Abstract
In 1979, John Richards and Larry Pratt published Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West. The book’s discussion of the political and economic development of two western provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, attracted a good deal of attention and it was subsequently adopted by many academics as an undergraduate text.1 Twenty-five years later I was using the text in a class and I was struck by two things. The book still seemed relevant as a way to understand developments in western Canada, but at the same time few scholars had continued to ask the sorts of questions that Richards and Pratt had posed at the end of the 1970s. This led me to wonder what the authors might have to say today about their book and how they came to write it.
Twenty-five years after it was published, Prairie Capitalism remains relevant for understanding political and economic developments in western Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan). It is still adopted today by academics as an undergraduate textbook. The authors talk about the book, how they came to write it, and offer some thoughts on contemporary prairie capitalism.