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Cake day: March 29th, 2025

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  • We are far from out of the woods on dealing with the rising far right movement. We need to see other parties divide the moderate conservatives from the far right conservatives on wedge issues like Alberta separatism and other crazier stuff from the far right.

    At the same time, the Liberals and the NDP need to work on winning over the moderate voters who went with the CPC because of the economic & labour pains they’ve felt in recent years.

    Also, killing off X in Canada would be great, but much more contentious.


  • Maybe you’re confused about what I mean by CPC caucus? Those are the elected MPs in the Conservative party. They ultimately vote on who is the leader of the party, but that’s something they do outside of parliament. They just do it in their own party organization. That’s what I mean about holding him accountable, because they can choose to replace him with another leader, or they can choose to keep him as leader even after losing the election and losing his own seat.



  • The CPC caucus are the ones who need to enforce accountability and decency in their own party. I don’t think they will, because the strategy of attacking the centre while making the far right feel welcome is what expanded their vote share, and Poilievre is their guy for that. They’ll be looking at it and recognizing that if they lose the far right and lose their attack dog who tears down opponents, they will lose vote share. So, even though he’s toxic and lost his own seat, I suspect they’ll back him, and it will be bad for Canada.



  • I was relieved that the CPC didn’t form government, but we’re still in a lot of danger. Spend any time on X and you can see a full court press going on with propaganda to push Alberta separatism. The same stuff is going on now in Alberta that took place in Crimea prior to 2014, and the online media ecosystem is American. I see a lot of people stating Alberta couldn’t separate because of the treaties, but when a powerful country decides they don’t care about the laws, the courts aren’t going to save you.




  • The US pullback from science research funding is going to leave a lot of big gaps to fill. It’s bad for science globally. Hopefully Canada can benefit by attracting more experts who would otherwise have gone to the US, but even if we do, it’s not going to change the fact that defunding science is ultimately bad for everyone in the long-term.






  • I’ve thought since Alberta separatism was first mentioned in the oval office that the idea would be to make Alberta be to Canada what Crimea is to Ukraine. The groundwork had been laid and the danger from the US is real. Thankfully, I believe Carney understands how real the US threats are.

    How much of this do we see in Alberta this year?

    • Pro-US & Pro-secession information campaigns
    • Pro-secession protests & rallies
    • US, MAGA, & secessionist flags & slogans
    • Violence between pro-🇺🇸 & pro-🇨🇦 groups
    • Support from US-based groups
    • Staged referendum
    • Little green men

  • I think he’ll have a great legacy in hindsight. The important policy accomplishments of the NDP while he was leader will hopefully last for generations.

    For comparison, what policy accomplishments have the official opposition had in the last ten years, and what accomplishments will they have under a Carney government? The CPC has more than 10× the number of seats the NDP does now, but as a party they have had a lost decade in terms of policy impact whereas the NDP has scored big wins.

    The NDP will hopefully have a comeback next election. I would guess they will.



  • As a former Albertan, there’s still a lot I like about the province, such as lots of people who are educated, principled, and hard working.

    Of course, that’s not everyone, and even among the well-educated are many engineers who think in black and white and lack much of the education from the humanities that would give perspective on history. The oil industry is also very powerful, full of arrogance about the industry, dominated by US business, and tends to celebrate good times from high oil prices as a sign of their own excellence while blaming hard times from low oil prices on the rest of Canada and “liberal policies”.

    Calgary and Edmonton are also both much more politically diverse than the rest of the province and are pretty socially conscious and have a lot of people who dislike that about the province’s politics.

    I just worry about Albertans being specifically targeted from outside Canada via US social platforms and oil industry professional networks to undermine unity and foment separatism.