Paul Brandt

As Albertans begin what could be a bitter and divisive provincial election campaign, one of the province's most popular musicians wants to remind them of an issue that brought everyone together a couple years ago.

The Alberta government says it plans to restore some aspects of a policy it revoked last spring that protected a wide swath of the province's foothills and mountains from coal mines.

"The government is risking Alberta’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry and the health and well-being of millions of Albertans who live, farm and fish downstream in order to potentially create a few hundred jobs and a pitifully small stream of new royalty revenue," columnist Max Fawcett writes.

First Nations, ranchers, municipal officials and environmentalists hope to persuade a judge this week to force Alberta to revisit its decision to open one of the province's most important and best-loved landscapes to open-pit coal mining.