Alberta’s most insightful political commentator is back with another essential book. Kevin Taft, together with economists Mel McMillan and Junaid Jahangir, follows the money to uncover why Alberta — one of the richest places on earth — still talks poor when it comes to public services.

Do we really spend more than we can afford, more than we can sustain, on health care? On education? Why doesn’t Alberta have enough hospital beds? Why have our schools faced teacher layoffs? Why are our city streets potholed, and why are rising numbers of Alberta children living in poverty? Where is all our wealth going?Follow the Money uncovers the truth behind the government’s austerity slogans and cutbacks. The hard-hitting evidence of Follow the Money challenges Albertans to rethink the past and remake the future.

Kevin Taft never thought he?d be a politician. A public policy analyst and head of his own Edmonton-based consulting company, Kevin's life took a sharp turn when he returned to Alberta in 1994 after a year away studying for a business degree.?Alberta had changed,? he recalls. “The government was gutting our health care system without a plan, throwing people's lives into chaos.? Kevin watched in growing dismay as the government took aim at education and other public services Albertans had carefully built over many years.In 1997, Kevin wrote Shredding the Public Interest, a national bestseller which confirmed many Albertans? concerns about the PCs. Clear Answers, a second bestseller in 2000, co-authored by Gillian Steward, exploded the myths of private, for-profit health care.Kevin stepped into public life in 2001, handily winning his Edmonton Riverview seat in the provincial election. In 2004, he was elected Leader of the Alberta Liberals and of the Loyal Opposition in the Alberta Legislature. In 2007 his third book was published, Democracy Derailed, and in 2012 his fourth book, Follow the Money, which he co-authored with Mel MacMillan and Junaid Jahangir. Both books continue Kevin's critical analysis of Alberta politics and public policy. Kevin stepped down from the Legislature when he chose not to run in the 2012 election. He continues to live and write in Edmonton.

Kevin Taft's profile page

Mel McMillan, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Economics, and a fellow of the Institute of Public Economics, at the University of Alberta. McMillan’s research and teaching interests are in public economics and public finance.

Mel McMillan's profile page

Junaid Jahangir completed a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Alberta in 2011. His dissertation explored the impact of electricity market restructuring on residential consumers in Alberta.

Junaid Jahangir's profile page

• Short-listed, Alberta Book of the Year Award, Trade Non-Fiction