Prediction: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will call an early election before she allows a referendum to proceed to a vote with the wording promoted by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition.
To do otherwise would derail the scheme by the premier and her closest advisors to blackmail Canada into conferring near-national status on Alberta by threatening an easy-to-manipulate Brexit-style separation referendum followed by quick recognition by the premier’s MAGA allies in the Trump regime currently in power in the United States.
But Mr. Lukaszuk, exuding confidence and predicting “we will prevail,” said Friday that the Forever Canadian petition he submitted to Elections Alberta in June in response to separatist machinations by Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party Government has now obtained almost 80 per cent of the signatures it requires.
The petition now has about 230,000 signatures, he told reporters at an outdoor news conference in an Edmonton park. Under former UCP premier Jason Kenney’s “citizen initiative” legislation, which was designed to give the impression of direct democracy while making it actually quite difficult to achieve, the campaign’s approximately 5,000 volunteers now have until Oct. 28 to gather the remaining 64,000 witnessed signatures the law requires to get a referendum question on the ballot.
The petition calls for the referendum question to be: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
Meanwhile, the Smith Government has been working hand in glove with the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project to ensure that a question on a referendum ballot next year asks, “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a Sovereign Country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
Unlike Mr. Lukaszuk’s question, in addition to intentionally casting Canada in negative terms, that would move the province directly into a separation process in the event the referendum passed. This may seem unlikely given current polling, but the Brexit vote in June 2016, for example, illustrates the potential for manipulation by misinformation and disinformation to create catastrophic results.
Mr. Lukaszuk’s question, submitted first under the old Kenney-era rules that require signatures from 10 per cent of the number of Albertans eligible to vote in the 2023 general election, has been approved by Elections Alberta.
The APP question faces a court challenge on its constitutionality, as it would drive the province immediately into a separation process with huge constitutional impacts. But the Smith Government lowered the bar for it in legislation passed this year, reducing the number of signatures it requires to 177,000 and adding an extra month to collect them.
But even if the APP question is approved by the court, since the Forever Canadian petition was submitted by Mr. Lukaszuk first, under current Alberta laws no other question on the same topic can be asked in a referendum for five years – as long as the Forever Canadian volunteers can deliver the goods in the next 24 days.
At his news conference, Mr. Lukaszuk told reporters: “We are on the home stretch. But this is a race, and you just don’t stop running when you think you’re doing well. You just continue running, and we haven’t hit the finish mark yet.” The aim is to collect 300,000 signatures to ensure there are enough in the event some are ruled ineligible by Elections Alberta.
From now on, Mr. Lukaszuk told me, “most of our volunteers will be attending large gatherings such as teachers’ rallies at the Legislature, municipal election polling stations, and other large events across the province.” In addition, he said, “we will do all farmers markets until the end, as they are a good source of signatures.”
Last week, lawyers representing the Forever Canadian campaign persuaded a court to toss an Elections Alberta rule requiring each petitioner to sign an affidavit. “That was an obstacle put in front of us that was not supported in law,” Mr. Lukaszuk observed. “We are anticipating that there will be others, but things are going well and we will prevail.”
An interesting clip from a 2021 meeting of the so-called Canada Strong & Free Network, earlier known as the Manning Centre, shows former Reform Party leader Preston Manning schooling Ms. Smith on how to blackmail Canada into doing Alberta’s bidding by threatening to become the 51st state.
Cheekily wearing an Order of Canada pin in his lapel, the superannuated godfather of the Canadian right bloviates about how “fear of the United States can be a factor in federal provincial relations.”
He asks rhetorically, “What if Alberta did actually secede? There will be an offer from the United States for Alberta to become the 51st state. And why will that offer be made? It will be made because the United States would like to get a hold of the second or third largest source of petroleum in the world. That is why it will be made.
“Now when that finally sinks in to Ottawa,” Mr. Manning pauses … “‘You want that to happen?’ Do they want that to happen? Or do they have to say, ‘Maybe we have to do something, to keep that energy sector and its development in Canada,’ and to accede to some of these other demands.”
