Dunno. Well, I think the first job is to frame the issue correctly. That's what I tried to do with these essays. Describe what Smith and the UCP actually are: not conservatives, but authoritarian Libertarians. Essentially, Maple MAGA.
I think we know the threat we’re up against. Maple MAGA is toxic and capable of great harm. Framing what’s happening is necessary and a new narrative is critical if we’re going to save Alberta and Canada. I am looking for more on “what do we do?”
Alberta needs a MADA movement—Make Alberta Democratic Again.
Could the recently completed petition to “Keep Alberta in Canada” be a catalyst? I sure hope so.
The provincial government has been so completely captured by the Oil and Gas industry that it will require substantial forcing by an electorate committed to reversing course to dislodge it.
What do you mean it doesn't define us? The idea of Medicare as an integral part of Canadian culture has been around for decades. Medicare loan doesn't define us, but it is absolutely part of the definition of being Canadian. If it's not part of your definition of being Canadian then two points. One, too bad. We don't really care. Two, there's the door, otherwise known as the American border.
I think I made it pretty clear in the essay that by Alberta I mean Danielle Smith, the UCP, and the authoritarian Libertarians who support her, not Albertans in general. I don't disagree with you, but don't put words in my mouth.😇
Thank you for your insight and conviction. Smith and the UCP are the worst thing that has happened to Alberta. I am not alone in wanting these parasites gone, gone, gone. I see the attempt to override the tanker ban on the northern coast of BC as the turning point. I stand with Eby and the Indigenous people and all the people in Canada who know that fossil fuels are not our future and Carney better get that message.
I may be overly optimistic but I sense a change happening. It's slow but I feel people are waking up, looking out and not liking what they're seeing.
One thing that may work to our advantage is that the authoritarian/libertarians are also incompetent grifters. Those are two features that get people's attention right away.
As an Albertan I have long been aware of the immediate and future implications of both Klein-style (mean and self-centred) and UCP (my way or the highway) conservatism. And in my own way I have been expressing my dismay. But it has reached the point where Albertans’ resistance alone is not enough. We desperately need support from the federal government in relation to health care privatization, use of the not-withstanding clause, environmental destruction in the Rockies, water and river degradation, and future wreakage planned for our province. It is OK to distract and temporarily silence Smith with hopes of a pipeline while strengthening the country, but in the near future Carney’s govt. needs to take a stand against what is happening in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Or we risk losing our nation.
We should start pointing out all the good things about Canada to all those who think it’s broken. Just keep repeating it like their algorithms keep repeating 3 word slogans and maybe we can start breaking through. Get a list of 5 amazing things and say it over and over again:) I watched your latest broadcast with Bill Kelly (awesome as always btw) and I kept thinking about what you guys were saying. It is easy to create fear or an enemy and much harder to generate optimism, but I will keep shining a light on our beautiful country:)
Given the slim (gerrymandered) vote count that put Dim Dani in Office, I’m not sure I’d be standing on the roof shouting Albertan’s are attacking the idea of Canada. Should an election be called today, she’d likely become an overlooked footnote in the book of Republican misfits. #ruledbytheminority
It is dry here in the lands between Calgary and Edmonton. In Central Alberta the heart of the province is in Athabasca. That region declare an Agriculture disaster from lack of rain. There are a few well drilling rigs drilling horizontal well with a difference. The well used to be drilled vertically or at angles to get under land where the oil companies could not get permission to drill. Now one drilling pad with up to six and eight drilling direction can drill under a Township of 36 sections or 144 quarters of land which used to have 2 wells per quarter. The intensive drilling requires the same amount of water as would have been used in the 288 wells is used at one drilling pad.
Taking water from ponds, streams and rivers is removing the water from the total water table and putting it thousands of feet underground in other rock strata it is gone. The multiple different departments that issue water licenses in Albert are not necessarily talking with one another. Alberta is no longer honoring the watershed trans boundary volume agreements, The tar oil is no longer providing royalty dollars to government revenues. We thank the gods for gambling and drugs and alcohol sales. No wonder the trip to visit the Middle East to get some operating cash for the next few months and years. I wonder what was pledged for securities??
