grand.

Published in National Post on September 19, 2009

Festival Season Winds Down; "Culture Month" Ramps Up

2009-09-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining on the 13th annual Taste of Calgary Festival this year - literally. Postponed by rain early in the month, the popular event took place in late August, bringing hundreds of foodies and vino-philes into the bright and sunny Eau Claire Market plaza just hours before dark clouds rolled in.

Thirty restaurants ranging from the trendy Belgo to the delicious Ruan Thai set up kiosks around a bustling beer tent. Samples of local Brew Brothers beer were served alongside more obscure Eastern European brands and the ubiquitous Big Rock.

Samples of food and drink were sold for between $0.75 and $4.50. Entertainment under the big top included Cumako, the upbeat afro-latin band featuring flute, saxophone, drums, trumpet and bass, country singer Shane Chisholm, and the Rick Climans Jazz Group.

It has been a busy summer for festival-goers, who poured in to events centered on blues, jazz, rock, folk, and alternative music, among other things. It appears the Alberta arts scene, however, was simply preparing for a month of full-blown creative celebrations.

September marks the first annual Culture Month in Calgary, coinciding with Alberta Arts Days, and initiative out of Minister Lindsay Blackett’s office. Over the next few weeks city-slickers can expect a windfall of artsy parties, free concerts, film premieres, fashion shows and award ceremonies. Highlights are sure to include the first ever Calgary PechaKucha night on September 14, where a medley of creative people will design, present and speak about twenty slides for twenty seconds each, for a total of approximately six minutes. Conceived in Tokyo, this event now takes place in 230 countries around the world, from Capetown to Copenhagen and now Calgary.

“Like many world-class cities, Calgary has a thriving arts community,” said Mayor Dave Bronconnier at a press conference early this week, “Culture Month gives us the opportunity to showcase why Calgary was once again named the most cultured city in Canada.”

Other highly anticipated events include a free performance by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra on September 7, and the ArtCity Festival of design and architecture from September 11 - 20.

While the arts community is celebrating, though, a loyal stalwart of culture in the city may be fading. Beat Niq Jazz Club and Bistro, a long time staple of music and food lovers alike, has announced that it may close due to financial uncertainty. Owners Robert and Connie Young have planned a three-day gala fundraising during culture month, Sept 8 - 10, with the goal of keeping their original culture club afloat.

Published in National Post on September 5, 2009

GlobalFest Brings French Feast to Laurier Lounge

2009-09-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

“There is a small brotherhood of pyro-musical designers around the world, so they all kind of know each other,” explained Ken Goosen, carefully bringing the broad-brimmed glass to his nose and inhaling deeply. His wife, Barb Goosen, sat next to him, pondering the two glasses of deep red wine on the table before her. The conversation paused and all together they smelled, swirled, sipped and looked at the ceiling in concentration.

Before the talk of explosives and orchestration could continue, Linda Garson, founder of Vine and Dine, was on the microphone and strolling from table to table. “Which wine is Canadian, and which one is French?” she asked her audience. Close to fifty guests glanced at each other and their glasses tentatively. It was the last uncomfortable moment before the GlobalFest French-Canadian Wine Dinner went into full swing. Soon guests were cajoling, cracking jokes, betting, guessing, and even looking for hints after tasting each round.

The event, co-hosted by Vine and Dine and GlobalFest, took place at the cozy yet upscale Laurier Lounge. Three mouthwatering courses were presented to each guest, seated at tables of six to eight, and each arrived with two glasses of wine expertly poured (and paired). Guests knew that one of the wines was a Canadian - Tinhorn Creek - and the other French, but their labels were hidden and patrons were challenged each round to determine which was which. Those who guessed correctly throughout the evening were awarded VIP Passes to a night at GlobalFest.

The festival is a two-week, multi-faceted celebration of diversity in Calgary, which ends with an immense firework finale on August 29. Held primarily in Elliston Park, it encompasses traditional dance performances, cultural pavilions, music and food from around the world, a film festival, a human rights forum (which this year featured former Governor General the honourable Adrienne Clarkson among others), and an international fireworks show sponsored by Trico Homes.

The best in “pyrotechnics choreographed to music” from Canada, Mexico, Spain, and China were showcased this week. According to Goosen, a co-creator of the festival, the fireworks are not only world class, but one-of-a-kind. The first piece of music was prescribed to the team by festival organizers, ensuring that a new spectacle would be created just for the occasion. The remaining music must be largely from the team’s home country.

An evening of fine food and wine at the Laurier Lounge is certainly out of pace with the rest of the festival, but a perfect fit when it comes to spirit and taste. Canada’s pyro-musical team comes wholly from Quebec this year, making the French feast a natural tie-in.

Guests devoured a wild game charcuterie platter which included elk salami, dried muscox, venison prosciutto, bison pastrami and a blueberry-cranberry compote. This was paired with two Pinot Noirs - a Joseph Drouhin Laforet and the Tinhorn Creek Pinot Noir. The second course was a large helping of succulent braised bison with classic “squeaky cheese” poutine and a colourful parcel of grilled vegetables. This was paired with Rothschild St. Emilion and Tinhorn Creek Merlot. Finally, a sweet, delicate, melt-in-your-mouth pear tarte tatin wth maple syrup coulis paired with a Canadian Icewine and the Chapoutier Beaumes de Venise.
Published in National Post on August 29, 2009

Little Festival with Big Heart Wraps 3rd Season

2009-09-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Not many church parties offer a dress code of black leather, fishnets and bleach blonde wigs, but it was all part of the fun this month during the 3rd annual Calgary Fringe Festival.

The fledgling theatre festival closed on August 8 with a gala performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Brad Duffy, followed by a festival-wide wrap party in the basement of Inglewood’s Lantern Community Church. Wild style and provocative prose aside, the fringe is not just about “pushing the envelope” says festival director Michele Gallant. This year, thirty-six percent of patrons were over forty-five years of age, and over fifty percent had university degrees or some higher education.

“I was surprised by the audience during our first festival, in 2006,” says Gallant, “I thought they would be younger and more interested in cutting edge stuff. But I’ve learned since then that university professors - and that demographic more generally - really enjoy the fringe festival. They’ve seen these types of festivals before, and know what to expect. They tend to meet for drinks, see a show, go for dinner somewhere and see another show. It’s an evening for them, an outing, something unexpected. I think they also love to support the arts so directly, as one hundred percent of the profits go directly to the performers after each show.”

‘Making an evening’ out of the Fringe Festival is something Gallant and her team have worked hard to promote. For the second year in a row the festival was held in Inglewood, a historic, artsy neighbourhood bordering the downtown core. The five venues were all within walking distance and most performances ran about an hour long, encouraging patrons to ‘hop’ from one show to the next.

The festival also collaborated with local merchants to launch an outdoor component during the opening weekend. That helped to make a “visual impact” on passers-by, she says, and encouraged community-building. Eventually, Gallant hopes the festival will take place equally inside and outside, like it’s more established counter-part in Edmonton, but for now she is “over the moon” with the results of this year’s attendance.

Over eight thousand patrons showed up to see shows ranging from Inviting Desire, an erotic journey into female fantasy delivered by Oregon’s Eleanor O’Brien, Tonya Miller, Tori Padellford, Allison Tigard, Mary Rose, and Emily Wisteria, to the Calgary-based comedy Crystal Ball which follows the haunted mishaps of a struggling theatre troop.

The festival’s after-party was also the scene of recognition for outstanding performances and professionals. Tom Cutherbertson, a venue supervisor, was awarded the “longest commute” medal for his daily journey from Red Deer. Cuthbertson took time off work, dedicated long hours, and declined an honorarium in order to help the Calgary Fringe Festival succeed. Gallant says the support of so many volunteers is both heart-warming and not unusual.

“There’s a lot of sharing that goes on between festivals,” she says, “Edmonton Fringe Festival, which has been around for twenty-seven years and is the second largest in North America, has helped me so much with ideas, networks, and sharing their experience. We like to think having both festivals gives the artists a good ‘Alberta circuit’ to look forward to every year.”

The Edmonton Fringe Festival wraps up on August 23. Meanwhile, Calgary audiences can look forward to the Fringe Rewind in February, when audience favorites from past year’s Calgary Fringe Festivals will be re-launched at the Arrata Opera Centre.
Published in National Post on August 22, 2009

Green Cities Prepare for Copenhagen: ICLEI in Edmonton

2009-08-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Big change starts small. That’s the idea, at least, behind the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an organization made up of representatives from over one thousand municipalities around the world. Six hundred of them arrived in Edmonton recently for a multi-day conference on topics ranging from wastewater treatment to public engagement. Their mandate stems from a United Nations program called Agenda 21, adopted in Brazil at the 1992 Earth Summit and designed to allow participation by non-state actors in policies affecting the global environment.

In Edmonton, the purpose was clear: radical and rapid change is needed, they said, and local governments must push for it at December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Yet creating and presenting a unified voice for local governments is not really what ICLEI does. Their mission is twofold: it acts as an association to share best practices, research, and support networks among sustainably-minded cities, and it organizes local programs and policies which feed into global climate goals.

So what can be achieved at a local level that will affect the big picture? For ICLEI president David Cadman, also the Deputy Mayor of Vancouver, the answer is varied. He points to Ontario’s recently adopted feed-in tariff which he claims will “stimulate you as the individual to put in solar panels, or a wind generator if you have a farm somewhere.” And the top-down incentives and responsibilities don’t stop there.

“We need to steward our fossil fuels - our oil, our gas, our coal - for a much longer time, because much of those resources are going to be key to this transformation,” he says, “The absolute key, though, is moving toward energy efficiency.”

ICLEI has a vociferous advocate for local governments in Mr. Cadman. Major emissions come from cities, he reasons, and cities are growing rapidly. This is where the big changes will occur; must occur.

Cadman will be roaming the hallways at the Copenhagen conference, just as he has done at the previous climate change summits in Bali and Poland. Their presence represents millions of citizens worldwide, he says, naming the organizations with which ICLEI is working, including United Cities and Local Governments, Canadian Federation of Municipalities, C-40 (an association of the world’s largest cities chaired by Mayor David Miller of Toronto), and the World Mayors Council. The top-down policies Cadman advocates on a local level will be the same he proposes from the ground up in Copenhagen, where ICLEI will mingle with global heads of state and federal ministers.

“ICELI has been following the negotiations on a post-Kyoto agreement,” Cadman says, “What we’re trying to do is have local governments working closely with national governments. We’re all on the same page. We know what we want - a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050”

The conference began at 9:00 am each day with keynote speakers (including Toronto’s Adam Fenech of Environment Canada, Mathis Wackernagel of California’s Global Footprint Network, and Alex Wong of the Davos World Economic Forum global industries sector) and wrapped up around 7:00 pm in break-away sessions for mayors, CEOs, and city staffers. There were multiple social functions as well, including a reception at city hall hosted by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, and a dinner and dance at Fort Edmonton. A concurrent conference for academic researchers took place, also in the Shaw Convention Centre, and attracted well-known authors Dr. Mark Roseland of Vancouver, Dr. Peter Newman of Perth, Australia, and Dr. Yvonne Rydin of London, England, among others.
Published in National Post, August 8 2009

Calgary Folk Music Festival

2009-08-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

The quiet, urban, tree-lined oasis known as Prince’s Island Park was transformed last weekend for the 30th Calgary Folk Music Festival. As dozens of happy sun-soakers floated by in rafts on the Bow River, thousands of people lined up for hours in the early morning heat to secure a spot for their tarp or camping chair on the island’s largest field. Space secured, the tarps and blankets before the main stage were abandoned in a cheerful mosaic while their owners wandered around the island. Main stage shows began at 6:00 pm every night of the four-day festival, and there was a lot to see otherwise.

There was a large grassy area with picnic tables and picnickers. There was a row of small white kiosks manned by everyone from the Green Party to the Grey Cup, and another filled with vendors selling bamboo didgeridoos, handmade clay teapots, leather purses, clothing, and more. And as one strolled through the island, there was music.