Mr. Manning concluded his pedagogy with a little shrug, asking: “Is there some way that fear of the United States can be used as a lever to get some of the things that the West needs to have addressed?”
It’s hard to say if this was the inspiration for Ms. Smith’s “Alberta Next” campaign and the long list of laws she now suggests must be changed to keep Alberta in Canada, but Mr. Manning’s counsel is obviously valued by the UCP strategic brain trust and her strategy certainly sounds the same.
Of course, this little discourse took place before the United States tipped into a profound democratic crisis with hard-to-predict outcomes, but the sort of history we see being made south of the 49th Parallel may present opportunities as well as challenges for people who put ideology ahead of their country.
Indeed, I expect this kind of talk has been quite common even in pre-MAGA Canadian right-wing circles for a long time – only behind closed doors.
Of course, there are many other reasons the UCP may consider an early election next year as well – among them, getting ahead of the government’s ongoing public-sector labour relations crisis, increasing health care chaos, embarrassing oil company layoffs, and continuing procurement scandals.
Smith keeps on getting caught up in problems of her own making. The referendum petition is just one example. If so many Albertans were not uneasy about her ambivalent position on separation, it would not have gained such momentum.
The health care scandals are not some legacy from a previous government, she totally owns this as well the recent book banning and possibly the likely teachers strike too.
It is possible Manning’s sort of clever idea to scare the rest of Canada into giving the UCP what it wants, which Smith may or may not also agree with and support, may work, but I doubt it.
It could be a good idea to have an early election to allow Smith to try get ahead of all these accumulating problems, but it could also turn out like it did for Prentice, the last Conservative who called an early election. With unemployment over 8% and rising it is probably too late for even the UCP and Smith’s slick public relations staff to convince people that things are or will be getting better. Of course Smith has made some big political mistakes in the past so her judgement is suspect. I am also not sure how much she has really learned from her past mistakes. Power seems to have revived overconfidence in her own ideas.
If there are many Albertans who do not agree with the current iteration of conservatism, under the UCP, why do these so called conservatives get repeatedly voted into power? Is it because the majority of the voting public support Smith, her “leadership” style, her panache, her manipulative abilities, her great talent to lie with a straight face, her belligerence? Her corruption? Her sedition? (Malignant narcissists unite!) Well, the answer is yes. If yes is the answer and Albertans want to separate, where is the opposition supporting those who want to remain in Canada? Lukaszuk’s petition will be defunct soon because the UCP will do everything to make sure that Thomas et al. fail. So what about those of us who want to remain in Canada and enjoy our retirement years? Where do we move within what remains of Canada? Not Saskatchewan. BC is 50% conservative and could go full on MAGA. Plus it is expensive to live there. Given the corruption and thuggery of the current UCP government it is beyond embarrassing to know that if an election were held today, the UCP would win in a landslide. Why did the Americans vote into power a convicted felon and sex offender? Irrationality and madness have become normative, so are most voters deranged? Ever been outside? Seen the homelessness? The boarded up businesses? The evident disrepair? Many people are desperate and angry. Are they mentally ill as well? Yes, mental illness has become an international phenomenon. In the past people may have risen up and there would have been war, but these days no one is willing to do anything but keep their heads down. Not that war is an answer, but the human monster is alive and well and completely discombobulated. Nay, we live during a time of dystopian perfidy whereby the insane rule the day. Call it what you will, but it is a maddening world. Psychology says that fight or flee is the natural response to threat, but now there is no one to fight cause you are just silenced and there is no where to flee – this prospect is not an uplifting state of being. Those who are reflective, thoughtful, caring, and so on are suffering unjustified shame and this is a very dangerous situation. Do we want a thing where you have to be a rude, deceitful thug to get along in this world? Apparently the answer is yes!
“Why did the Americans vote into power a convicted felon and sex offender? Irrationality and madness have become normative, so are most voters deranged?”
Trump’s election win was a condemnation of the Democrats.
The UCP’s lead in the polls despite Smith’s circus of error is a condemnation of Nenshi’s NDP.
The NDP should be miles ahead, but last I heard they are just even in Edmonton and trailing everywhere else.
