A Trudeau’s back in power and the House of Commons looks like it did when his poppa was running things. Turns out all that 2011 talk about a “Big Shift” of power from east to west, from the Laurentian liberal aristocracy to a Prairie conservative meritocracy, was a mirage. Colby Cosh provides a comprehensive post-mortem on one of the most rancorous – and perplexing – elections in Canadian history.

The first budget of the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta under Premier Jim Prentice is going over like a lead balloon. Actually, make that the Hindenburg. Fifty-nine new tax increases, the biggest deficit in provincial history, and negligible spending cuts. It may be the first pre-election budget in history to offend every conceivable voter demographic. For Colby Cosh, the single most offensive measure is the vandalizing of Alberta’s unique (in Canada) flat income tax. It’s got him thinking, and mourning, about the sad decay of once-great empires – and provinces.

In 2015 C2C Journal invited several writers to explain “How I Got Here” by recalling the experiences and influences that shaped their philosophical orientation. National Post columnist Colby Cosh wrote about growing up in small-town Alberta in the 70s and 80s reading Ayn Rand while government presided over runaway inflation and ruination of the oil industry. University taught him almost nothing, and he chose Alberta Report’s rabble-rousing newsroom as his grad school. This piece helps explain why he’s one of the most consistently interesting voices in Canadian journalism today.