Stage one - sponsored by Ship and Anchor Pub - was close to the arts market and one of the free water dispensers, behind which a row of food trucks were positioned. Meals - from pizza to oyster burgers to butter chicken - were served on heavy plastic plates from Enmax, which could be redeemed at various places around the island for two dollars. The forks and cups were biodegradable, and there was composting. Stage two, slightly further down the path, hosted 60 year old legendary Celtic folk signer Dick Gaughan among others.

On all six stages during the weekend afternoons, artists were thrown together for an hour of improv and jamming. Stage 3 - the Field Law stage - featured Ontarians Steven Page (former front man for the Barenaked Ladies), Sarah Harmer, Justin Rutledge and the Good Lovelies together in a set called “The Young and the Restless”, while Stage 6 - the Broken City stage - featured an edgier, electro-acoustic group including Calgary’s own Chad VanGaalen, Montreal’s Kid Koala, Toronto’s Esthero and American Emily Wells. The group met for the first time five minutes prior to stepping on stage. The result was a haunting and unpredictable set that kept a sweltering audience in their grassy seats.

Musical highlights came from both the main stage - Arrested Development and The Decemberists provided consecutive knock-out, jaw-dropping, and thoroughly original sets which brought a lounging crowd quickly to its feet; they were opened by another excellent performance from British rockers Gomez - and the more obscure.

Stage 4 - the Local 510 stage - gave its audience plenty of grass to sit on, even a little hill beside the stage, and a good view of the impressive collection of bicycles housed in a gated depot. Here, too, were some surprising and entertaining performances. The Tom Fun Orchestra Cape Breton, Nova Scotia riled the crowd with their aggressive punk folk songs, underscored with traditional fiddle, brassy trumpet, and teasing accordion, enveloped in lead signer Ian McDougall’s whiskey-Waits-and-Springsteen voice and wildly beautiful back-up vocals from Carmen Townsend.

Published in National Post, August 1 2009

Banff Midsummer Ball

2009-08-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

The Banff Centre, a home for working and developing artists in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, hosted its 30th annual signature fundraising event last weekend: the Midsummer Ball Weekend.

It began Friday morning with a friendly golf tournament and reception at the Fairmont Banff Springs. That evening, after checking into the lodge-style residences at the centre, guests were treated to an array of fine food - sushi, bison, seared tuna included - and a wine and scotch bar, before an intimate musical performance. Juno-award winning jazz pianist Hilario Duran played a three song set with bassist Roberto Occhipinti and drummer Mark Kelso, head of percussion at Toronto’s Humber College.

Between songs Occhipinti, who is an alumna of The Banff Centre, remarked on the pleasures of playing in Alberta saying, “The Banff Centre is the crown jewel of Canada … and I would hazard that in this resource-based economy, we can all appreciate that art is the ultimate renewable resource.”

The performance was followed by several pieces from the musical Loulou, a work in progress by Kelly Robinson, theatre arts director at The Banff Centre and director of creative development for Mirvish Productions. Broadway stars Hugh Panaro and Carly Street were joined by the centre’s opera students.

Following the program, The Banff Centre’s board chair Jeff Kovitz asked Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Sprit Lindsay Blackett to do a reverse ribbon-cutting, which would signify the closing of Donald Cameron Hall. The building will soon be replaced by The Kinnear Centre, a structure designed by Diamond & Schmidtt Architects and set to open next summer.

“If there’s a camera and a microphone, I’ll do it,” the Minister quipped before hopping onstage.

Saturday morning brought a fresh-faced and excited crowd to three keynote sessions. In the first, prima ballerina-turned-filmmaker Veronica Tennant, O.C. showed excerpts from her film Shadow Pleasures, a work done in partnership with Michael Ondaatje and filmed in Toronto’s Distillery District. Tennant manages to capture both the intense energy of her subjects - dancers - and the intimacy of the words to which they are performing, poems and paragraphs by Ondaatje. It is a rare and beautiful sight, leaving the viewer’s heart thudding in time to the score. The second session featured well-known pianist and organizational coach Michael Jones, who spoke eloquently about personal leadership and played songs for reflection. Author and Banff Centre alumna Maria Coffey capped off the morning with stories of travel and transcendence. A prolific author and recent guest of the Oprah Winfrey show, she and her husband Dag now lead small paddling trips to Croatia, Antarctica, Vietnam and other places.

After lunch, the group split into the three separate tours; some sneaking behind-the-scenes looks at film engineers, ballet dancers, and opera singers at work, others touring the new building, and still others toured visual artists’ studios with Berlin-based critic Jan Verwoert.

The evening’s gala attracted around three hundred guests, clad in black tie and ball gowns. Guests included former Premier Peter Lougheed, Alberta's Deputy Minister of Aboriginal Relations Maria David-Evans, Former MLA and current chair of the Western Financial Group Jim Dinning, Pat and Sherrold Moore, Margot and David Kitchen, Ian and Judy Griffin, Murray and Heather Edwards, Glen Sather, president of the New York Rangers, Matt Fox, president of ConocoPhillips Canada, John Lau, president of Husky Energy, and Mary Hofstetter, president of The Banff Centre. The master of ceremonies was Angela Knight of CBC Radio. A four course meal was served, including candied salmon salad, duck confit on brioche, veal tenderloin, and blueberry panna cotta. A performance by the Eric Friedenberg Orchestra had guests dancing late into the evening.

Published in National Post, July 25 2009

RCA honours Calgary talent; inducts 27 artists

2009-07-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) marked its 129th year last month by hosting a four-day festival in Calgary, honouring top local talent, and inducting twenty-seven new members. President Jeffrey Spalding hosted a gala dinner at Hotel Arts where guest Lindsay Blackett, Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, made an opening address. Supporting arts and culture does not only enhance our quality of life, Blackett said, but acts as an economic driver and the foundation for a richer educational system.

Creative achievements were then recognized by the awarding of twenty-seven memberships to professionals and practitioners in the field of visual arts, and RCA medals to curator Joan Stebbins and writer Nancy Tousley. Each medal recipient delivered warm, humorous remarks which conveyed nicely their contributions to the developing narrative of contemporary Canadian art.

The affair was an intimate one, despite the hundred-or-so guest list. Audience members cheered, catcalled, and clapped as each of the new academicians were introduced and given their certificates. Among the inductees were painter Garry Kennedy, past president of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (from 1967 until 1990), Sara Diamond, president of the Ontario College of Art and Design, Calgary-born Christian Eckart, whose work stands in the collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum, photographer Justin Wonnacott of Ottawa, Quebecois painter Marius Dubois, Calgarians Rita McKeough, John Will, and Mary Scott, and sculptor Faye Heavyshield, originally of Alberta’s Blood Reserve.

La crème of Calgary’s cultural community was also proudly present, including artists Chris Cran and Ron Moppett, Yves Trépanier and Kevin Baer, whose gallery currently displays the work of many RCA inductees, and Karen Ball and Holly Simon of Calgary Arts Development.

Far from a society of mutual appreciation - although it is that, too - the Royal Canadian Academy of Art strives to support emerging talent, and facilitate discussion about and around art for the broadest possible audience. The organization also plays a national advocacy role by debating and presenting community-oriented policy, such as developing retirement funds, voicing a cohesive opinion on legislation, and reclaiming economic control over their work.

Over the course of the four day festival, Stride Gallery hosted the Joseph Plaskett Reception, where the work of seven new artists was celebrated. The emerging talent was chosen by seven distinguished members of the RCA. Among these rising stars were sculptor Robin Murphy, director of public art for Torode, Angela Bedard, and Romy Straathof.

Other events included the granting of the RCA Trust Award to Illingworth Kerr Gallery, a gallery hop including Art Gallery of Calgary, Weiss Gallery, Masters Gallery, Loch Gallery, and Triangle Gallery, and the world premier of a classical music piece for strings and voice by Katherine Govier and Allan Gordon Bell at The Grand Theatre.

Published in National Post July 18, 2009

City Saddles Up for the Stampede

2009-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Cowboys, cops, and corporate parties took over much of the city last week for the 98th annual Calgary Stampede. The Rogers Chomp and Stomp party was the first of the large-scale private events, taking place on June 30 at the Girletz Ranch. A few hundred people gathered to raise money for the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta. There were plenty of host bars available, as well as one donkey carrying buckets of tequila, a hot meal of roast beef and baked potatoes, and of course, rodeo. An enthusiastic round of bull riding was followed by some skillful trick riding, where agile equestrians rode red-spangled ponies with one hand or draped head-first inches above the ground. Corporate bigwigs at the affair included Ken Coffey, president of Micro-Watt Controls, Terry Hughes, CEO of Redwood Technologies, Steve Roberts, vice-president of Rogers Communications for Alberta, Holly Wood of Right Mind Media, and Derek Larsen of London Drugs.

Newly minted US Consul General Laura Lochman welcomed guests to her private residence a few days later for an Independence Day celebration. The US Consulate in Calgary is the only one in the world to celebrate the Fourth of July on the 2nd of July, out of deference to the stampede. Among the guests for the garden party were former Premier Ralph Klein, acting Premier Ed Stelmach, Federal Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice, Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett, Alberta Minister of Sustainable Resource Development Ted Morton, publisher of The Calgary Herald Malcolm Kirk, president of Calgary Economic Development Bruce Graham, president of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Ann Lewis-Luppino, president of the Glenbow Museum Kirsten Evenden, director of WordFest Anne Green, and philanthropists Pat and Sherrold Moore.

The Calgary Stampede officially began the following day with an early morning parade and a city-wide celebration. Between the hay bales and wooden corrals, which appeared with sudden force on every major street in the downtown course, corporate hootenannies were in full force. President of Encorp David Neill played host on the rooftop of the Alberta Hotel Building. Among those in attendance were Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury, owner of Axis Gallery Rob Mabee, Karen Ball of Calgary Arts Development, Kristin Richard of Kaviar South Sea Pearls Inc, and designers Dee Fontans and Charles Lewton-Brain.

The first Saturday of the stampede arrived with a staggering number of complimentary pancake breakfasts. (Those in the know point to www.flapjackfinder.com for a comprehensive list.) Mayor Dave Bronconnier, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, leader of the opposition Michael Ignatieff, and even Jack Layton rolled up their sleeves to dole out the morning staple.

On the stampede grounds, a midway, circus tent, several rodeo events, an agriculture barn, beer gardens, four concert stages, and an Indian Village vied for the attention of close to one million visitors. Events continue until Sunday with the chuckwagon races, barrel racing, cattle penning as the hot tickets. The prize for each rodeo event is $10,000. Musical performances include George Straight, Matt Mays, Joel Plaskett, Aaron Pritchett, Serena Ryder, and Reba McEntire.

Published in National Post, July 11 2009

Temporary Exhibit: Jeff Spalding and the Glenbow Museum

2009-07-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Fight at the Museum:

Painter, curator, educator, historian. The Glenbow had this trove of talent in Jeffrey Spalding, its progressive, plainspoken new CEO and president. And then he practically vanished.
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Collect like drunken sailors, they were told. These orders from Eric Lafferty Harvie, an eccentric millionaire in the early days of Calgary’s oil boom, resulted in the creation of the internationally renowned Glenbow Museum and the philanthropic bedrock on which Calgary’s cultural future would be built. Comic or controversial, it was a legacy Jeffrey Spalding wanted to protect when he became president and CEO of the Glenbow in December 2007. And while “returning to the founder’s vision” was a task he relished, it may have proved to be his undoing as the institution’s new star.

By shaking up the establishment, as Harvie had done, Spalding lost neither friends nor sleep. But within a year, it cost him his job. Until his abrupt exit in January 2009, Spalding’s brief tenure enflamed the passions of artistic and philanthropic circles in Calgary and communities across the country — and left burning questions in its wake.

Kirstin Evenden, a 15-year Glenbow veteran, is now tasked with stoking those embers, a job some say is unenviable, if not impossible. Evenden started as an intern at the Glenbow and knows the ropes well; some have called the new CEO the “cautious, safer approach.” Sound reasoning, it seems, that suggests Spalding’s ouster during a time of economic turbulence was mostly due to circumstance. That’s one take.

Through the abstraction, another perspective sees a much-ballyhooed contemporary, an artist’s artist who jarred and juxtaposed against the Glenbow’s traditionally conservative backdrop.

