Alberta
10 Creative Things To Do At Home To Beat The Cabin Fever

I don’t know if it is the same for everyone reading this but the lack of socializing and the amount of TV that has been watched over the last two weeks has driven us all a little crazy. If you’re sick of that “are you still watching” screen and find yourself un-enthused by reading further into the current pandemic, you may get a kick out of some of these 10 things to get creative at home.
No, we are not trying to sell you anything
Change up the vibe in your living room or bedroom
Take a look at your furniture, then take a piece of paper and draw out a few different floor plans for your living room or bedroom. Say if you have five new floor plans for your living room, pick one and try it out. Fresh vibes feel great!
Listen to one album start to finish every morning
We all have those artists we love and some we “kinda” like. Take the opportunity to play a full album and really appreciate the artist’s style. You may find a lot of songs that you personally like but didn’t have the highest plays or reach the top 100 in the country.
Start a blog or write for open forums
There are a lot of people out there writing blogs and creating content everyday in different ways. Keep in mind a lot of people have social media as their blog, such as a fashion stylist using Instagram to keep her followers aware of what she is up to on her journey. Whether or not you enjoy writing on paper, typing into a word document, enjoy taking photos or love editing videos, it’s never a bad time to keep friends updated on what you’re up to.
Open forums have received a bad rap in recent years from a small minority of insecure fools thinking that freedom to write anything means they can bash and insult. A large majority of the open forums these days have consistent moderation that track conversations closely. Thus providing higher quality discussion and opinions. One of my favorites is Quora. It allows you to ask and answer questions within a network of hundreds of thousands educated professionals.
Try out new clothing styles
Have you ever thought or even care about how you look in your current “looks”? Has it ever ran through your mind in the past that you can inspire others to be more creative in how they want to look? Going through what you like to wear and what looks good can be a nice boost of confidence.
Can’t hurt to take the time to go through your current wardrobe and lay some outfits out on your bed to see what could work differently. Make a list of your favorite brands and have a flick through their website or Lookbooks for upcoming seasons. Try matching colors, patterns, brands or even see how that denim suit looks on you.
Change up your diet
Let’s take a second to remember that this is not easy, especially when we are faced with boredom among an array of daily distractions. Adding a light structure to your day working from home or even how you manage your weekend will feel awesome after a week of consistency.
Whether or not you have an education in nutrition, have a personal training certification or just care about your weight, trying something new will give you that extra drive to reap the benefits. Crash juice diets, keto friendly food or going down the vegan route, why not give it a try for even one week! Take on the challenge and do right by yourself to tell your friends how your experience was from real practice.
Make a stretching routine to do every morning
We are talking about within the first 30 minutes of getting out of bed. Stretching can release endorphins, increase blood flow and give your body that extra boost for the day. Why not check out some stretching routines on Youtube and take from them what works for you? There is an endless amount of videos with experts demonstrating multiple movements. Here is a great article if you would like to learn more about the benefits of stretching in the morning.
An average electric kettle and even most Keurig brand coffee makers take approximately 2-3 minutes to boil and thus make a cup of coffee. Take that 2-3 minutes and see how many stretches you can fit in. Here’s an example of what you can get done in that amount of time – “3 Minute Stretch Routine”.
Find awesome podcasts, or start one
Most of us are aware of this new trend in digital content to consume. The crazy part is that this industry continues to grow. You can find a podcast relating to almost anything these days, whether or not you are trying to grow your skills in sales, learn about science, struggling with mental health, seeking out travel advice, want to hear some jokes…you name it, there is something out there. Were you aware that a lot of famous comedians have podcasts?
Podcasts have also been added to our music streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. Why not have a flick through the categories and jump into some topics you are curious about, you may get hooked. Youtube is another great platform for podcasts listeners who preview a visual to keep their interest. One of my favorites is Joe Rogan’s podcast “PowerfulJRE” who has interviewed hundreds of guests with some well known names like Elon Musk and Neil Degrasse Tyson.
Physically write out your bucket list
Here is one that can prove difficult if you’re stuck standing there with two things on a page and scratching your head thinking they’re not crazy enough. A tip to getting a full list is not caring about the level of severity, how minuscule or how aspirational things can be to be on your bucket list.
Ever high fived a clown? Have you ever wanted to float down the bow river? Have you ever created a pyramid of cards? Have you ever wanted to drive a Lamborghini around Las Vegas? How hard is it to book a trip on a hot air balloon?
Dive deep and think about what you would like to have completed in your mind. Once that is done then having it physically written will begin that journey to making them all real.