Gywn Morgan sold out to the Chinese so they could learn how to get the oil out of their tar pits. The "proven reserves" often cited as Black Gold is proving to be not as shiny but still produces a big stink when it is heated and boiled in the cauldrons of the "Bit -Witches" oil companies that are merging and amalgamating until the Alberta government will be forced to turn the mess into State owned Daniellika's Oil Corp. No wonder the ATB is offering the highest interest GIC in this illusionary desert lands on the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Good one - let me share Iain Banks take - “libertarianism is a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard.”
It’s so demoralizing living in a beautiful province ineptly governed by a slim electoral majority of RW dopes whose animating thought to any issue is applying more selfishness.
Talk to any constitutional lawyer and they will be very clear that democracy in Canada is an illusion. Start telling the truth already. Sovereignty has been handed over if it ever really was a sovereign nation and unchecked immigration has changed the face of the government and country with Muslim representation overtaking Christian. This isn’t some maga rhetoric as is being pushed. It’s blatant truth and you should be ashamed of yourself for the narrative u push as you are treasonous.
Thanks for this. But what would it mean to “isolate” Alberta? A case can be made that the strains you describe have largely captured the federal Conservative Party (whose base is disproportionately Albertan of the Danielle Smith stripe). So, “isolating” could mean continuing to elect the Liberals. (Into perpetuity?). Or maybe it means trusting that the need to win elections will act as an irresistible moderating force on the CPC, forcing its leadership to contain the authoritarian libertarianism you describe. (Experience is mixed on this, but historically we could argue that things did indeed work this way. However, the situation now is considerably more challenging than it was during, say, the Harper years, with misinformation and MAGA now torqued).
If you mean the other Ottawa and the other provinces must isolate Alberta - forming a sort of cordon sanitaire of federalism - the obvious concern is that this will rapidly compound its radicalism and feeling of victimization. Historically, the way we treat aggrieved provinces is by geeing them along, muddling through with minor concessions, and leaving areas of irreconcilable differences in abeyance. Deliberate “isolation” would rule this out.
So “isolation” seems less simple than it sounds, at first.
Dunno. Well, I think the first job is to frame the issue correctly. That's what I tried to do with these essays. Describe what Smith and the UCP actually are: not conservatives, but authoritarian Libertarians. Essentially, Maple MAGA.
I think we know the threat we’re up against. Maple MAGA is toxic and capable of great harm. Framing what’s happening is necessary and a new narrative is critical if we’re going to save Alberta and Canada. I am looking for more on “what do we do?”
Alberta needs a MADA movement—Make Alberta Democratic Again.
Could the recently completed petition to “Keep Alberta in Canada” be a catalyst? I sure hope so.
The provincial government has been so completely captured by the Oil and Gas industry that it will require substantial forcing by an electorate committed to reversing course to dislodge it.
What do you mean it doesn't define us? The idea of Medicare as an integral part of Canadian culture has been around for decades. Medicare loan doesn't define us, but it is absolutely part of the definition of being Canadian. If it's not part of your definition of being Canadian then two points. One, too bad. We don't really care. Two, there's the door, otherwise known as the American border.
I think I made it pretty clear in the essay that by Alberta I mean Danielle Smith, the UCP, and the authoritarian Libertarians who support her, not Albertans in general. I don't disagree with you, but don't put words in my mouth.😇
Thank you for your insight and conviction. Smith and the UCP are the worst thing that has happened to Alberta. I am not alone in wanting these parasites gone, gone, gone. I see the attempt to override the tanker ban on the northern coast of BC as the turning point. I stand with Eby and the Indigenous people and all the people in Canada who know that fossil fuels are not our future and Carney better get that message.
Great article.
I may be overly optimistic but I sense a change happening. It's slow but I feel people are waking up, looking out and not liking what they're seeing.
One thing that may work to our advantage is that the authoritarian/libertarians are also incompetent grifters. Those are two features that get people's attention right away.
As an Albertan I have long been aware of the immediate and future implications of both Klein-style (mean and self-centred) and UCP (my way or the highway) conservatism. And in my own way I have been expressing my dismay. But it has reached the point where Albertans’ resistance alone is not enough. We desperately need support from the federal government in relation to health care privatization, use of the not-withstanding clause, environmental destruction in the Rockies, water and river degradation, and future wreakage planned for our province. It is OK to distract and temporarily silence Smith with hopes of a pipeline while strengthening the country, but in the near future Carney’s govt. needs to take a stand against what is happening in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Or we risk losing our nation.