Eric Harvie was a spirited lawyer from Orillia, Ontario, who was called to the Alberta Bar in 1915 and set up a one-man shop. The Great Depression left corporate coffers dry, where litigation on behalf of mining and oil companies could have been a lucrative business. Instead of hard cash, Harvie accepted mineral rights in exchange for his legal services. By 1944, he procured an estimated 500,000 acres of mineral rights from the British Dominions Land Settlement Co. Three years later, he received a call from the president of Imperial Oil — they had struck black gold under Harvie’s property, and he was suddenly one of the richest men in Canada. And humble. According to Time magazine in its Sept. 24, 1951 story: “Multimillionaire Harvie goes in for no big-rich gestures. He drives a two-year-old Studebaker and lives in a modest house.”

The one passion Harvie recklessly indulged was collecting artifacts. In 1954, he quietly established the Glenbow Foundation (named after his family ranch), and hired staff to travel the world over with the enthusiastic mandate: “Collect like a bunch of drunken sailors.”

Harvie’s acquisitions included Queen Victoria’s underpants, life-sized rubber Indians, New Guinea penis sheaths, an extensive collection of mounted birds, the complete landscape paintings of Carl Rungius, and a 10-foot-tall bronze statue of General James Wolfe, the British captain who led the assault on Quebec in the mid-1750s.

In the mid-1960s, John Hellson of the Royal Alberta Museum said Harvie was “so rich he doesn’t buy things from collections — he buys the whole collection.”

Continued Online Here

Published in Avenue Magazine, June 2009

Calgary loves summer sledding

2009-07-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

Calgary has learned to love sledding in the summer thanks to a three-year old festival of film, art and music known as Sled Island. Over four days in June the festival attracted hipsters, artists, and cultural giants (such as British rocker Colin Newman, Sled Island’s guest curator) to the city centre.

Two hundred and fifty bands were on the program, playing in venues as varied as the tiny stage in Plaza Cinema, where the red velvet curtains parted to revel a rarely seen documentary on glitter rock post-set, to the alter of Central United Church, to the basement of The Palomino. Noteworthy acts included a soulful, folksy-pop performance by JJ Shiplett, the aggressive rock band Cripple Creek Fairies, and the utterly captivating electro-acoustic sounds of rising stars Axis of Conversation.

The Sled Island Festival was also about visual art, co-hosting several impressive exhibits throughout the week. Three shows with international flavour opened at Illingworth Kerr Gallery (IKG) on Wednesday.

German architect Florian Koehl toured guests through a multimedia exhibit based around his 2007 hyper-designed Berlin condominium building. Winnipeg professor of architecture Neil Minuk acted as curator for the piece, which allowed the viewer to walk through a narrow pedway lined with blueprints and photos of the development. The building itself is home to ten tenants-cum-designers who worked with Koehl and artist Anne von Gwinner on its conception. It is evident that space limitations were both inspiring and restrictive for them. The result is unique, dynamic, and often fluid living quarters, more interesting in some ways than the exhibiting of them. The bathtubs, for instance, are futuristic pods elevated above the kitchen floor, from which the bather can look into the living room. The most endearing characteristic among the apartments are the handkerchief sized pop-out balconies which give tenants a rare and highly coveted view of Berlin’s cityscape.

IKG also showcased a hauntingly beautiful collection of photographs by Berlin-based Spaniard Ricardo Okaranza called Calgary Nocturnes, Lanes, and the detailed, Escher-like paintings of Montreal’s Numa.

The Market Collective, a bi-monthly cooperative of local artisans, celebrated its first anniversary under the banner of Sled Island. Pedestrians in the busy neighbourhood of Kensington were lured into a high ceilinged, sun-filled space, hopping with live music and locally made fashion, books, and baubles.

The festival also coincided with the Calgary launch of artsScene, a non-profit organization made up of young professionals devoted to enhancing the city’s cultural landscape, and the role for emerging talent within it. The group brought together all the local darlings of arts promotion, including Jeffrey Spalding, Dr. Terry Rock of Calgary Arts Development, blogger DJ Kelly, co-chairs of ArtsScene Alex Middleton and Sarah Blue, Karin Poldaas of 1128 Media, and Calgary Film Commissioner Luke Avezedo, for a reception at Rob Mabee’s Axis Gallery in Art Central.

On the lower level of the building, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) gathered for their third party that night. A musical performance across the street co-hosted by Sled Island, CBC Radio, and artsScene capped off the evening.
Published in National Post, July 4 2009

Calgary grooves to Big Easy vibe

2009-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

The 30th Calgary Jazz Festival (aka C-Jazz) opened this week with a New Orleans style gala at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Roxanne Potvin gave a rollicking first act in the hall’s main foyer, where a substantial crowd lined up at the bar and mingled around cocktail tables. Others watched from the upper levels, leaning over the balustrade and shaking in time to the music.

A private reception hosted by TransCanada offered Louisiana style hot snacks and Mardi Gras beads, seen most notably on Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett who delivered a lengthy but enthusiastic introduction to the evening’s main acts.

After a good dose of Potvin’s rockabilly/soul stylings and a few cold Big Rock beers in the lobby, guests made their way into the concert hall. Drinks were permitted inside the theatre for the occasion. Blackett then introduced The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and headliner Allen Toussaint.

“If you look across North America,” Blackett said, in reference to the festival’s thirtieth anniversary, “We have the best jazz festival in all of North America.”

The audience was loud, happy, and lightening quick in their reaction to the band. Straight from New Orleans, the Dirty Dozen had the audience on their feet, dancing and clapping to renditions of When the Saints Come Marching In and My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now.

Toussaint provided a slower groove, incorporating his classic Sweet Touch of Love (made famous again, he said, by a recent commercial for body spray featuring “a chocolate boy … very interesting”) and songs from his new album The Bright Mississippi such as the haunting Egyptian Fantasy, and the Thelonious Monk song from which the album takes its name. The 71 year old composer, pianist, and singer has not lost his touch; audience members marveled over his deft fingering and flourish.

The jazz festival continues until Sunday, June 28 when it finishes with a free outside concert in Olympic Plaza. Performers throughout the week include the renowned saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Calgary’s own Cumako, the legendary Halifax-based percussionist Jerry Granelli, King Sunny Ade and the African Beats, and PianOrquestra, a Brazilian group of five musicians playing one piano.

Guests at the opening gala included: Anne Green, director of WordFest, Ian Menzies, president of Meta4 Music Management, Syd Bosch, president of Nuvo Hotel and Suites, Laura Shewchuk, president of Urban Energy Executive Concierge, Michael Green, co-artistic director of the High Performance Rodeo Festival, Erica Mattson of Calgary Arts Development, and pianist Andrea Petrity.

Published in National Post, June 27 2009

Insider's Guide to Canada: Prairie Power Couple

2009-06-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

Flanked by the Rocky Mountains, the corridor between Edmonton and Calgary is known as The Western Tiger, an area lush with ranchlands, dramatic skyscapes, and frequent petroleum tanks symbolic of the region’s booming economic growth. A scenic drive, maybe, but for Ann Lewis-Luppino and husband Tony Luppino it’s the three hour commute they face on a weekly basis. And they know all its secrets.

“But you must go into the mountains,” Ann says breathlessly, “We love to visit Banff and Jasper - there’s no place like it in the world.”

“And Dirt Willy’s,” Tony adds wryly, “About forty kilometers outside Edmonton you drive off the highway onto a dirt road and stay in your car - this is important - stay in your car and honk the horn. I guess it’s because of the dogs. Then Dirt Willy comes out, and the dogs become quite friendly, and you can buy all kinds of fowl right from his farm; pheasants, quails, turkey, whatever you like. He’ll clean and dress it for you, and there you go - you’ve bought your bird right from Dirt Willy!”

Shopping for dinner at Dirt Willy Game Bird Farm and Hatchery is all part of the weekend routine, along with hiking in neighbouring Elk Island National Park where bison, moose and other wildlife roam freely. Closer to home - well, one of their homes - in Edmonton, the couple tred lightly down the stairs of their condominium, across the bridge, and into the River Valley parklands where a vast open space and hundreds of riverside trails allow their pet dog Cara to wander happily off-leash. The area encompasses twenty-two parks along with major attractions like the Muttart Conservatory , four unforgettable glass pyramids housing an impressive range of international plant-life, and Edmonton’s Valley Zoo. It’s a spot to spend 3 hours or an entire Saturday, they say. In the evening, when there is no festival or holiday to keep them from a romantic, firework-gazing rooftop picnic, they head to the Fairmont MacDonald Hotel (Jasper Avenue and 100th Street) for a comfortable but upscale meal on the garden patio.

Both Ann, president of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tony, former executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, have busy schedules during the week, filled with visiting artists, black tie functions, gallery openings, and concerts, all on top of regular day-to-day office work in their separate cities. Newly married, they were introduced by Edmonton’s Mayor Stephen Mandel years ago when Ann worked for the Alberta Ballet, travelling between the two cities solo. Now, they are each comfortable in either space and their favorite spots in both towns have merged into one giant ball of enthusiasm for the province.

In Calgary, Ann prepares for each season with a trip to Ooh La La clothing boutique (1575 7th Street SW), a hidden gem located close to both the bustling 17th Avenue district and the quiet, tree-lined streets of Mount Royal, the city’s wealthiest neighbourhood. Chris Wells, owner of Ooh La La, is a close friend and trusted advisor.

“Chris is the best person to dress someone,” Ann explains, “Because if something doesn’t look good on you she’ll say ‘Take that off!’” She holds up a Moschino jacket, made of gold silk and a few ruffles, while the woman in question frowns.

“It matches your dress perfectly,” Chris says thoughtfully, “But I’m not sure about the colour for you.” Her expert eyes scan the store, taking in the numerous items she’s freshly picked off the runways of Milan and New York. Many of them have not even been priced for retail sale yet. Chris picks up a cream coloured skirt with a Kandinsky-esque pattern of orange circles and the two confer quietly. They’ve agreed. It’s perfect for the office and a concert, says Ann.

When not shopping, working, or attending concerts and galas, Ann frequently plays hostess to guest musicians from around the world. She eats with them at Teatro Restaurant, Catch Restaurant and Oyster Bar, and Centini Restaurant and Lounge, all located within a block of the CPO’s concert space and on the cusp of Stephen Avenue, a pedestrian-friendly walkway of shops and eateries. She takes them to see the finest in local galleries at Trepanier Baer and Doug Udell. And finally, she advises them to tuck in at the trendy Hotel Arts, the popular Hyatt Regency, or the historic, luxurious Fairmont Palliser Hotel.

One her favorite places to eat in Calgary is The Living Room, where contemporary fusion cuisine is served in a sleek-but-cozy environment. The restaurant is located along 17th Avenue, just a few blocks south of the downtown core, and therefore saved for more intimate occasions with girlfriends, family guests, or rare ‘he and she’ time when Tony is in the city.

Back in Edmonton, Tony also has two routines: one solo and one reserved for couple/weekend time. A collector of rare books and lover of all things literary, he can spend hours alone in the Rutherford and Bruce Peel Special Collections Libraries at the University of Alberta (112th Street NW and 89th Avenue NW, near University Station), reading art magazines and touring the old book collections. Appetite whetted he often strolls to Audrey’s Bookstore (Jasper Avenue and 107th Avenue) where knowledgeable staff can find anything you’re looking for and authors frequently pop in for a public reading. He eats lunch at Zenari’s on First (10117 101 Street NW), where the quick, casual service and perfect paninis and pasta (“I’m fussy about pasta,” he says firmly, “And theirs is good.”) satisfy the lone traveler. Professional and personal interest alike propels him again and again to his favorite galleries: Bear Claw Gallery for contemporary Aboriginal art (10403 124th Street), Peter Robertson Gallery (10183 112 street), and Agnes Bugera Gallery (12310 Jasper Avenue), also home to a collection of Canadian contemporary works. These are just a few of the attractions available to those in Edmonton’s “gallery district” (www.124stbrz.com) along 124th Street in the heart of the downtown core.

