Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer.GEOFF ROBINS / AFP/Getty Images
It looks like Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives will not win Monday’s election.
A very accurate, independent and unbiased website – 338canada.com – brings together every bit of data gathered during this election and publishes a daily update.
For every electoral riding in the country – all 338 of them (hence the website’s name), 338canada.com declares if the riding is, from among the four major political parties and independents, “safe”, “leaning”, “likely” or a “toss-up.”
If the Conservatives do not lose a single seat they now hold, AND they take every seat from the other parties that 338canada.com says is leaning or likely to go Conservative, AND they win every seat that 338canada.com says is too close to call, the very best Scheer’s party could do is 127 seats, up from the current 95.
Then there’s reality. Outside Alb ...
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Winning a comparison between the Fox and Woodshed craft burger eateries was Woodshed's "The Woodshed" burger. Photos by GRAHA M HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Woodshed Burgers
10723-124 St.
780-752-2874
thewoodshedyeg.com
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 Suns
11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week (11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 9 p.m. Sundays)
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tips and taxes: Basic. $28; loaded, $52.
(No publicized delivery service)
Fox Burgers
6423 112 Ave. (Gibbard Block)
780-250-0369
foxburger.ca
Food: 3 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Monday to Sunday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., closed Tuesdays
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tips and taxes: Basic. $36; loaded, $50
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(No publicized delivery service)
By GRAHAM HICKS
I liked this idea, a comparison of Edmonton’s two new “craft burger” restaurants.
Two well-known chef/entrepreneurs are behind two new, updated, ...
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Federal party leaders ready for debate: Green Party leader Elizabeth May, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.POOL / REUTERS
By GRAHAM HICKS
As this uncomfortable federal election stumbles its way to Oct. 21, there’s early-warning signs of irreconcilable differences between provinces, between provinces and the federal government, between Canadians of different age groups, between regions within the country.
All over Canada’s approach to climate change.
As Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid so gloomily and accurately pointed out, four of the five federal party leaders have cast their lot, supporting policies that mean the end of oil and gas.
The worst-case outcome of the federal election would be a Liberal minority government, kept in power in coalition with either the NDP or the Greens, both deeply opp ...
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Larry Stewart in the remodeled Hardware Grill in Edmonton in this file photo.John Lucas / Edmonton Journal
BY GRAHAM HICKS
All things must pass.
The best restaurants start as exciting culinary adventures. They flourish, lasting much longer than the trendy, all-flash-no-substance eateries.
But, eventually, the founders tire. Other restaurants catch up. Competition increases.
The biggest factor will always be the local economy. When it morphs – as Edmonton has done – from buoyancy to stubborn stagnancy, customers rein in their former free-spending ways.
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All of the above would have played into the unexpected shutdown of Edmonton’s long-acclaimed Hardware Grill last month. But the biggest culprit, as detailed below, was debt.
The Hardware Grill closure sent shock waves through the city’s hospitality sector.
This wasn’t just any restaurant. For 23 years, owners Larry and Melinda Stewart’s pride and ...
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The historic Old Town of Warsaw, Poland, was rebuilt after being destroyed in the Second World War. GRAHAM HICKS...EDMONTON SUNEdmonton
By GRAHAM HICKS
Before leaving on a September-long extended holiday in Poland – both as tourist and as a volunteer English teacher – I had no idea what shape the Central European country would be in.
Three decades after the fall of communism, Poland has had 27 years of steady economic growth, an average 6% annual growth in family incomes. Yet our primordial impressions of Poland are still from Iron Curtain days: Of grime, grimness, hopelessness, poverty, garbage piled up in the streets, brown-outs and black-outs.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Today, Poland is Europe’s biggest and best secret. As the ninth biggest country (by size) in Europe, with about the same population as Canada (38 million), it has fully emerged from its shell-shocked recent history – the devastation of the Nazi occupation of the Second World War, with ...
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Chris LaBossiere, CEO of Yardstick.
It was a rather jolly meeting — the Yellowhead Brewery event-pub quite packed, the beer flowing. All kinds of technology/biz folks were renewing acquaintances.
The occasion was the release of a report commissioned by the Downtown Business Association, called Accelerating Tech in Downtown Edmonton.
The get together had a right to its jolliness. As was detailed in a recent Hicks on Biz column, Edmonton’s technology/artificial intelligence/machine learning sector has, at long last, reached critical mass. Enough technology-based companies are now making enough money to significantly grow in scope and employment.
That said, there’s an annoying Catch 22 to technology-innovation business development.
Every time something starts up, governments (or government-funded agencies) feel an overwhelming need to throw a whack of money at it.
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Agencies are allegedly set up to assist these hard-working entre ...
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The seafood pancake - basically green onion cake served pizza-style - was greasy but tasty.
Dookbaeki
2872 Calgary Trail
dookbaeki.ca
587-524-4336
No reservations
No listed delivery service
Dinner for two (not including tip, beverages or taxes) basic, $30, loaded $55
Food: 2.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 2.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 Suns
By GRAHAM HICKS
There are many excellent Korean restaurants in Edmonton.
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Dookbaeki – sadly – is not among them.
Beside Calgary Trail, north of the Edmonton Home Fair commercial strip, south of the Melting Pot and Japanese Village South, Dookbaeki specializes in traditional Korean soups served in heavy, black, stone bowls that keep their contents wondrously hot for a long time.
This would be even better if the soup within had some flavour, if some thought had gone into Dookbaeki’s décor, if the restaurant did not need A) a good scrubbing and B) a new paint job/makeover.
I’m sure there ar ...
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The average selling price for all Edmonton homes in March was $357,316, a drop of more than five per cent from $377,145 in March 2018.Postmedia, File / Perry Mah/QMI Agency
By GRAHAM HICKS
I am happy to be an Edmontonian. This is home.
But Edmonton real estate has not been kind to homeowners.
The average home in Edmonton is worth 6.8 per cent less today than was the case in 2014, five years ago.
Had you moved to Vancouver or Toronto in 2014, bit the bullet, paid three times as much for the same house as you had in Edmonton … it would be worth 50 per cent to 60 per cent more today compared to its purchase price. (All figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association.)
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Going back 10 years, according to the city’s annual market assessment, my Edmonton residence is worth 15 per cent more today than in 2010. That’s a whopping 1.5 per cent average annual gain! (Property and education taxes are up 35%, but that&rs ...
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Lyon's lamb shoulder rack is excellent and, at $20, extremely good value: Photos by GRAHAM HICKS / EDMONTON SUN
Lyon Restaurant
10335 83 Ave. NW
780-433-0123
Lyonrestaurant.ca
Reservations: Lyonrestaurant.ca/reservations
no listed delivery service
Mon. to Sat. 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., closed Sundays
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 Suns
Dinner for two, excluding beverages, tips and taxes: Basic, $40; loaded, $90
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Welcome back, Packrat Louie!
Lyon Restaurant is, in reality, the latest incarnation of the fabled Packrat Louie restaurant in the historic former warehouse in the heart of Old Strathcona.
Legendary Swiss chef Peter Johner opened Packrat in 1993. Its reputation, until recently, never faltered. Johner retired in 2006, selling the large restaurant (dining room, lounge, patio) to local investors represented by operating partner Jodh Singh.
Singh kept the Packrat Louie kitchen up to standards over the y ...
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