Alberta's Camelot: Culture and the Arts in the Lougheed Years

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Alberta’s Camelot is a fascinating general overview of the flourishing
cultural scene in the province during Premier Peter Lougheed’s tenure
(1971–85). In the book’s foreword, David Leighton, cultural guru and
former president of the Banff School of Fine Arts, characterizes the
Lougheed premiership as the time of “Camelot for the arts in
Alberta.” Fraser details how and why, drawing on his own experiences;
his research into ministerial briefing notes, government documents, and
newspaper articles; and his conversations with such luminaries as Peter
Lougheed and his wife, ex-Cabinet minister Horst Schmid, and publisher
Mel Hurtig, among others. Coinciding with the growth in theatres,
symphonies, galleries, fringe festivals, and film production—an
activity with which Fraser was intimately involved and for which he
provides a revealing insider’s view—was a shift in Alberta’s image
from redneck province to flourishing centre for the arts.

Fraser’s book will be enjoyed by a general audience as well as arts
and culture specialists across Canada.