In the evenings, Tony seeks out excellent wine lists and comfortable atmosphere. “The one thing that drives me crazy about Edmonton is how early all of the restaurants close,” he says incredulously, “The city still needs to develop those places for grown-ups who want to stay out after 11:00 pm. People over 30, over 40, over 50 do stay out that late, you know.”

There are a couple of restaurants that suffice, he admits. The Hat Resto-Pub offers gourmet burgers and a good selection of scotch, beer, and other libations, and is open from lunch time to late night snack time. Originally a greasy spoon, this chic newly renovated eatery was opened in 1912 as The Silk Hat making it the oldest pub in the city. Other favorites are: The Hardware Grill, Sorrentino’s Restaurant for its extraordinarily friendly staff, extensive wine list and fine Italian cuisine, Wildflower Grill because “they do that high cuisine fusion thing exactly right” and boasts a sommelier who can match any meal with a perfect, inexpensive wine, and Tony’s Pizza Palace - a place “in the middle of nowhere, but with the only truly New York style pizza in Edmonton” he says … and it’s open until midnight on Fridays.

Since resigning from the Art Gallery of Alberta on May 27, Tony is in full-out moving mode, saying goodbye to his favorite haunts and trying to bring as much of them as he can to his new home with Ann in Calgary. Together they are regulars at Tu Gallery (10718 - 124 Street), filled with one-of-a-kind furniture and sculptures, and Dwell Modern Furnishings (10549 124 Street), where much of the Italian high design lighting has become a part of their décor.

Whether in Calgary or Edmonton, the Luppinos like to eat well, often hosting dinner parties that run much later than most restaurants are open. They’ve just discovered a fabulous place for local produce and fine Canadian cheeses at Blush Lane Organic Market, just off 17th Ave and 85th St SW in Calgary. While Mercato Gourmet Foods will usually provide anything else they need, Tony admits he’s going to miss his go-to markets in Edmonton.

The Italian Centre Shop on 95th Street in Edmonton is the only place to buy fresh produce he says. “It doesn’t look perfect, but when you roast those peppers or eat those fresh tomatoes, the taste is incredible.” Loyal to the original location in Little Italy, Tony says the new store on 104a Street is also charming, and is home to a tempting bakery. “Everything is fresh,” he says, “Fresh when it’s in season in Italy, I mean, that’s when they bring it over to Alberta. The fruits, vegetable, salamis … I don’t even know how to say it in English. It’s the Italian way.”

As the warmth of the summer months begin to soothe their hectic schedules, the power couple look forward to more time outside, and together. The Calgary Folk Festival in Prince’s Island Park July 23-26 is high on Ann’s list, along with the Calgary Jazz Festival, which begins this week.

Meanwhile, their careers are always on the radar. A mere month ago Ann and Tony hosted the Mountains, Music & Masterpieces weekend at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Forty of their fellow art and music lovers gathered for seminars on Beethoven and the Group of Seven between indulgent, beautiful meals overlooking the spectacular emerald waters. Their restless minds have already begun planning the next event, perhaps to be held in the autumn, perhaps with a literary theme. Until then, their enthusiasm for arts and culture continue to reign in the heart of the city.

Published in National Post, June 20 2009

International Student Energy Summit

2009-06-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, delivered a rousing keynote address in Calgary last week at the International Student Energy Summit (ISES). He declared a need for “re-energizing” NAFTA and for wholesale fiscal reform in his home country. He encouraged and applauded the leadership of those in the room, and talked about political decision making as an exercise in applying ethics. His remarks were well delivered and engaging, but not surprising.

What was unexpected though, were the hard-nosed questions in response from audience members. Students from Mexico, Columbia, and Alberta, Canada stood at the microphone and asked how can fiscal reform be achieved, what particular strategies can be applied by foreign investors to create business opportunities without sparking the lingering resentments of those accustomed to Western exploitation, how democracy and free markets can become compatible in Latin America, and whether it was fair for carbon emission standards to apply equally in the developing and developed world. Fox immediately became an artful dodger, speaking in eloquent generalizations.

Yet the lunch was still a highlight for many of the 300 plus student and young professional delegates who gathered from around the world for the three day conference. A dinner and social at Ranchman’s Cookhouse had many of them ‘mingling’ late into the evening on day two; a gala dinner with keynote speaker Jeremy Rifkin, president of The Foundation on Economic Trends, gathered everyone together on Friday night.

Among the other speakers were: Dr. David Layzell, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Environment and Economy (ISEEE), Dr. Pierce Riemer, secretary general of the World Petroleum Council, Dr. Michael Klare, author of "Resource Wars" and "Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency", Dr. Gustav Grob, executive secretary of the International Sustainable Energy Organization, and Sabrina Sullivan of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

A panel on the future of the oil sands took place on Friday morning, featuring Bill McFarlane, past president of the Canadian Heavy Oil Association, Matt Fox, senior vice president of Oil Sands at Conoco Philips Canada, author Andrew Nikiforuk, Jennifer Grant, policy analyst for Pembina Institute, Calvin Duane, manager of regulatory and environmental affairs at Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and Wishart Robson, senior advisor for safety and climate change at Nexen Inc.

“This the world’s largest energy project and the world’s largest engineering project,” said Nikiforuk of the oil sands, “We have failed to manage our part of the value chain, and as former Premier Peter Lougheed says, we have failed to capture our fair share.”

Not surprisingly, industry representation disagreed. “Industry sees themselves as on the front lines, providing a highly desirable resource which supports the rest of Canada with billions of dollars,” said Duane, “Yet we are besieged on every side.”

As with the end of each session, a student organizer of the conference provided a summary of the panel discussion. “That was probably the best panel I’ve ever heard,” she said, “I got like fifteen text messages while you were speaking and I was like, this is awesome!”

Published in National Post, June 20 2009

A Well-Oiled Meeting of Minds

2009-06-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Government and business leaders from around the world descended on Calgary last week for the Gas and Oil Exposition, or GO Expo. Approximately twenty thousand delegates attended three days of seminars and networking events, all under the theme of technology suitable for “profitable and sustainable hydrocarbon development.” Among the speakers were: Peter Mansbridge of the CBC, who moderated the opening panel discussion, Dr. Soheil Asgarpour, president of Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada, David Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Qubad Talabani, a representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and Matthew McCulloch of the Pembina Institute.

A reception for international delegations was held on Tuesday, hosted by Calgary Economic Development. More than two hundred guests mingled amid artwork and vintage motorcycles at Artevo Art Gallery, a beautiful, three level renovated heritage building featuring exposed brick walls, wood ceilings, and warm lighting. John Hankins, vice president of international trade and development for Calgary Economic Development made the introductory remarks. Mel Knight, Alberta’s Minister of Energy, was the keynote speaker, introduced by Paul Beique, vice president of capital markets for Vermilion Energy Trust.

In a time of high environmental sensitivity, low deal flow, and rapidly fluctuating oil prices, conferences like this can take a gloomy tone. Happily, though, the feeling among guests and speakers alike was positive.

“Alberta has a competitive royalty regime,” Knight stated enthusiastically, noting the other factors that make the province a sound choice for international investment. “We have a stable government,” he said, joking, “It might not always seem like I’m stable, but it’s true.”

His remarks arrive at the same time Premier Ed Stelmach’s office has been rumoured in national media outlets to prefer Ignatieff to their own conservative leader because of his fervent support for oil sands developments.

Attracting investment and promoting the financial sector in general was high on the priority list for many of the evening’s guests, including Michael Mezei, president of Mawer Investment Management Ltd. The difficult economic climate is no reason to shy away from discussions on leadership and partnerships, he said. Saad Bashir, business development manager for energy at Calgary Economic Development, agrees.

“This is not the year when a lot of purchasing is going to happen,” Bashir says, “But this is the year for making relationships. So next year when the economy is running smoothly again, these international companies and Calgary companies are going to be able to do business. The relationships will be in place.”

Relationship building was certainly in effect as guests lingered well into the evening, some returning to the Marriott Hotel bar for further discussions and libations.

Also in attendance were: Lois Mitchell, chair of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Stephan Wasylko, minister counselor for commercial affairs at the Embassy of the United States of America, Kevin Redmond, president of Entech Energy Group, Alexandre Garcia, consul general of France, Lei Jianzhong of the consul of economic and commercial section for The People’s Republic of China, Bill Boyce, regional director at 3M Canada, and Alireza Rafiee of the Australian Trade Commission.

Published in the National Post June 13, 2009

Canada West Foundation Talks Energy

2009-06-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

Canada West Foundation hosted its Board of Directors’ dinner last week at Hotel Arts. The theme - “Western Canada’s Energy Future” - was the topic of discussion for a post-meal panel including Tom Huffaker, vice-president of policy and environment for CAPP and former US Consul-General, Murray Edwards, vice chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, and Gordon Kerr, president and CEO of EnerPlus Resources Fund. The program was moderated by fiery business columnist Deborah Yedlin of The Calgary Herald. A three course meal was served, including roasted butternut squash soup and a duo of Alberta beef tenderloin and braised short rib.

Yedlin’s opening remarks focused on the increasing demand for low carbon energy, its corresponding market trends, and the need to combat a prevailing “ineffective public policy” in the oil and gas sector, particular in times of economic downturn. The participants, some smiling glumly at the mention of climate change debate and proposed cap-and-trade systems, took questions from the moderator and the audience. All echoed the need for more robust policy and predictable royalty frameworks - the current regime being one subject to frequent review and adjustment.

The first question was on the current feasibility of carbon capture and storage projects in the oil sands. Despite the onslaught of federal and province funding for such technology in recent months, the majority of projects selected to receive it have decline the support. Huffaker noted the fine balance needed between market and governance mechanisms to propel big change. Edwards explained the “long term progress” made in the oil sands developments - “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said - and spoke at length about proprietary technologies at work in his own development, which capture the carbon emitted when sand and bitumen are separated and push it back into the ground, “closing the loop” and shrinking the toxic tailings.

“That would have been a good story in the face of all those dead ducks,” quipped Yedlin.

Conversation flowed easily and ranged from the economic and environmental to the political and the financial. AIMCO, the institution by which the provincial government invests its public money, was a “classic example of a good idea with poor execution,” said Kerr. The people - and executives - of Alberta needed a clearer understanding of how, why and when those investments were being made, he explained.

Other guests included Alderman Joe Connolly, Adam Legge of Calgary Economic Development, Judy Hoag of Global Public Affairs, Art Korpach of CIBC, and Dr. David Swann, leader of the Alberta Liberal Caucus.

A few weeks earlier, the Gaining Ground Summit featured more discussions on the future of energy. Peter Tertzakian, an energy analyst and chief economist with Arc Financial, talked about the inevitable shift in consumer behaviour and the rapid technological changes taking place already to increase energy efficiency.

Published in National Post June 6, 2009

Mountains, Music & Masterpieces

2009-05-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

The weekend began with a cocktail reception in the Lakeview Lounge. Through the windows, frosty Lake Louise glittered under the sinking sun. Classical guitarist John Goulart played while guests mingled around tables of h’or doeuvres, sipping wine and feasting their eyes on the majestic Rocky Mountains. Lamb, risotto, bococcini salad, and lobster bisque were among the edibles.

Pat and Sherrold Moore, Alison and Elliot Geskin, and Andrea Brussa lounged and laughed, sharing travel stories. The Moores and Brussa recounted their most recent trip to Zimbabwe; the Geskins spoke of Hawaii and Mexico. Across the room, Patricia Johnston and Don Groot shared stories of cycling through France, eating grapes off the vine. Talk of beautiful landscapes shifted easily to the one thing they share above all else - a love of fine arts. Hence their presence at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for an intimate experience with The Art Gallery of Alberta and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO).

Ann Lewis-Luppino, president of the CPO, welcomed guests warmly, making introductions and setting a relaxed tone. “This weekend is really meant to encourage dialogue, and make friends,” she explained, “I wanted to keep it small, special.”

Lewis-Luppino and her husband, Tony Luppino, executive director of The Art Gallery of Alberta, were gracious hosts for the weekend, the concept for which came from Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Inc.

“European tourists love the mountains, but they’re also used to culture,” explained Luppino, “A package like this keeps them here a little longer and introduces them to more than our wild outdoors.”