Make a real itinerary for a trip for later in the year or next year
I personally enjoy doing this, taking a look at routes for road trips and exploring the options for hotels and campsites along the way. Why not get together with your other half or friends and bounce some ideas off each other for what types of places and trips interest you.
Then once you’ve made some clear direction then why not have some fun with building a travel itinerary together? Look at cities, flights, accommodation, prices, transportation, monuments, tourist attractions and travel advice. It can be very exciting once you start to zero in on a real plan. Make a budget, start saving and look forward to something that you feel confident in.
Go through old photos
There has to be a treasure trove of old photographs of you somewhere, maybe it’s a dusty box at your parents house or maybe you still have all your photos on Facebook from the last decade. Regardless it is always good to reflect on who you were in the past and who you have become to date.
If anything it will most likely give you a good laugh and a reason to reach out to some lost connections from your past. Nothing says “it’s been so long” then an embarrassing photo of you both together.
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Alberta
The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors
CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?
Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.
We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.
There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.
CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?
Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.
The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.
CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?
Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.
We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.
CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?
Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.
We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.
2025 Federal Election
Next federal government should recognize Alberta’s important role in the federation

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
With the tariff war continuing and the federal election underway, Canadians should understand what the last federal government seemingly did not—a strong Alberta makes for a stronger Canada.
And yet, current federal policies disproportionately and negatively impact the province. The list includes Bill C-69 (which imposes complex, uncertain and onerous review requirements on major energy projects), Bill C-48 (which bans large oil tankers off British Columbia’s northern coast and limits access to Asian markets), an arbitrary cap on oil and gas emissions, numerous other “net-zero” targets, and so on.
Meanwhile, Albertans contribute significantly more to federal revenues and national programs than they receive back in spending on transfers and programs including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) because Alberta has relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes and a younger population.
For instance, since 1976 Alberta’s employment rate (the number of employed people as a share of the population 15 years of age and over) has averaged 67.4 per cent compared to 59.7 per cent in the rest of Canada, and annual market income (including employment and investment income) has exceeded that in the other provinces by $10,918 (on average).
As a result, Alberta’s total net contribution to federal finances (total federal taxes and payments paid by Albertans minus federal money spent or transferred to Albertans) was $244.6 billion from 2007 to 2022—more than five times as much as the net contribution from British Columbians or Ontarians. That’s a massive outsized contribution given Alberta’s population, which is smaller than B.C. and much smaller than Ontario.
Albertans’ net contribution to the CPP is particularly significant. From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 per cent (on average) of total CPP payments paid to retirees in Canada while retirees in the province received only 10.0 per cent of the payments. Albertans made a cumulative net contribution to the CPP (the difference between total CPP contributions made by Albertans and CPP benefits paid to retirees in Alberta) of $53.6 billion over the period—approximately six times greater than the net contribution of B.C., the only other net contributing province to the CPP. Indeed, only two of the nine provinces that participate in the CPP contribute more in payroll taxes to the program than their residents receive back in benefits.
So what would happen if Alberta withdrew from the CPP?
For starters, the basic CPP contribution rate of 9.9 per cent (typically deducted from our paycheques) for Canadians outside Alberta (excluding Quebec) would have to increase for the program to remain sustainable. For a new standalone plan in Alberta, the rate would likely be lower, with estimates ranging from 5.85 per cent to 8.2 per cent. In other words, based on these estimates, if Alberta withdrew from the CPP, Alberta workers could receive the same retirement benefits but at a lower cost (i.e. lower payroll tax) than other Canadians while the payroll tax would have to increase for the rest of the country while the benefits remained the same.
Finally, despite any claims to the contrary, according to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s demographic advantage, which fuels its outsized contribution to the CPP, will only widen in the years ahead. Alberta will likely maintain relatively high employment rates and continue to welcome workers from across Canada and around the world. And considering Alberta recorded the highest average inflation-adjusted economic growth in Canada since 1981, with Albertans’ inflation-adjusted market income exceeding the average of the other provinces every year since 1971, Albertans will likely continue to pay an outsized portion for the CPP. Of course, the idea for Alberta to withdraw from the CPP and create its own provincial plan isn’t new. In 2001, several notable public figures, including Stephen Harper, wrote the famous Alberta “firewall” letter suggesting the province should take control of its future after being marginalized by the federal government.
The next federal government—whoever that may be—should understand Alberta’s crucial role in the federation. For a stronger Canada, especially during uncertain times, Ottawa should support a strong Alberta including its energy industry.
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