Alberta
Written in the stars: The legendary tale of Maritime ice cream favourite Moon Mist

HALIFAX — The lore in the Hart household was as rich as the ice cream served every day.
After joining his family’s creamery business, the story goes, Bruce Hart travelled from Nova Scotia to the U.S. to attend ‘Ice Cream University.’
The dates and places are foggy — as often happens with family history passed down through generations — but it was sometime before or after he served during the Second World War and likely took place at what’s now the University of Massachusetts, a school with strong roots in agriculture and food science.
It was there, legend has it, that a young Bruce Hart had the audacity to swirl three ice cream flavours together: banana, grape and blue raspberry.
He called it Moon Mist, a lush ice cream flavour with colourful ripples of yellow, purple and blue.
“My grandfather told us he got to experiment with flavour mixtures, and that’s how those improbable flavours came together that some people love and some may find disgusting,” said Peter O’Brien, grandson of the late Bruce Hart.
“It was always part of family lore that my grandfather invented Moon Mist.”
***
By the mid 1970s, the specialty flavour was catching on. The exact flavour combination of Moon Mist shifted over the years, with a popular local dairy swapping out blue raspberry for blue bubble gum in its recipe.
Yet regardless of the flavours of the tricolour swirls, Moon Mist ice cream would come to be celebrated as Atlantic Canada’s favourite ice cream.
To some, it’s a heavenly trilogy of tastes, while to others it’s an odd mash-up of cloyingly sweet flavours. But it’s defended by many as the region’s unofficial frozen treat.
Moon Mist has become a symbol of the East Coast’s uniqueness in Canada, a cultural marker of sorts for the region.
Ice cream stands and corner stores across the Maritimes scoop out Moon Mist all year long. Many say they go through several 11.5-litre vats on a summer weekend, leaving children in tears and adults in a huff if they sell out.
It evokes both nostalgia and pride, making a cameo on the Nova Scotia-based TV show “Trailer Park Boys.” A local distillery sells a limited edition Moon Mist vodka and folk artists have sought inspiration from the flavour.
“If you’ve ever had a scoop of Moon Mist ice cream, you know it just has a very unique flavour and iconic aroma,” said Rae Ryan, a Truro, N.S.-based research and development specialist with dairy giant Agropur, which acquired Nova Scotia’s Scotsburn dairy in 2017.
“I think it’s so popular because people in Atlantic Canada grew up with it in the 1980s and are now serving it to their kids. It’s had a lot of staying power.”
***
Bruce Hart returned from his ice cream training — and purported invention of Moon Mist — and got to work for the family business, Halifax Creamery Ltd.
The company soon after began making the blend of banana, grape and blue raspberry under its Polar Ice Cream brand.
Hart’s grandson Peter O’Brien, now a 54-year-old classics professor, recalls ordering scoops of Moon Mist at local ice cream parlours as a child.
“My grandfather was big into ice cream, he ate it every day, probably twice a day,” O’Brien said.
“We would go over for lunch or dinner and eat ice cream for dessert and often the conversation would return to his days in the business and how Moon Mist was created,” he said.
The family business was eventually sold to Twin Cities Co-op Dairy Ltd., which later became Farmer’s Dairy Co-op Ltd., though the family stayed active in the industry for a few years after that.
It’s around this time that a competitor came to town.
***
For more than a century, one of the largest dairies in the Maritimes was based out of Scotsburn, a village surrounded by sprawling dairy farms on Nova Scotia’s north shore.
Sometime before the early 1980s, the Moon Mist flavour was likely introduced to Scotsburn by a so-called flavour house, said Jennifer MacLennan, the former marketing co-ordinator with Scotsburn dairy from 1993 until Agropur took over in 2017.
Flavour houses are companies with commercial food labs that develop, manufacture and supply flavours to various industries. The concentrated natural and artificial flavours can be used in everything from ice cream to gum. One of these companies likely promoted Moon Mist as part of a portfolio of new flavours presented to dairies, MacLennan said.
“It was probably introduced to several dairies as an up-and-coming flavour,” she said. “Scotsburn decided to try it … it may have started as a limited-edition flavour but clearly became a favourite.”