It’s also a community-building exercise, they explain further, both for The Fairmont and their two cities. The Mountains, Music & Masterpieces weekend was the first in a variety of themed packages to come.

Saturday featured a discussion on the Group of Seven and their unique role in shaping Canadian identity. Luppino gave an inspired lecture, inviting the forty guests to examine the Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald paintings in the room. While utterly respectful of original artwork, Luppino wonders if our society is not overly cautious.

“What’s the point in preserving them if no one ever sees them?” he asked.

After a light lunch, Maestro Roberto Minczuk took the stage for an interactive seminar on music and nature, including a performance by CPO musicians Craig Hutchenreuther, Tom Mirhady, Rob Penner, and Brad Otteson.

A four-course gala dinner in the small, plush Alpine Room capped off the day. Atlantic salmon was presented three ways: tartare, smoked, and ceviche, followed by a tomato bisque, and Alberta beef. Another private performance from the CPO quartet - complete with a heartfelt rendition of “home on the range” - prompted standing ovations.

Guests stayed in the elite 7th floor “gold rooms” and following dinner, some made use of the kitchen, chess board, and armchairs in its comfortable lounge while others braved the grizzly-friendly weather for a glimpse of the stars and lumbering porcupines.

A decadent brunch - champagne and eggs benedict with duck confit - gave time for guests to say goodbye. Most agreed that the end of the weekend marked the beginning of something wonderful.

Published in National Post, May 30 2009

NOTE: My accommodation for this event was generously supported by the CPO and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise - what a treat! My gratitude is only shadowed by my awe for the spectacular views, detailed luxury, and superb service from the valet to the saloon. We will return; thank you!

Business in Calgary, Party in Banff

2009-05-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival had the streets of Banff bustling last week. People from across the province strolled down the avenue, hopped on buses, and paraded into the Fairmont Banff Springs for a taste of gourmet fare and fine wine. An entire weekend of decadence was available.

At the Buffalo Mountain Lodge on Friday night, a small group sampled five varieties of Brunello di Montalcino and local fare crafted by Chef Linda Calabrese. While sommelier Roisin Hutchinson shared her passion for wine, coaxing guests into sharing their insights, platters of cheese, jellies, and local game were served. A peppered elk carpaccio and duck terrine, paired with a 2003 Pieri Agostina had guests gushing.

A much larger crowd gathered at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel on Saturday for the first session of the wine and food tasting. Over 2400 people attended the two sessions. Wine, beer and spirits from around the world were featured; guests enjoyed everything from unique coffee rum to organic vodka and vintage wines. Judie and Jim Keall were hunting for new labels on behalf of their son, who owns a wine shop in Calgary. Hellbent Shiraz from Australia did the trick, although New Zealand wines were top among many guests.

Meanwhile, local restaurants and hotels were tempting many with delectable plates. The Bison Restaurant turned out a steady stream of mini herb-rubbed pulled pork sandwiches on freshly made buns with house-made tomato jelly. It was a favorite among many guests, who were served by the restaurant’s owner Ryan Rivard.

Competition for best dish came from young South African chef Morne Burger of Maple Leaf Grill. His wasabi-crusted salmon, cooked to order and perfectly positioned on bite-sized polenta squares, attracted a high number of patrons and a huge amount of praise. Although not on their regular menu, the dish had a number of guests making early plans for dinner.

Among those attending the festival were: Harry Wells, vice president innovation and technology for Newalta (a happy side-trip to his week-long business excursion from Ontario), real estate agent Joe Badin, Alan Beres and Perry Fleming of Foster’s Group, Chef Martin Brenner of Sunshine Village, and Allan and Sonia Cavanagh.

It was back to business in Calgary the following week, at the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Luncheon. The inductees for 2009 were announced by Arlene Dickinson, president and CEO of Venture Communications, with comments provided by Colin Merrick, associate partner at Deloitte.

The laureates are: Edward (Ed) McNally, the lawyer and rancher who founded Big Rock Breweries, Allan Markin, the engineer and community leader who helped steer Canadian Natural Resources Limited to great success as the board chair, and Senator Patrick Burns, who will be awarded posthumously for his life of public service.

At the luncheon were Karen Chown of Calgary Economic Development, Murray Edwards of CNRL, Heather Douglas of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Eva Friesen of The Calgary Foundation, 2008 laureate Don Taylor, and Donald Seaman. The awards will be handed out at the Business Hall of Fame gala in November.
Published in National Post, May 23 2009

NOTE: My accommodation for the Rocky Mountain Food and Wine Festival was generously supported by the folks at Banff Tourism and the oh-so-splendid Fox Hotel & Suites. <- (click here to check it out) Many many thanks for their gracious hospitality, outstanding service and pristine, luxurious hot springs pool.

Bateman Offers Brush With Nature in Banff

2009-05-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

At the Whyte Museum last week, guests dressed in vintage safari-wear pulled tiny keys out of a tiny treasure chest before striding down a red carpet into the main gallery. The keys were tied with various colours of ribbon, indicating your “team” for the night.

Robert Bateman, famed Canadian artist and environmentalist, stood on a small stage and spoke quietly about his work. A retrospective hung on the walls around him, work from the different decades of his life. The room was crowded. Finally, raising his sketchbook in one hand, he gestured at the crowd and ordered,

“Now go, get drunk, and spend a lot of money at the silent auction.”

Laughter. Before the audience could swarm or disperse, two figures took the stage - this time, dressed in elaborate Jumanji-style dress with head-set microphones. They directed the audience on an elaborate treasure hunt around the museum, where clues were hidden at various bars and food stations. Catering was provided by the Bison Resturant, which offered dripping, indulgent fondue bits, pan-cooked shrimp, crudités, and other assorted goodies.

Among the adventurers were Alberta Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, Ted Morton with his wife Bambi Morton, MLA Dave Rodney, curator at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Adam Duncan Harris, Under The Sleeping Buffalo (UTSB) researcher Peter Poole, executive director of Heritage Community Foundation Adriana Davies, sommelier Roisin Hutchinson of Bin 905, senior vice-president of BMO Financial Group Ted McCarron and his wife, Jane McCarron, and Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury with his partner, Rob Mabee of Axis Gallery in Calgary.

Proceeds from the evening will go to the Whyte Museum; Bateman is trumpeting another good cause - the “Get to Know” program, which connects children and the wilderness.

The evening closed with a very special connection to nature: two live owls and a giant hawk, brought in to the museum by animal trainers. The remaining guests crowded around the birds in awe, touching their feathers and watching the odd turning of the owl’s head.

Published in National Post, May 16 2009

Woodward Woos Teatro

2009-05-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

Another heady season at the salon is over. Last week brought a final gathering of Calgary’s cultural elite and intelligentsia to Teatro Restaurant for the last in speaker series on “The Race to the White House and Beyond.” Infamous investigative journalist Bob Woodward was the guest of honour.

Well known for uncovering the Watergate scandal, and introduced by Rudyard Griffiths as a “chronicler of our time”, Woodward focused his remarks on the role of journalism in a democracy, and his personal recollections of the Bush administration. But he began with a different race to the Oval Office, way back when Al Gore was a contender.

“Having dinner with Al Gore is unpleasant,” Woodward said dryly. There was laughter and the clink of glasses as the audience took another swig of Tegrino Vin Santo. “There is not one pleasant thing about it,” he confirmed, “It is taxing. He is absolutely sure he knows everything about every subject.”

Yet there was some wisdom Woodward did accept at face value: Gore told him that only one percent of what goes on in the White House is public knowledge. Years later, it was clear that little more than that was even executive knowledge, when George W. Bush told him he did not attend many of the early meetings on the Iraq war.

“We’ve seen a staggering increase in the level of violence in Iraq - almost incomprehensible - and George Bush was out there asking if we were winning, not for months but for years!” Woodward charged, “The idea that the commander-in-chief would absent himself from those meetings … I felt sick. Sick for my country. The president had lost control. He didn’t know what was real; he didn’t have a grasp on it.”

And thus began his treatise on the role of the press in a liberal democracy, complete with mea culpa on the coverage of the Iraq war. “Media drives them toward accountability,” he said.

The questions ranged from ironic - Tom Flanagan asking about barriers to accessing Canadian politicians - to the cheeky - Carlo Bellusci asked, “Isn’t it true that if governments weren’t so secretive, you’d be out of a job? And don’t people want to just kind of tune all this out and go to the cottage?”

Woodward took it all in stride, concluding on a truly diplomatic note: “Obama thinks he’s restored moral authority to the White House, just as Bush though he’d restored dignity. I say, we’ll see. You can be so sure of something, then time passes, you do your homework, and things look very different.”

The Salon Speaker Series at Teatro will resume in Autumn 2009.

Guests dined on a mouthwatering preserved lemon risotto, the classic Alberta beef tenderloin, and a dainty selection of mignardises. Among those in attendance were: the camera-shy Murray Edwards, University of Calgary’s Barry Cooper, Greg Forrest, John Cordeau of Bennett Jones, Randy Pettipas of Global Public Affairs, Dina and George Honke, energy analyst Wilf Gobert, and Timothy Hamilton, managing partner of Hamilton Hall Soles/ Ray & Berndtson Inc.

Published in National Post, May 9 2009

New Works and New Workers Welcomed in Calgary

2009-05-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Vincenzo Calli, an Italian painter, has brought a collection of his latest work to the Art Gallery of Calgary, where the work and the artist were celebrated on Wednesday April 22. The paintings depict moments between dreaming and awake, and the suspension between heaven and earth. Some of them portray figures in shadow with placid expressions, while those in the sunlight stare forward anxiously. Others feature tarot cards, clouds, wolves on the hunt, and tiny brushstrokes to simulate watery ripples. The exhibit is on display until Saturday, June 27.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada (ICCC) co-hosted the event, attracting a large contingent of guests from the local Italian community. Remarks from the artist, and Marina Mason, vice president of the ICCC, were made in Italian and translated.

Guests included Jean Merriman, executive vice president of White Iron Productions, Omar Channan, founding world president of the World Organization of Building Officials and the president of United Nations Association in Canada-Calgary, Dr. John Lacey, honorary consul-general of Thailand, Jennifer Hames, of CTV Television, Lorenzo Lecce of A Touch of Italy, and Jessica MacLeod of Vendemmia International Wines.

Viable Calgary, a workforce program designed to connect employers and persons with disabilities, launched on Thursday, April 23 with a cocktail reception in Teatro’s Opera Room. A keynote speech was delivered by Elsbeth Mehrer, manager of workforce development at Calgary Economic Development. Other speakers included Lisa Thompson of Bank of Montreal, and Peter Pilarski of the Retail Council of Canada.

“When I went to job interviews,” Thompson recounted, “A lot of people thought I had a cognitive impairment, just because I’m in a wheelchair. I had to fight to show them there’s nothing wrong with my brain. It was very discouraging. Luckily BMO was more than open-minded during the hiring process.”

Viable Calgary offers “integration studies” upon request, showing local business how easy - or how difficult - it would be to welcome an employee with a disability. Other services include staffing support, research, and best practices workshops on hiring disabled workers. Funded by local industry, the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada, these services are provided free of charge.

Guests of the event included Pat and Sherrold Moore, Bryce Roblin of Placement Group, Jim McLaughlin of Alberta Employment and Immigration, Robert Hansen of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, Jenny Cruickshank of The Home Depot, and Linna Morgan of Calgary Counselling Centre.

Wallace Galleries welcomed the work of two new artists this week, Camrose Ducote and Rachel Ovadia. At the opening on Saturday, April 25, guests wandered in for a sip of wine and a look at the fresh pieces. Abstract, eggshell-coloured mixed media make up Ducote’s work. Ovadia on the other hand, with bold colours on giant canvas, lights up the room. Ode to Mozart is made up of deep, grandiose swirls of red overlaid with broad strokes of orange, pulsing from the centre of an electric blue and green border.

The joint display lasts until May 10.

Published in National Post, May 2 2009

Iggy Pops Into Calgary Cocktail; Griffiths' Book Launched

2009-04-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

As if summoned by a city-wide nerd alert, pundits, politicos, and others interested in weighty discussions of Canada’s ongoing identity crises gathered in Calgary’s downtown core last week. First at Pages bookstore in Kensington where Rudyard Griffiths, host of the Salon Speaker Series and founder of the Dominion Institute, launched his latest book “Who We Are: A Citizens Manifesto”, then a few days later at The Grand where Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was the guest of honour at a well attended cocktail fundraiser.

