Set in Calgary in 1982, in the wake of the recession that arrived on the heels of Canada's 1980 National Energy Program, The Western Alienation Merit Badge tells the story of the Murray family who are struggling with grief and the very real possibility of financial ruin. After the death of her stepmother Frances Murray is called back to Calgary to help her father, Jimmy, and sister, Bernadette, make the mortgage on the family home. When Robyn, a long...