Alberta Originals

Premiers Bill Aberhart and Ernest Manning. Citadel Theatre founder Joe Shoctor. Ernest Manning. Mayor William Hawrelak. These are just some of the many names of Albertans who have helped to shape the province. They are also some of the subjects in journalist Brian Brennan's collection Alberta Originals.

Alberta Originals contains sixty short but detailed biographies of important figures in Alberta's history. It picks up where Brennan, who was born in Dublin and has lived in Calgary for almost twenty years, left off with his previous work Building a Province: 60 Alberta Lives (Fifth House). "There are a lot more than 60 interesting Albertans to write about, so this was kind of a logical extension to carry on telling stories like these," he explains.

Brennan chose the figures who appear in the book by taking into consideration the suggestions of others. "I tend to talk about my writing projects quite a bit and through those conversations, quite often I get ideas. People will just say to me, 'Oh, you've got to write about William Aberhart,' or, 'You've got to write about Ernest Manning.' I'll think about it for a while and then I'll make a decision," says Brennan.

However, not every person profiled in the book is a household name. "Some of the more obscure people in the book are people that I came across during my years as a journalist with the Calgary Herald," he explains. "I used to write feature obituaries, and of course when you are telling those stories you meet a lot of individuals that you might not otherwise have heard about."

Brennan did most of his research at the Glenbow Museum and Archives in Calgary. He also read books that have been published about the better-known subjects that he chose, like Aberhart and Manning, who were both premiers of the province. In some cases, Brennan uncovered information that made him look at the people he was writing about in a new way. Frank Oliver, who was instrumental in having Edmonton become the capital of the province, is one such example.

"Initially, I was approaching his story as a 'great man' kind of story, and discovered along the way that this guy was quite a racist. So, I kind of changed direction a little bit. He was promoting a form of apartheid, really. He was suggesting that Natives should all be transported to northern lakes and kept away from the white population," Brennan says.

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