The Walrus’s Most-Read Articles of June 2025
CP/Sean Kilpatrick / Unsplash / Pexels / Shutterstock
Our readers were keen on current affairs this past month, with stories about resource development and ex–prime ministers attracting plenty of eyeballs. But it’s clear that Alberta is an enduring topic of fascination.
Thanks for reading!
1. The US Badly Needs Rare Minerals and Fresh Water. Guess Who Has Them? by Christopher Pollon
As China tightens its grip on critical resources, Trump eyes Canada’s riches
The new Trump administration talks less about buying Greenland now and more about simply annexing it. And what has been said about Greenland is also being said about Canada. Canada’s rich deposits of uranium, nickel, potash, and a host of obscure strategic metals, including rare earth elements, could help explain Trump’s persistent but cryptic threats to make Canada the fifty-first US state.
2. Justin Trudeau Lost the Plot. Now He’s Looking for a New One by Wendy Kaur
What does a former prime minister do for a second act?
It makes sense then, at least in the foreseeable future, that Trudeau would point his ambitions to the world stage. “I’m told that once the dust settles, he will be active on the international speaking circuit,” says journalist Lawrence Martin, who refrained from naming his source. “He’ll command a very high fee.”
3. Is Jordan Peterson Just Making It Up as He Goes? by
The culture war’s favourite prophet can’t finish a straight thought
Peterson’s long-standing bête noire has been the scourge of postmodernism, alternatively represented in the catch-all signifier “postmodern neo-Marxism.” Once again, the irony here is not just that Peterson’s own writing so regularly mirrors the worst stylistic tendencies of both post-structuralist academia and social media identity politics. It’s that his work and ideas are fundamentally postmodern in substance.
4. Alberta Is Talking about Separating—AGAIN by Christina Frangou
What’s their problem?
Before the province even had a name, Alberta’s politicians demanded limits on the federal government’s power. “The new province in the West will not consent to be dictated to from Ottawa,” Calgary lawyer and senator James Lougheed said in 1904, as reported by the Weekly Albertan.
5. Alberta Is Struggling to Keep Its Nurses and Teachers by
Internal documents show the province tried to make workers “feel good about their service.” They don’t
After the success of the 2022 Alberta Is Calling campaign … the province ran a new campaign, called Better Here, late last year. This time, the government hoped to woo public sector workers from other provinces, implying that they would make more money if they moved. But Albertan nurses, paramedics, and teachers say that these opportunities simply don’t exist.