Table of contents for August 2023 in Maclean's

ONE MORNING IN THE SPRING OF 2021, Sherri Lynn Lamarche left her home in Eastville—a tiny rural community in central Nova Scotia—and climbed into her newly purchased Camaro. She made her usual 80-minute commute, driving southwest into Halifax, where she worked as a bookkeeper in the offices of BANC Group, one of the city’s biggest property developers. She drove into the parking lot just before 9 a.m. Besim Halef, BANC’s 65-year-old founder and CEO, arrived at the same time, returning from an early-morning visit to a job site. This was his first time seeing Lamarche’s new car—and it struck him as very strange. He knew exactly how much he paid his bookkeeper: $52,520 annually. Watching her cruise into work in a flashy new ride was the last thing he expected.…

FIRES ARE BURNING all around Jyoti Gondek. There are the actual fires, blazing wildly across Alberta, but also transit violence, empty office towers—the same sticky issues facing most big-city mayors in Canada. See also: the shock-jock politics that railroaded Alberta’s last election. Gondek, a former policy analyst turned city councillor, has become a standout progressive in a province that’s mostly gone UCP blue. She’s allergic to lofty ideological pronouncements, but you can discern her stance from her strategy: pushing mobile crisis-response teams to fight homelessness; courting young workers, a move that has drawn record venture-capital dollars to Calgary; and exploring green energy sources, placing her in the crosshairs of Alberta’s oil industry. Calgary recently threw $200 million into a visionary downtown turnaround, converting vacant offices into housing—a plan that’s attracted “how’d…

KIDS TODAY SPEND HOURS curating photo dumps for Instagram and going live on TikTok while eating cereal. Virtually no element of their lives is left unposted. But how are they doing, really? Emmanuel Akindele was just a kid himself when he came face-to-face with the stark disconnect between the online and inner lives of his peers. In 2018, when he was a Grade 12 student in London, Ontario, one of his classmates took their life. Friends and parents admitted they had no idea the student had been suffering at all. The event inspired Akindele, who struggled with anxiety, to try to close the conversational gap around mental health between kids and their caregivers—using technology. In 2020, Akindele canvassed parents around London, offering to host Snapchat and Instagram info sessions over…

CODY WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD when he decided what he wanted to do with his life. It was the summer of 2018, and he was watching the World Cup with his parents and younger brother at home on Vancouver Island. When he grew up, he told them, he wanted to play pro soccer. Plenty of kids dream of becoming soccer stars but, in Cody’s case, the idea wasn’t entirely far-fetched. He was the best player on his local team, and he soon began training with the Vancouver Whitecaps’ youth academy, a pipeline to the pro leagues. He was effortlessly athletic—he earned his black belt in tae kwon do at age eight—and he was in the gifted program at school. Cody, whose name I changed to protect his privacy, had been…

GROWING UP IN ALBERTA, I didn’t exactly have a normal home life. My parents ran a foster-care facility outside of Wetaskiwin that provided a loving home for kids who had experienced difficult childhoods. There were often 30 to 50 kids living with us at a time. It was an unconventional setup, but it taught me to value connection. I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in community recreation in 1975, then worked for several years in the City of Richmond’s recreation department. In 1989, I became the general manager for a local residence operated by a senior-living company called Verve. Initially, I managed Verve’s existing seniors’ homes, and later, I helped create new ones. I wanted residents to feel a sense of belonging, so I designed…

About six months ago, a young single father came to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. He was working full time, but his rent had gone up 20 per cent and he just couldn’t make ends meet. Unable to adequately feed his children, and with no other choice, he came to us. He was distraught. Like many people, he felt the stinging stigma of accepting charity, of asking for something as basic as food. This is not an isolated or extreme case. It’s entirely typical, in fact, of the 17,000 people we currently serve each month at the GVFB. Last year, we gave out eight million pounds of food. And we’re not the only organization with such staggering numbers. We’re seeing similar situations at food banks all across Canada, as well…

BEST SPLURGE SPIRIT RIDGE RESORT 1200 Rancher Creek Road, Osoyoos hyatt.com SPIRIT RIDGE RESORT weaves elements of the valley into the guest experience. Rooms (from $199 per night) are outfitted with local art and sagebrush-scented toiletries, and offer dreamy views of Anarchist Mountain and Osoyoos Lake. The on-site vineyard supplies Nk’Mip Cellars, the first Indigenous-owned winery in North America. Guests can enjoy free tastings, bliss out at the hotel spa or play a game of golf at Sonora Dunes. BEST BUDGET CHUTE LAKE LODGE 9540 Chute Lake Road, Naramata chutelakelodge.ca THE SHORES OF CHUTE LAKE look vastly different than they did a century ago. Where there were once loggers, railway workers and a sawmill, there are now e-bikes and luxury amenities. Chute Lake Lodge blends rustic charm and modern comforts,…

MUSIC A POWERHOUSE’S RETURN AT NEWPORT Joni Mitchell July 28 AFTER LYING LOW FOR TWO DECADES, iconic folk heroine Joni Mitchell took the stage at last summer’s Newport Folk Festival for a surprise appearance, heralding a major comeback. Hosted by Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile, and with friends Wynonna Judd, Marcus Mumford and Lucius on hand, the so-called “Joni Jam” was such a hit that it’s being released as a live album with 11 songs plus an intro by Carlile—but not on Spotify, from which Mitchell famously removed her music in protest. The set includes crowd favourite “Big Yellow Taxi” and a slowed-down take on “Both Sides Now,” accompanied by cello and clarinet. (Good luck not breaking into tears when you hear it.) The detailed liner notes are written by director and…