Conrad Black: Canada must mature as a nation - National Post

VANCOUVER – Ethan Meyer ran to a third-place finish and Jenna Conrad cracked the top 10 as the University of Calgary Dinos cross-country teams took on much of the Canada West field Saturday at the Western Canadian Challenge. Both the men's and women's races were run over 8 kilometres at UBC Farm. Hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds, the meet served as a final tune-up for many conference programs ahead of the Canada West Championships.

In 2009, Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2010 named Amrut Fusion the third-best whisky in the world, with a score of 97 points, putting a single malt from Bangalore above almost every Scotch in the book. In March 2026, Paul John’s Michael D’Souza was named World’s Best Master Distiller/Master Blender at the World Whiskies Awards. In 2023, Indri’s Diwali Collector’s Edition won Best in Show at the Whiskies of the World Awards. Seven years is young for a single malt, especially when so many of the Scotches people treasure carry 12, 18, or 25 years on the label. Indian whisky is often described as maturing “faster,” which isn’t quite accurate, but it’s a handy way into the real explanation. Most of it comes down to the Indian climate, and what heat, humidity, and big swings in temperature do to maturing whisky.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement