“If I can do this, you can as well.” John McLay was in Jasper for Booklovers Weekend (October 21-23), a three day dedication to books, book workshops, book writers and book readings hosted by the collaborators at the Jasper Municipal Library, JAG and Jasper’s Habitat for the Arts. Author John McLay ...

This story originally appeared in the March 1, 2020 edition of The Jasper Local. Author’s note: If any names have been changed, it’s to spare the blushes of Jasper’s stolid citizens. Those who dream by night . . . wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous ...

In Jasper, a trickster is about. Just ask Joe Urie—although be warned…you might not get a straight answer. Illustration: Joe Urie and Ed Duchoslav While he was writing his forthcoming, debut novel, Urie wasn’t sure if the protagonist he was crafting was based on himself, or not. However, a conversat...

Author, conservationist and former superintendent of Banff National Park, Kevin Van Tighem, wants Albertans to reimagine themselves. At a time when social, economic and environmental changes confront and confound Alberta,Van Tighem, a fourth-generation Albertan, says we need better ways of rememberi...

Destanne Norris has long-known that death is part of living.  However, it’s taken her decades to fully understand that idea. Norris lost her daughter to a tragic accident in 1995. Leah was just 19-months-old when she fell into the Maligne River and was swept away. “She just got away from our eyes,” ...

Jasper’s Ailsa Ross has a rule: no screens before she gets outside in the morning. That means no logging into social media, no checking her phone, no firing up the laptop. Instead, she’ll head out for a walk around Cabin Creek. Or a quick bike ride. The important thing is that she doesn’t waste the ...

When Rob Krause and Daria Salamon decided to put their 9-5 lives on hold, pull the kids out of school and go backpacking around the world for a year, they had some apprehensions. But beyond the regular traveller trepidations—getting bit by a poisonous snake or catching malaria, for example—there wer...

Almost three decades ago, The Jasper Booster—precursor to Jasper’s current community newspapers—had a space to fill in its newsroom.  The Booster’s long-standing editorial cartoonist, Thomas Boldt—or Tab, as he became known for his work with Sun Media Newspapers—was moving on. Then-publisher Haf Bai...

It was 1993. May. The almost two-month long siege at Waco Texas had just ended in terrible massacre; the siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs was into its second year. The following month would see TVs final episode of Cheers and rave reviews for blockbuster movie Jurassic Park. There was no fanfa...

My last thought before falling asleep after a long, cold day on the trail was “heaven is a lasagna of sleeping bags.” At least that’s what my last thought was supposed to be. Instead, as I zipped myself into three layers of down-lined, thermal quilts, supported by two air mattresses in a finally-war...