Early Life
Backs was educated at St. Francis High School in Calgary, Alberta. He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Alberta and a heavy equipment certification from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. He also studied Spanish at the Enforex Language Institute in Marbella, Spain and the Amerispan language school in Antigua Guatemala, negotiations and creative writing at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Extension, farm electricity and wiring at Fairview College, and newswriting at the George Meany Institute in Washington, D.C..
Backs has worked in farming, construction, and pipelining. He has served as a negotiator for the Alberta Operating Engineers Association, and as secretary-treasurer of the Alberta and Northwest Territories Council of Labour.
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