Late afternoon sun streamed through the upper-floor windows of a charming old book shop while Griffiths held court last week. A fair sized audience stood in a semi-circle around him, nibbling on fine cheeses and sipping local wine. After briefly introducing his thesis, the author invited questions. “How can we engage young voters?” asked one guest. “How role does new media play in democratic society?” asked another. “What does it mean to be Canadian in a globalized world?” En masse, they tilted forward, eager for a drop of certainty amid the ongoing Canadian identity-crises. And he delivered.

Succinct, poised and enthusiastic, Griffiths answered each question with a smile, leaving a happy crowd to mingle and discuss. Despite his somewhat contentious assessment of Canadian life -and what we need to make it better, such as mandatory voting, re-imagined media, and denying Quebec the rights of nationhood - there was little debate.

“There’s one nation - Canada,” he concluded, “We’re diluting this nation by thinking we can have multiple sub-nations that have all the benefits and power that we associate with the country writ large. I think that devalues Canadian citizenship.”

Guests included: Randy Pettipas and Lorraine Royer of Global Public Affairs, Cathy Cram of ConocoPhillips, Marcus Gurske of Play It By Ear Productions, author Judy Johnson, Frances Wright, founder of the Famous 5 Foundation, Ian Griffin, honourary chairman of Research Capital, and Shannon Palmer.

A grander affair took place on the other side of the river later that week. Michael Ignatieff hosted a few hundred of his closest friends for a cocktail fundraiser. He made pointed comments on Alberta’s energy capital and cultural cache, made fun of his own eyebrows, and basked in the rare melee of Western Liberal revelry. Between sampling delicate h’ors d’oeuvre and a variety of beverages, guests pondered the future of the opposition.

“Jesus Christ could run as a Liberal in Alberta and lose,” said one guest, laughing.

“This is the tipping point,” said another, “We’ve been waiting for a leader we could support, and now we have him.”

Guests included: Senator Joyce Fairbairn, Senator Grant Mitchell, John Cordeau Q.C. of Bennett Jones LLP, Christine Silverberg of Wolch Hursh deWit Silverberg & Watts LLP, Matthew Mitschke of Schofield Law Office, Howard Shikaze of RSM Richter Chartered Accountants, Daryl Fridhandler of Burnet Duckworth & Palmer LLP, George Gosbee of Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Dr. Nallai Nallainayagam of Mount Royal College, and George Hodgson, president of the Liberal Party of Canada-Alberta.

Published in National Post, April 18 2009

A Cork & Canvas Fundraiser

2009-04-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Clad in their finest evening wear, supporters of The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra [CPO] filled the posh Petroleum Club last week for the final evening of Cork & Canvas, a fundraising wine and art festival.

Pillars of cultural philanthropy were among the guests, including Tibor and Livia Fekete, Jim and Barbara Palmer, Dick Matthews, Conrad and Mary Porth, Brien and Peggy Perry, Sandra Gajic of the Epcor Centre, Jim Mugford, VP at Siemens Canada, Raj Agrawal, president of NRG Engineering, and Irene Besse.

Following an intimate champagne reception in the McMurray Room, where members of the CPO preformed, guests poured upstairs and into a three-tiered dining room for a delightful five-course meal and live auction.

Alison Geskin, director of development for the CPO, acted as “mistress of ceremonies” with enthusiasm and charm. While guests found their tables and scanned the silent auction items, Geskin introduced Gerald Uhlen, the export director for Joseph Drouhin Vineyard in Burgundy. Uhlen’s charming accent and impressive expertise had the entire room settling in their seats and raising a glass.

The first wine was a 2005 Drouhin Chablis Vausesir Grand Cru, light in colour and lingering in the palette. With rapt attention, his audience swirled, sipped, and pondered. A marinated grilled squid salad was served, with olives, capers and roasted red peppers adding a sweet balance to the wine. And then there was the 2002 Clos des Mouches Blanc; a rich, slightly smoky chardonnay evoking damp forests and honey. It was a good start.

Before the next course was served, Geskin hosted a round of live auction. Tony Luppino, executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta (and the husband of Ann Lewis-Luppino, president of the CPO) provided some comments on the first painting available for auction - Nicolas de Grandmaison’s Winter Evening. The bidding was fierce, with no signs of slowing down for the next two items; an interactive cooking experience with top chef Fabio Centini, Maestro Roberto Minczuk, and radio talk show host “The Coach”, followed by two bottles of Chateau Lafite (‘83 Rothschild Bordeaux Red & ‘89 Bordeaux Bend).

The menu included rabbit confit ravioli, Alberta beef tenderloin with bison short rib, a selection of fine cheeses, and tiramisu in a chocolate cup. Each course was preceded by Uhlen’s tasting notes, Luppino’s comments on a painting, and a round of live auction.

A package of 100 tickets to the CPO, to be donated to a charity of one’s choosing, was sold twice at $2500 to each bidder. Winner Trent Stangl, VP marketing and investor relations for Crescent Point Energy Trust, will donate his prize to YMCA Strong Kids. Two tickets for the luxurious Mountains, Music and Masterpieces event at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was sold to five separate bidders. Other donated prizes included Olympic hockey tickets, a chance to rehearse and perform with the CPO, many fine works of art including pieces by Amy Dryer and Robert Bateman, and over a dozen vintage wines, including a 1985 Chateau Margaux Bordeaux Blend.

Published in National Post, April 11, 2009

Green Business Series & Photo Gala

2009-04-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

Photographers Jeremy Fokkens and Robert J. Scott hosted a gala benefiting the Children’s Wish Foundation at the Art Gallery of Calgary last week. Over three hundred hipsters and well-wishers turned out to peruse the duo’s first joint exhibition and indulge in a few glasses of fine wine. Picture This: a photography gala was not only a fantastic showcase for their work - haunting images of Prairie life and vibrant pictures of their independent travels through Southeast Asia, mostly - but raised approximately $15 000 for the charity. Every piece on display was sold that night; a total of fifty photographs.

Fokkens and Scott, childhood friends, are both teachers and have volunteered extensively with children and youth at risk. After travelling separately through Asia as photographers and ESL instructors, they reconnected and began to brainstorm ways to give back.

“We really wanted to convey to people here how fortunate we are to live the way we do,” said Fokkens, “I never expected this kind of response; it’s thrilling.”

The event was the product of an informal conversation between the two artists only three months ago. After the success of Picture This, plans are already in the works for several similar events across the region.

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The Down to Earth Sustainable Living Festival began on March 28 with multiple Earth Hour events and local menu tastings, which continue throughout the city until Saturday, April 4. During the week, noon-hour business lectures took place at the downtown public library, kick-started by the presentation of a report recently drafted by Calgary Economic Development’s Katie Emond and Stephanie Jackman, president of REAP [respect for the earth and all people). The Green Business Report highlights four key actions available to small and medium sized enterprise to reduce their carbon footprint. It is available on the websites of both organizations.

Jackman says that an increasing number of business-owners in Calgary are looking to “go green” - and she should know. REAP is an association for businesses concerned with creating sustainable lifestyles, and organized Down to Earth week with support from the Calgary Herald, Bullfrog Power, Calgary Public Library, and Creative Factor. The turnout for events like the business lecture series was impressive. In attendance for the Green Business Report release were Richard Pootmans, business development manager for real estate at Calgary Economic Development, Sarah Newman of Vibrant Communities Calgary, Nancy MacKenzie of Calgary Public Library, and Gary Fredich-Dunne of Bullfrog Power.

Published in National Post, April 4 2009

Fiesta and WineFest bring in spring

2009-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

It may leave like a lamb, but winter in Calgary is still roaring like a lion… or maybe a couple dozen pussy cats. That was the feeling, anyway, at last week’s Mexican fiesta-style fundraiser at the Wallace Galleries which raised money for P.E.A.C.E. (Protection & Education for Animals, Culture & Environment), a non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing the unwanted pet population in Mexico. PEACE also provides work skills and education to underprivileged families in and around Puerto Vallarta.

Dozens of people braved the icy weather for a little taste of the sunny south, and a big dose of reality. Colette Hubner organized the event around her family's pet project, after years of helping to spay and neuter animals around her family’s vacation home. Through a few degrees of separation, her family met Molly Fisher, the president of PEACE and began working with her to bring veterinarians, supplies, and money into the region. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, she says.

Chef Klaus Hubner and friends provided an authentic Mexican feast, with healthy helpings of guacamole, tostadas de polo, ensalada de jimaca, tomates y cebollas y queso fresco, paella, mouthwatering pork tenderloin and a spicy shrimp dish. Little children gleefully crowded around the gallery’s main entrance while a piñata was beaten, spewing treats and toys onto the pavement below. Their noises of delight blended into the chatter and laughter of almost a hundred adults, many holding mini-margaritas and swaying in time to music piped through the sound system.

On the walls of the bright, open space gallery were silent auction items ranging from a set of organic, freshwater pearls from Lotus Lines to a care package for pets, massage certificates, and dinner for two at Divino. Local artists, some friends of gallery owner Heidi Hubner (mother of Colette and wife of Doug), were in attendance to watch as their work was auctioned off for the charity. Julie Meisser’s handcrafted glass bead bracelet fetched a handsome price, as did a painting by Bill Duma. Liberal MLA Kent Hehr was also present and spoke briefly before the live auction began.
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Things were also heating up in Edmonton recently, when a large crowd gathered for WineFest at the Shaw Conference Centre. A complementary Riedel wine glass was handed out to guests who then had the opportunity to taste at least 45 different wines. Hors d’oeuvres and a wide variety of cheeses were also offered.

Votes were collected for the “people’s choice” award, which unanimously claimed a 2007 Kung Fu Girl Riesling the winner for white at both the Calgary and Edmonton events, and the 2004 Reserve Vinoce Cabernet Sauvignon Edmonton’s favorite red wine.

Guests included: Brian Heck, president of Wine Runners Inc, Katherine Fischgrund, principal interior designer for Urban Design Interiors, Dean Wulf, managing partner for Avison Young, Shanna Dorsch, vp of operations for Solutions Workplace Furnishings, Christine Iverson of RBC, Luisa Montgomery of Primerica, Dale Orvis of Charton Hobbs, Erin Honeyman of the RCMP, and detective Patrick Tracy of the Edmonton Police.

Published in National Post, March 28 2009

Events show how far we've come, but we're not there yet!

2009-03-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

International Women’s Day, March 8, was celebrated with several events in Calgary. At the Chamber of Commerce, in the plush fourth floor ballroom, the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) hosted a luncheon aptly titled Women of the World Celebration. Mayor Dave Bronconnier gave opening remarks, focusing on the benefits of diversity and immigration in major urban centers. Cara Fullerton of Global Television was the master of ceremonies; Gerda Bloemraad of CIWA and Rob Ferguson of Citizenship & Immigration Canada also spoke. The mouthwatering three-course meal included a choice of richly spiced chicken korma on basmati rice or vegetarian lasagna.

Guests were encouraged to network at their tables, and topics of discussion were provided for this purpose. Malgosia Skrzynski, an administrator at CIWA, began by noting the popularity of women’s day in her home country of Poland. More fresh flowers are purchased and delivered to women across Europe on Women’s Day than on Valentine’s Day, she said.

Romantic gestures are not the only thing women are fighting for in this country, others noted. According to fact cards distributed at the luncheon, the number of women in daily newsrooms equals a third of the number of men. In 2006 the Status of Women Department suffered a severe budget cut, and the Court Challenges Program - legislation for legal protection of the rights of low-income and otherwise marginalized women - was abolished. The UN recently asked Canada to investigate the disappearances and deaths of over 500 Aboriginal women. And in autumn 2008 the Finance Minister proposed changes to the rules governing pay equity, a move some say will undermine human rights claims of gender inequality in the workplace.

