Shortly after Mark Carney was elected in late April, Alberta’s United Conservative Party—led by Premier Danielle Smith—passed legislation that lowered the threshold for Albertans to trigger a referendum on whether the province should stay in Canada or secede. The following month, Smith doubled down, throwing her support behind a 2026 referendum, assuming citizens gather enough signatures. The idea of a sovereign Alberta has gone mainstream, but is the province just threatening to leave Canada for leverage over Ottawa or is it genuinely on the path to achieving it? And what would happen if it did? |
Eric Adams, a law professor and constitutional scholar at the University of Alberta, says that the current intensity of the separatist chatter in some parts of the province feels unprecedented. He spoke to me for Maclean’sabout Alberta’s latest push for autonomy: what’s real, what’s theatre and what could come next. Visit macleans.ca for more coverage of everything that matters in Canada, and subscribe to the magazine here. —Alex Cyr, Maclean’s contributor |
Derek Hird started Evolution Wheel out of his garage in 2014. The company manufactures solid, airless tires for heavy equipment like construction machinery, and makes everything at its Winnipeg factory. Hird has been exporting to the U.S. almost since the beginning and employs 40 people. Now Trump’s tariffs could cost him everything. |
Canada has no shortage of innovation—but our policymakers and institutions are playing by outdated intellectual property rules and following a backwards mentality when it comes to innovation funding. To make the country competitive on the world stage, we need to change that. “We’re essentially investing public dollars into foreign-owned companies,” writes Jim Hinton in this essay for Maclean’s. “It’s like pouring water into a leaky bucket.” |
Pioneering transgender artist Erica Rutherford, who transitioned in the ’70s, lived in Scotland, Spain and the U.S. before finally putting down roots on Prince Edward Island. Her art was equally wide-ranging: she wrote books, did theatre and film, and made abstracts, collages and pop art. In retrospect, themes of gender and performance thread through it all. In 2024, 16 years after her death, five of her pop-art paintings were selected for the Venice Biennale, marking the first appearance of a P.E.I. artist. All five are in this show, which features over 100 works, including The Crouched Figure (above), plus photographs and mementos charting the artist’s life. |
Chef Juan Lopez Luna comes from the place of corn—literally. That’s what Tlaxcala, his home state in central Mexico, means in Náhuatl, the Uto-Aztecan indigenous language still spoken in parts of the region. At Alma, his restaurant in Montreal’s Outremont neighbourhood, Lopez Luna goes all in on the flavours and ingredients from his homeland—especially the corn. Alma was recently named the best Mexican restaurant outside of Mexico by the prestigious Culinaria Mexicana in its gastronomic guide to Mexico’s cuisine. And while his food is scrupulously authentic, it’s also filtered through Quebec’s curt, opinionated seasons. For Lopez Luna, it’s not about recreating Mexico in Montreal, it’s about expressing where he’s from with what he has. For more about Alma—plus a look at more of the country’s most exciting culinary destinations—check out this bucket list of homegrown restaurants, chefs and dishes to experience this summer. |
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