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SPORTS
Carol Huynh
Inspirational Athlete
Just when it looked as if Canada would be shut out of the medals at the Beijing Olympics last August, B.C.-born wrestler Carol Huynh, who lives and trains in Calgary, snatched gold in the 48-kilogram freestyle class and sparked a pretty respectable medal haul after all. In so doing, the 27-year-old inspired girls everywhere to participate in non-traditional sports.

ACADEME
Ernie Ingles
History Saver
Sir Samuel Steele has returned. Well, his stuff has. Since his 1919 death, Steele’s legacy as one of the first officers of the North West Mounted Police has been sequestered in a private collection in England. June 2008 marked the repatriation of those photos, letters, uniforms, medals and more by the University of Alberta under the leadership of vice-provost and chief librarian Ernie Ingles. Worth $2 million (the Glenbow Museum and the provincial and federal governments were among contributors), the archive will recast history whether we like it or not. As Ingles told Canwest News, “The story of Western Canada will have to be rewritten.”

SPORTS
Roger Jackson
Hard Taskmaster
As the CEO of Calgary-based Own the Podium 2010, the former Olympic gold medallist is charged with the not-inconsiderable task of making Canada the top medal-winner at the Vancouver Olympics next February. If by some miracle he succeeds, expect the $110 million put at his disposal to become the benchmark for Canada’s Olympic preparations every two years.

POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Walter Janvier
First Nations Financier
Following a frenzied reception of South Koreans eager for a glimpse of Walter Janvier’s smudging ceremony and traditional headdress, the Cold Lake First Nations chief signed a memorandum of understanding last December with Cheongsong County officials and Spring Fresh Investment and Development Inc. The agreement was the first step towards the Edmonton-based company’s US$320-million Juwang Mountain resort in the county’s national park. Part of that Banff-style development will be an aboriginal cultural village, for which the Canadian Aboriginal Alliance, a group of First Nations investors represented by Janvier, will consult and contribute funds. But the chief sees the project as just the beginning of a mutually profitable relationship. Cold Lake First Nations, after all, is close enough to the oilsands to turn wisely invested Korean capital into homegrown positive cash flow.

BUSINESS
Harold (Hal) Kvisle
Dean of CEOs
It was a crowning year for Hal Kvisle. The longtime head of TransCanada Corporation was recognized as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year by the Caldwell Partners and Financial Post Magazine and was the recipient of the Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta. And in a year when most companies are just surviving, the pipeline and power utility is pumping out profits.

MEDIA
Ezra Levant
Anti-Censorship Crusader
The “interrogation” of Ezra Levant (his description) by the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission on Jan. 11, 2008, resulted from what the Calgary lawyer and former magazine publisher calls “the proudest moment of my public life.” Almost a year earlier, soon after a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad appeared in a Danish newspaper, Levant republished them in his right-leaning and, by Levant’s own admission, somewhat amateurish Western Standard magazine. “This was like our coming of age,” he says. “It’s when we proved to the industry that we were a real magazine that really believed in journalistic principles like free speech.”

The struggling magazine didn’t benefit much from the gesture. By the end of 2007 it had gone exclusively online under new ownership. But the story of how the complaint of a Calgary imam put Levant before the commission (which later acquitted him of the charge of discrimination) would continue in his book Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights, published in March. Besides attracting considerable attention in the United States, the book quickly climbed Canadian bestseller lists (suggesting a broader readership than usual for Levant, given a reputation as a fierce and at times offensive neo-con) and sparked a national debate on the rightful role of (even the need for) human rights commissions. The reaction has been publicly validating, he says, and reason not to apologize for an attitude that has cost him more than $160,000 in legal fees associated with the case.

“Objectively speaking, I am a noisy, talkative, PR-oriented guy,” says Levant. “But I think when you’re fighting against a government agency that’s a censorship board, being a stubborn loudmouth becomes a virtue…. You’ve got to have some chutzpah, be a little bit of a bull. If only every aspect of my life was such a productive use of those personality traits.” – Scott Messenger