Writer and Campaign for Real Beauty spokesperson Judy Wark gave the key-note speech. She talked about beauty as the presence of boldness, intellect and compassion, rather than a manufactured aesthetic. With a calm and eloquent dignity, she also spoke about herself; watching her beloved husband loose a struggle with cancer and finding joy in her children.

A few days later at the Calgary Public Library, another event took place. Five prominent and powerful women took the stage to give insight on living a balanced life. Brown bag lunches were provided by EthniCity Women’s Catering Collective, and the Chinook Winds Show Chorus opened the event with a few musical numbers.

The speakers were: Dr. Kimberley Amirault, a sports psychologist who has worked in the male-dominated fields of the NBA and the NHL, Eva Friesen, CEO of The Calgary Foundation, chef Dee Hobshawn-Smith, Rosemary Thomson, chorusmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and Frances Wright, founder of the Famous 5 Foundation and the guiding force behind Barbara Paterson’s bronze statues of Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, and Irene Parlby celebrating a newspaper headline reading, “Women are Persons!” in the downtown core of Calgary; the sculpture is also pictured on the $50 bill.

In attendance were several MLAs, Miranda Dallalba and Karen Garrick of Calgary Economic Development, Sandra Gajic of the Epcor Centre, and Bev Hubert of the Calgary School Board, among others.

Published in National Post, March 21 2009

Edmonton ad. community celebrates their best

2009-03-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Creative juices flowed through the troubled waters of an economic downturn last week at the 30th Annual Advertising Club of Edmonton (ACE) Awards gala. Industry professionals unabashedly celebrated success and promoted their clients.

“Our advertising community proves time and time again that it has the chops to ‘tell’ and ‘sell’ in engaging ways – to help mitigate business challenges,” Dennis Lenarduzzi of RED - The Agency, said.

Although libations flowed freely at the welcome reception, at least two party-goers were moderate in their approach. Tracy Hyatt and Jennifer Windsor spent the last month abiding by the Canada Food Guide on a budget of just $80 for the entire four weeks; a project they called the “working poor diet.” It was their first meal since taking up the challenge. Eyes slightly glazed, with a tired smile, Hyatt can only say “I’m starving” and that she’s more than ready for the three course dinner that awaits them. It’s “a bitter-sweet ending” to their crusade, Windsor writes on their blog. Their aim was to publicize the links between poverty and nutrition.

Happily, a nutritious and delicious feast was in the cards. Southwestern beef tenderloin was the meal’s crowning jewel, with a trio of lemon blackberry cake, hazelnut chocolate pate and vanilla bean ice cream with blackberry coulis for desert. Dave Babcock and the ACE Orchestra provided after-dinner entertainment. Beth McIntyre, a founding member of the Advertising Club of Edmonton, was honoured.

Awards were also handed out for excellence in all things ad-related, from copywriting to art direction to guerilla marketing. Freckle Creative earned a nod for its work on the Lakeland Credit Union annual report, which was themed “rooted and reaching” and featured a mosaic of fall inspired colours in botanic shapes throughout the document. Calder Bateman Communications brought home a whopping seventeen awards, including ‘best newspaper campaign’ and ‘corporate identity’. The ‘best in show’ award, however, went to DDB Canada for its work on the Rexall Edmonton Indy.

Party guest Rob Jennings admits that he probably chose “the most inauspicious moments in recent history” to start his business, Starburst Advertising, but the risk has paid off. “Conventional wisdom says that organizations tend to cut marketing budgets when times are tough,” he says, “That may be the case, but I have also found that some organizations are taking advantage of the economic climate to make a strong grab at mind or market share from their competitors. Edmonton is also a government town and governments have communications needs, such as public awareness or social marketing campaigns, that don't go away just because the economy is temporarily slowing. My business is doing very well, and when we make it through the economic downturn I will be very well positioned.”

Local actor Chris Craddock hosted 500 guests, including: Jim Smith, producer with Image West Films, Terry Cowan, director of advertising for the Brick Group, John Windwick, VP marketing for ATB Financial, Ania Smith, marketing director of Axial Corporation, Kristin Gibson, senior designer at Woodward Design, Mieke Higham of the Edmonton Arts Council, and sound designer Brad Belcher.

Published in National Post, March 14 2009

Global Stimulates Good Cheer

2009-03-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

With tongue firmly in cheek, government and industry people gathered to celebrate a “global stimulus package” last week in Calgary. Guests were bailed out of their winter-weather-and-fiscal-meltdown blues with cocktails, live jazz, and a selection of delectable h'or douvres, courtesy of government relations firm Global Public Affairs.

"With all the talk of recession and stimulus packages recently, we felt that people were ready for a party,” says Randy Pettipas, president of Global Public Affairs, “Our friends and clients seemed to appreciate the play on words - and the sentiment. Calgary is an optimistic city, and we are really happy that so many came out to celebrate the talent and opportunity that still exists here."

Indeed, between nibbles and sips there was much talk about when the next economic upswing will take place. Peter Pilarski from the Retail Council of Canada had recently returned from Fort McMurry where he spoke to a provincial committee of government employees about how the economy is affecting their industry. Development strategies include re-focusing on retention, cultural training, educational and professional development opportunities and promoting stories of success, “where people have moved beyond stocking shelves to become CEOs,” he says. Despite the icy, bitterly cold weather and a gloomy economic forecast, his outlook was positive.

“This economic downturn gives everyone a chance to reassess their priorities,” said Pilarksi, “So far we haven’t really seen the drops in consumer spending that have been so intense in other parts of North America. We believe that Alberta is not only going to get through, but we’ll be leaner and meaner when we come out.”

The party took place at Velvet, an intimate and upscale restaurant nestled in the heart of downtown. Many of the guests are old friends, with a fair number having worked together on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. In a city where government and industry work together closely - meaning an impressive “get this done” attitude, but also criticism of such rapid development - companies like Global Public Affairs and the relationships they nurture are critical.

David MacInnis, a guest of the party, is the vice president of policy, government, and public affairs for Chevron. He also worked on The Hill for a time, and appreciates the wide network that Global offers. “They have people on the ground across the country, which is very important to us,” he says, “Global gives us the intelligence and expertise needed for discussions on issues with government at all levels.”

Among those rubbing shoulders were: The Honourable Luke Ouellette, Alberta Minister of Transportation, Claire Huffaker (wife of US Consul General Tom Huffaker), Elizabeth Cordeau-Chatelain, communications manager for Total E&P Canada, Stephanie Tan, manager of corporate affairs for Labatt Breweries of Canada, Andy Popko, VP of Aboriginal affairs for EnCana Corporation, Peter Burgener, senior partner at BKDI Architects and Roman Cooney, VP of communications for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers [CAPP].

Three music students from Mount Royal College provided a mellow, jazzy backdrop to the evening. Guests enjoyed plentiful platters of mini bison and smoked gouda burgers, smoked salmon and herbed port jelly, ripened tomato and buffalo mozzarella tarts, beef medallions, and bacon-wrapped scallops.

Published in National Post, March 7 2008

Theatre Calgary Reflects Oscar Glow

2009-03-02T21:44:00.001-08:00

A touch of old Hollywood glamour was bestowed upon a relatively new city last weekend, when Theatre Calgary hosted its annual Night with the Stars fundraising gala. At the posh Ranchmen’s Club (second only in stature and iconic namesake to the Petroleum Club) close to 300 guests gathered in black-tie. They enjoyed fine wine, martini bars, a buffet-style feast of international flavours, silent auctions, and multiple live large-screen projections of the Academy Awards show.

Local actors roamed the gala in character - a Moroccan gendarme, a detective in a neck brace, and a vacationing heiress among them - providing another layer of entertaining escapism while promoting an upcoming production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the play which gives life to those personalities on stage.

Hosts Jocelyn Laidlaw and Jefferson Humphreys provided a lively distraction from the broadcast’s commercial breaks, while The Honourable Lindsay Blackett, Provincial Minister of Culture and Community Spirit, provided opening remarks and provoked small whirlpools of activity as he worked the room. As the leader of a fledgling ministry, he is receiving top marks for enthusiasm, promotion, and politicking in the cultural communities. Many guests also commented on the exceptional talent based in Calgary.

“When you see a Theatre Calgary show, you could be watching theatre in any world class city. You’d never know where you were,” says Carlo Bellusci, president of Vendemmia Wines and a member of the host’s board of directors, “The quality of show is outstanding.”

And that’s no secret, according to Tom McCabe, president of Theatre Calgary. “We’ve had more interest and support in the last year than in the last twenty years combined,” he says, “It’s the first time that the government has really paid attention to the arts. We finally have a ministry of culture, and that makes a big difference, in fact it’s wonderful!”

Dr. Ian Beddis, who was honoured along with his wife Robin Beddis earlier in the evening for their continued support of the organization, agrees on both counts. “Theatre Calgary is the best live theatre you’ll see in the city,” he says simply, “Calgarians are becoming more culturally knowledgeable, as we travel and see what the rest of the world has to offer. And now we can say that Calgary offers the best and supports the best.”

Among the starlets gathered for a night of glamour were: Larry Fichtner, director of development for S.I. Systems, Terry Koch, Senior Associate at Stantec Consulting, Dr. David Cenaiko, Brian Mennis, regional director at Investors Group, Michael Stevens and Stuart Walker of UTS Energy, Nicci Shores of GWL Realty Advisors, Glenn Tibbles, managing director of Knightsbridge for Alberta and the Prairies, author Suzanne Devonshire-Baker, Jim Floyd, board director for Theatre Calgary, and Gary Duke, project director for the University of Calgary Health Research Innovation Centre.

Published in National Post, February 28 2009

Burtynsky's work hits home in Banff

2009-02-20T17:33:00.000-08:00

Nestled amid the dramatic peaks of the Canadian Rocky Mountains is the thriving town of BanffWhyte Museum and within it, . Lovers of nature and art gathered there last week to welcome photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose work is the subject of a major retrospective on display until April 26, 2009.

The exhibit is called The Residual LandscapesOntario nickel mines and Alberta oil sands. and includes a collection of twenty-two images donated by the artist. Burtynsky’s work depicts human impact on natural environments, including provocative and strangely beautiful tailings ponds.

Nickel Tailings No. 30 portraits vivid veins of florescent orange toxins fluidly snaking across a blackened crust of earth. Oxford Tire Pile No. 1 is a whimsical but sad portrait of urban waste, the entire image consumed by tires stacked in spirals and layered across the ground.

“It’s a spectacular collection and an amazing gift,” said Robin Murphy, who attended the opening. Murphy is the director of public art for Torode Group, a company responsible for installing half a million dollars worth of sculptures in public spaces around Calgary. Earlier last week her company unveiled an eight meter high steel sculpture, inspired by tree roots, in the downtown core. The juxtaposition of nature and industry is even more potent in Banff.

“It’s extremely provocative,” said Michale Lang, executive director of Whyte Museum, “Given that we’re in a national park and that all these developments are going on nearby, just beyond our boundaries, it’s very important to be thinking of these things.”

Burtynsky’s work, which he describes as “metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence” and “a dialogue between attraction and repulsion”, has drawn international attention. In 2005 he won the exclusive TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Award, meaning he would be granted any three wishes. One of those wishes was a global dialogue on sustainable living, now available at WorldChanging.com. Two years later, he was the subject of critically acclaimed documentary Manufactured Landscapes. His photographs are in the collections of the MuseumModern Art in New York, the Biblioteque Nationale de France in Paris, and the National ArtGallery in Ottawa, among others. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies is thrilled to have so many of his photographs in one space, and expects they will draw a crowd well into the Spring. of

“His work makes a statement,” says Lang, “And we feel that’s what a good art gallery does – let the work speak for itself.”

Among the substantial number of guests at the opening were: Bob Sandford, author and chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative, Jason Stroh, co-artistic director of Alberta Dance Theatre, Graham Gerylo, Calgary city planner, Doug MacLean of Canadian Art Gallery and his wife, author Mary-Beth LaViolette, Blake O'Brien, co-owner of the Uptown Stage and Screen, photographer Maxine Achurch, communications guru Karin Poldaas and her husband, Quinton Rafuse, vice-president of geoscience at Ember Resources Inc, director Guy Clarkson, and Kirsten Evenden, the newly-appointed president of Glenbow Museum.