Exactly why it became a top seller in Atlantic Canada while dairies in other parts of the country seem to have mostly passed it over is unclear.
Some smaller outfits across Canada offer Moon Mist, including Kawartha Dairy Ltd. based in Bobcaygeon, Ont., which markets it as an “out of this world” East Coast favourite. The Big Scoop in Duncan, B.C., also sells Moon Mist with a twist: bubble gum, banana and grape with a cherry ribbon.
But other than a few smaller dairies, Moon Mist ice cream largely seems to be an Atlantic Canadian phenomenon.
“A lot of flavours can be regional,” MacLennan said. “In New Brunswick, grape nut ice cream was a big seller, but it wasn’t as popular in other areas, like Cape Breton.”
When Moon Mist was introduced, many of the popular flavours were classics like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, she said.
“Back in the ’80s, a lot of the popular ice cream is what you might hear people call ‘old people’s flavours’ nowadays,” MacLennan said. “So when Moon Mist came out it was likely a huge hit with kids.”
For decades, Moon Mist was only sold in 11.4-litre tubs to ice cream parlours. But in 2015, Scotsburn began selling smaller sizes in retail stores.
“I remember urging our marketing department to sell Moon Mist in the 1.5-litre packages in retail stores,” MacLennan said. “It was always a bestseller so it made sense to have it available year round.”
***
While Bruce Hart may have invented the original Moon Mist — and potentially the recipe later used by Farmers — Scotsburn’s would become the favourite of many.
But not all.
A petition launched in the spring of 2020 called on Farmers to bring their version of Moon Mist, with blue raspberry rather than bubble gum, back to Nova Scotia.
The recipe change can be traced back to 2013, when Halifax-based Farmers Co-operative Dairy and Agropur Cooperative of Longueuil, Que., merged.
Four years later, Agropur purchased Scotsburn’s frozen ice cream and frozen novelties business.
With two Moon Mist flavours in house, Agropur made the decision to phase out the Farmers recipe.
Agropur spokesman Guillaume Bérubé said sales volumes of both Scotsburn and Farmers Moon Mist tubs were “almost identical” at the time, but Scotsburn had the advantage of also having the smaller retail-sized format.
In terms of which recipe was oldest, Farmers may have launched Moon Mist first. While Scotsburn traces Moon Mist back to “before the early 1980s,” Bérubé said company’s archives show Farmers launched Moon Mist in 1973.
Regardless, the Farmers recipe — possibly inspired by Bruce Hart’s original creation — was phased out by Agropur in 2017, permanently replacing blue raspberry with blue bubble gum, a subtle but notable change among some Moon Mist connoisseurs.
Agropur now says Moon Mist sales are second only to vanilla in the Scotsburn ice cream portfolio. It’s sold in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.
“A lot of people growing up in Nova Scotia either went to school with someone who was a dairy farmer or had some connection to the dairy industry, and ice cream is just really popular here,” said Agropur’s Ryan. “It’s part of the culture. We have a lot of scooping stands in the region and the colour combo of Moon Mist is very recognizable.
“It’s always been popular, but there’s been a lot of buzz about it over the last couple years,” she said.
“It’s a happy story.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2023.
Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press
Alberta
Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.
The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.
Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.
Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.
Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.
Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.
The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.
Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.
Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.
And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.
Alberta
Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson
In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?
Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.
Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.
Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.
While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.
For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.
There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.
It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
Columnist warns Carney Liberals will consider a home equity tax on primary residences
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
Nine Dead After SUV Plows Into Vancouver Festival Crowd, Raising Election-Eve Concerns Over Public Safety
-
2025 Federal Election1 day ago
Mark Carney: Our Number-One Alberta Separatist
-
Opinion2 days ago
Canadians Must Turn Out in Historic Numbers—Following Taiwan’s Example to Defeat PRC Election Interference
-
International1 day ago
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre reportedly dies by suicide
-
2025 Federal Election21 hours ago
Canada is squandering the greatest oil opportunity on Earth
-
International17 hours ago
U.S. Army names new long-range hypersonic weapon ‘Dark Eagle’
-
Business17 hours ago
Trump demands free passage for American ships through Panama, Suez