We should start pointing out all the good things about Canada to all those who think it’s broken. Just keep repeating it like their algorithms keep repeating 3 word slogans and maybe we can start breaking through. Get a list of 5 amazing things and say it over and over again:) I watched your latest broadcast with Bill Kelly (awesome as always btw) and I kept thinking about what you guys were saying. It is easy to create fear or an enemy and much harder to generate optimism, but I will keep shining a light on our beautiful country:)
It's one 2,000 word essay. Patience, grasshopper...😇
Given the slim (gerrymandered) vote count that put Dim Dani in Office, I’m not sure I’d be standing on the roof shouting Albertan’s are attacking the idea of Canada. Should an election be called today, she’d likely become an overlooked footnote in the book of Republican misfits. #ruledbytheminority
With all the recalls, perhaps we have a chance to make it so
I wish it so!
Well done Markham.
I’ve also tuned in the writings snd video’s of Robert L Arnold out of the States. Thoughtful essays that I think dovetail nicely here
https://youtu.be/rn9ylxIL0LU?si=G43tZY9pZSiePhPo
It is dry here in the lands between Calgary and Edmonton. In Central Alberta the heart of the province is in Athabasca. That region declare an Agriculture disaster from lack of rain. There are a few well drilling rigs drilling horizontal well with a difference. The well used to be drilled vertically or at angles to get under land where the oil companies could not get permission to drill. Now one drilling pad with up to six and eight drilling direction can drill under a Township of 36 sections or 144 quarters of land which used to have 2 wells per quarter. The intensive drilling requires the same amount of water as would have been used in the 288 wells is used at one drilling pad.
Taking water from ponds, streams and rivers is removing the water from the total water table and putting it thousands of feet underground in other rock strata it is gone. The multiple different departments that issue water licenses in Albert are not necessarily talking with one another. Alberta is no longer honoring the watershed trans boundary volume agreements, The tar oil is no longer providing royalty dollars to government revenues. We thank the gods for gambling and drugs and alcohol sales. No wonder the trip to visit the Middle East to get some operating cash for the next few months and years. I wonder what was pledged for securities??
Gywn Morgan sold out to the Chinese so they could learn how to get the oil out of their tar pits. The "proven reserves" often cited as Black Gold is proving to be not as shiny but still produces a big stink when it is heated and boiled in the cauldrons of the "Bit -Witches" oil companies that are merging and amalgamating until the Alberta government will be forced to turn the mess into State owned Daniellika's Oil Corp. No wonder the ATB is offering the highest interest GIC in this illusionary desert lands on the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Definition of a Libertarian……. An Anarchist with money!
Good one - let me share Iain Banks take - “libertarianism is a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard.”
It’s so demoralizing living in a beautiful province ineptly governed by a slim electoral majority of RW dopes whose animating thought to any issue is applying more selfishness.
Talk to any constitutional lawyer and they will be very clear that democracy in Canada is an illusion. Start telling the truth already. Sovereignty has been handed over if it ever really was a sovereign nation and unchecked immigration has changed the face of the government and country with Muslim representation overtaking Christian. This isn’t some maga rhetoric as is being pushed. It’s blatant truth and you should be ashamed of yourself for the narrative u push as you are treasonous.
We have to rethink the Canada health act. It doesn’t define us
Thanks for this. But what would it mean to “isolate” Alberta? A case can be made that the strains you describe have largely captured the federal Conservative Party (whose base is disproportionately Albertan of the Danielle Smith stripe). So, “isolating” could mean continuing to elect the Liberals. (Into perpetuity?). Or maybe it means trusting that the need to win elections will act as an irresistible moderating force on the CPC, forcing its leadership to contain the authoritarian libertarianism you describe. (Experience is mixed on this, but historically we could argue that things did indeed work this way. However, the situation now is considerably more challenging than it was during, say, the Harper years, with misinformation and MAGA now torqued).
If you mean the other Ottawa and the other provinces must isolate Alberta - forming a sort of cordon sanitaire of federalism - the obvious concern is that this will rapidly compound its radicalism and feeling of victimization. Historically, the way we treat aggrieved provinces is by geeing them along, muddling through with minor concessions, and leaving areas of irreconcilable differences in abeyance. Deliberate “isolation” would rule this out.
So “isolation” seems less simple than it sounds, at first.