Published in National Post, February 14 2009

Disco Inferno: reality meets fantasy at "Chamber 54"

2009-02-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

It’s not often you have the Mayor, the Premier, the federal Minister of Environment, and the provincial Lieutenant Governor in the same room. So when that precise cast of characters enters to the blaring tunes of “Disco Inferno”, introduced by a man in dark sunglasses and a white polyester suit, the feeling is positively surreal.

But real it was.

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual “salute to excellence” gala recently at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Top business and government leaders gathered to honour their own, and welcome Mrs. Lois Mitchell as new chair for the board of directors. The evening’s theme was Studio 54, re-named Chamber 54 and billed as “a world where fantasy mingles with reality and all labels will be left behind.”

It remains unclear as to just whose fantasy would have acting CEO of the Chamber, Geoff Pradella and president of ATCO Gas Brian Hahn compete on centre stage for the title of “disco king”, but one of them certainly took home that label during the evening's events.

Throughout the function, the Saturday Night Fever-styled host who called himself Dirty Martini, urged a black-tie audience to shout “get down!” every time he said “Chamber 54”, and requested that all the ladies give catcalls any time he appeared on stage.

After a four course dinner, which included Alberta beef tenderloin and a caramel flavoured banana trifle mousse, tributes were paid to the immediate past chair, Mr. Hahn (who left the position to assume leadership of ATCO) and the incumbent, Mrs. Mitchell. Speeches were made by Mayor Dave Bronconnier, Premier Ed Stelmach, and Minister of Environment Jim Prentice, who is also the Regional Minister for Southern Alberta. Most leaders encouraged young entrepreneurs to take a “long view”, saying the tough times ahead could be overcome by optimism and patience. Despite their high spirits, the honourable members of government were noticeably absent from the dance floor later that night.

Among the other party-goers were: local television personality Dave Kelly, chair of the gala committee Kathy Pawluk, the Honourable Norman Kwong, president of The Calgary Foundation Eva Friesen, partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP Joe Lougheed, associate director of communications for Sunshine Village ski resort in Banff Doug Firby, team lead of community affairs for EnCana Vicki Reid, Steve Hogle and Bonni Clark of the Alberta Research Council, Judy McVean of Petro-Canada, and a host of MLAs from across the province.

Sherrold and Pat Moore, pillars of philanthropy and community spirit in this city, were honoured in a brief speech by Steve Snyder, who received the Sherrold Moore Award that evening. Mr. Snyder, president and CEO of TransAlta, was responsible for an ambitious project and strategy to end homelessness in ten years. With a firm plan, revitalized political will, and the best in corporate and non-profit talent, his initial committee became the Calgary Homeless Foundation, and his vision is well on its way to fruition. Cynthia Williams, a television producer, and the late Ian Anderson, former chair of the Chamber’s Natural Resources Committee, were also recognized with awards.

Published in National Post, February 7 2009

Maybe Obama isn’t so bad after all, says Bill Kristol

2009-01-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

Last week, Teatro restaurant welcomed William Kristol for the third gathering of the 2008/2009 Salon Speaker Series, a dinner meeting of top intellectuals in Calgary held roughly every month. The affair attracts quite a crowd, impressed by the gourmet fare (sponsored by Enbridge), free-flowing libations (generously provided by Vendemmia Wines and Fieldstone Capitol), and witty, fervent discussions. Bennett Jones LLP is the series sponsor, with Global Public Affairs, National Post, Ron Mathison, and Coril Holdings Ltd. also pitching in.

On the guest list are James and Barbara Palmer, Bill and Sharon Siebens, lawyer Gregory Forrest, managing partner for Bennett Jones LLP Perry Spitznagel, Enbridge'sD'Arcy Levesque, director of the Institute for United States Policy Research Dr. Stephen Randall, president of Calgary Zoo Clement Lanthier, president of Global Public Affairs Randy Pettipas, and of course, the directors of the Salon Series, Rudyard Griffiths and Patrick Luciani.

Kristol, a far-right leaning columnist based in Washington D.C., holds a doctoral degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He jumpstarted his political career in the early 1980’s, working for the Regan and H. W. Bush administrations, as well as think tank “Project for the Republican Future”. In 1994, he founded The Weekly Standard, a highly influential – and Conservative – magazine, which he continues to edit. Last year he became an op-ed writer for The New York Times, and in the year to come he will appear monthly in The Washington Post. Kristol also appears regularly on Fox News.

Given all this, his comments after a sweeping Democratic victory in the last American election might have been predictable. But they were not. Kristol is actually very impressed by his new president, and believes he will govern as a centrist.

A week before his Calgary appearance, Kristol and a handful of conservative columnists dined with the new president at a private dinner party. “He might not have been washed in the blood of the lamb, but he touched the hem,” joked Tom Flanagan.

His personal impressions were positive. “Impressive, intelligent, thoughtful,” he said of President Obama, “He would listen to you and understand your objections to his point of view. He reminded me of moderate law professors I’ve met. He’s very calm. He was refreshingly normal and conversational, and that bodes well for him as president.”

Still, he joked, since the inauguration he’s been yearning for a place more conservative than his own country, and so he came up to Canada. There was an appreciative chuckle, but the comment also raised eyebrows. In this city, a newly appointed senate and “big spenders” budget are causing many to wonder if conservatism is not taking a hit across the continent. Even if that is the case, says Kristol, all is not lost.

Commenting on the weakened state of the Republican Party in the US he said, “I think it’s going to be helpful, ultimately. There will be a reinvigoration of conservative ideas. What you need as a minority like this is some chaos, some bitter debates. It would be helpful for the party.”

Published in National Post, January 31 2009

Bill Brooks Gala is the cat's meow

2009-01-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

A new and fabulous trend is emerging in the society circuit – themes.

Everyone loves a theme park, right? And some people even opt for theme weddings, performing their nuptials in everything from Elvis costumes to Robin Hood leggings. Over the holidays, Alykhan Velji, a highly sought-after residential and commercial interior decorator based in Calgary, hosted “A Very Bollywood Christmas”, complete with turbans and synchronized dancing. So it was no surprise that he and his partner Jason Krell, (Tara Parker Tait PR) were not the only ones fully on board for the Bill Brooks Annual Prostate Cancer Benefit.

Its theme was The Great Gatsby, or the 1920’s era. Guests were urged to put on their “glad rags” and grab their “favorite hoofer” for a night of dancing, fine food, and “giggle water.” One was even invited to “drop some jack on silent auction items that are the cat’s meow.” And so they did.

The vast silent auction included a one-week stay in the private Mexican villa owned by CEO of EnCana Randy Eresman, and a return trip for four to Hawaii with a accommodations provided in the Hilton Hawaiian Village lagoon tower, among other hot getaways. Other highly desirable items on the table were: a men’s Seiko Premier Kenetic Direct Drive watch (valued at $1095), dinner for six at Catch restaurant (value $1200), and an original ink drawing by Audrey Mabee (valued at $250).

Lorne Marr preferred to be called Elliott Ness. Kim Stern, owner of Boutik clothing store, was among the many guests wearing a flapper-style dress, long pearls and a feather in her cap. President of the Art Gallery of Calgary, Valerie Cooper, lined up for some prohibition cocktails at one of the many bars around the ballroom. The drink of choice was bourbon, or a lemon drop martini for the more dainty. Food stations offered everything from sushi and dim sum to antipasti, fine cheeses, and bite sized mini burgers of lamb, tuna, or beef short rib.

This is the 11th year for the benefit. 578 people attended, and revenues exceeded past records. Guests attribute its success to the charismatic man behind it all, Bill Brooks, who flew between the guests with a wide smile late into the night.

In the beginning it was a much smaller crowd, who met for a formal dinner and talked about prostate cancer with rare openness. Since that time, Brooks has raised over $3.3 million toward research and treatment costs, and allowed men and medical professionals to talk about the disease publicly in Calgary.

City Alderman Ric McIver, Käthe Lemon, editor-in-chief of Avenue Magazine, Christine Wandzura, CEO of Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta, Jeff Kovitz, chair of the board of governors for The Banff Centre, and Emmy-award winning producer Chad Oakes of Nomadic Pictures were among the guests.

The ultimate cocktail party it may be, but some of the more corporate-minded guests still had their minds on what followed that glamorous era ... the great depression.

Published in National Post, January 31, 2009

How the oilpatch was stirred up by the Academy Awards

2009-01-26T13:48:00.000-08:00

The road to the Academy Awards is paved with black gold, it seems. At least in Alberta.

Downstream, a Canadian documentary about cancer rates among residents living south of the oil patch, was recently added to the longlist for an Oscar nomination. While the shortlist nominations did not include a nod to the film, its early recognition sent giddy shock waves through the film industry here, and a mess of panicked PR bungles through an enclave of corporate energy giants and government representatives.

The film behind the buzz is a 30 minute documentary revolving around Dr. John O’Connor, a physician living in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. For six years, the doctor has been making a public fuss about rare forms of cancer in the small town, which he claims are linked to the toxic tailing ponds from nearby oil sands development. For his trouble he was charged with four counts of professional misconduct and forced to move far away from the community, to Nova Scotia. The charges have recently been dropped, the water from tailing ponds tested, and a second – but very slow – peer review study of the situation is currently underway by the Alberta Cancer Board.

The documentary has already been screened at select locations in California, and a slew of film festivals from around the globe will show a full-length version of the film next year. Although very few Canadian have yet to see it – including those interviewed for the film – rumors are flying fast and furious.

Last month, the first response from Alberta Minister of Culture Lindsay Blackett was that “it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense” to fund a film “that’s going to be negative” of the province. “If I’m going to invest money in a film, the whole idea is to show Alberta in a better light,” Blackett said during an on-camera interview with CBC. The Minister retracted his comments six days later, saying his comments were in response to a hypothetical question, and that “no censorship or creative oversight is on the table, and it won’t be in the future.”

But the damage had already been done.

Actors unions cried out. Skittish staffers of the Alberta Film Commission denied it ever happened. The Los Angeles Times reported that “it might be impossible to fund a film in the future that is critical of local government policies and programs” and a tribal council member for the Chipewyan First Nation, whose plight is explored in the film, told local indie magazine FFWD, “The Culture Minister is not supporting the general public of Fort Chipewyan. We pay our taxes too.”

The vilified Minister made amends with locals, but the sandstorm speaks to a much larger communications malfunction. The Oscar buzz arrived soon after a carefully crafted admission by Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) that most Canadians don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about their work. That looks now to be a radical understatement. The same day Minister Blackett’s comments were made public, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation requested a judicial review on the granting of oil sands leases from the province. And soon President Barak Obama will make his first official visit abroad to Canada, including a tour of the developments - America’s closest, and largest, supply of energy. For its part, CAPP is promising a “different conversation” – read: revved up public relations campaign - this year.

Leslie Iwerks, the film’s Los Angeles-based writer and director, says Americans are apathetic and ignorant of what their energy costs in human terms. “I understand that it’s big business and they need to feed the US appetite for oil,” she says of the industry, “But you see the environmental impact and the energy it takes to get at it, and it’s pretty eye-opening. It’s big government, it’s people not caring, it’s massive environmental destruction, it’s doctors getting charged with counts that aren’t necessarily true, and it’s a lot of unanswered questions. Those are the stories I want to tell, because it’s a story about human beings.”

"This product is being produced because there is a demand for it,” says Lorraine Royer, vice president of stakeholder relations at Global Public Affairs, whose clients include many big players in the oil patch, “The industry is well aware that continuous improvement is required, and an incredible investment occurs everyday to reduce that impact.”

What this film means for perceptions of the oils sands remains unclear, but those in the movie business are hoping this bit of drama will only help their industry.

“I don’t want there to be a backlash against Alberta film, that was my main concern,” Minister Blackett explains, “It’s knowledge-based and green and all those other good things. We want more Alberta films, more producers, more work in diverse industries here. Film captures our quality of life here, through our eyes. We can’t expect someone from Los Angeles or New York or Toronto to do that for us. We need the creative industries here. I made one mistake … I misspoke. You live, you learn.”

Published in National Post, January 23 2009 (<--click to see article online)