Americans, Canadians, and Albertans are falling away from nominal progressive parties because the Democrats and NDP fail to offer a coherent, energetic, visionary, truly progressive alternative.
U.S. progressives cannot bring themselves to vote for the genocidal Democrats.
Canadian progressives have turned away from the vapid, lacklustre, and disorganized NDP.
In Alberta, the NDP are missing in action under a leader without a pulse. On energy and climate, Nenshi’s NDP simply follow the UCP wherever they go.
Once-progressive parties are disconnected from the grass roots.
Our political elites would rather pander to genociders, extractive industries, and pipeline supporters who will never vote for them than promote progressive policy.
The Democrats would rather lose endless elections to Trump than desert the Zionist camp and support the American worker.
The Alberta NDP would rather lose elections to Smith than renounce their absurd fealty to Big Oil. No vision whatever.
Which leaves us good and stuck.
Geoffrey Pounder: Blame the media, who props up Danielle Smith and the UCP at every moment. Danielle Smith is also to blame for shutting down the Alberta Legislature, so the opposition parties cannot speak.
Marlaina will do anything to prevent democracy from breaking out. She lies as easily as she breathes. If she needs to call an early election she will. All that matters to her is money and power and if ignoring fixed election date legislation is what it takes then she won’t even hesitate. After all, she has already been campaigning for months on the public dime with her blatantly biased Alberta Next panel. How many people have been forced to watch the propaganda videos at these election rallies? The moderator, who works for her, is careful to make sure no dissenting voices are heard. The UCP has been setting the table for an early election by making it much easier for the fossil fuel industry to pour huge amounts of money into UCP coffers.
Locking out teachers might cause some problems for her, but she can use it to demonize teachers and all unionized workers which is always popular with rural voters. I think most Albertans have already moved on from the corruption scandal at AHS. The RCMP will drag the investigation out for years like they did with the Kenney campaign so Marlaina is safe from facing any consequences. If Marlaina thinks an early election is in her best interests, she won’t let a pesky thing like fixed election date legislation stop her. Maybe the NDP should be paying attention.
There’s a playbook here that’s been used by Empires across the world–and Smith is using it.
Cause a crisis and instability in a country you want to annex.
Claim you were “invited in to keep the peace”
Just ask the Irish how well that worked out for them when they invited in the Black and Tans.
Or the Scots asking Edward II to advise when they had a succession crisis.
Or the people being sold in the slave markets of Libya after “Arab Spring”.
Not only is Smith engineering this crisis with the USA in order to profit personally, she’s dragging everyone else in it with her using an ancient playbook and the fact the education system is so borked in Alberta that they can’t see what’s happening shows how defunding education for decades leads to tyranny.
The USA is presently a sh*tshow and she is offering up Alberta on a silver platter to the very people who engineered that sh*tshow for profit. Nobody sees through it because their eyes have been glued shut with a belief in oil revenues and riches beyond belief.
Oil BTW, that nobody needs which is why her buddies’ profits have tanked so badly they don’t invest in oil infrastructure any more. She’ll have Alberta begging for scraps from the American Oligarch’s table and destroy an entire country in her pursuit of this stupidity.
When is Carney going to call out this game for what it is and stop catering to this lunatic fringe?
Oil companies are not investing in Alberta because there is no further need to. They do their research and know demand will soon be dropping world wide. Then they will be ending production of bitumen and other expensive sources and go for the easy and ‘sweet’ oil reserves that remain. So any further investment in Alberta will just be wasted as the infrastructure is abandoned. Exxon (Imperial Oil) has made the largest step so far, but they weren’t the first and they won’t be the last. How will Calgary with an empty city core effect voting in Alberta?
Pity Smith derailed renewable energy development in the province when we had the chance of becoming a major player in that. Classic case of “buggy whip” mentality; “We’ve made buggy whips for 100 years and this new automobile won’t change that!”.
(Or, more recent, there is a reason Tim Sandlin had a charactor in his novels who planned to become a major player economically as he was the “King of Carbon Paper”, and we will always need carbon paper!)
@Paul, I agree with your points.
There’s also another consideration. Oil ran WWII. Many countries, such as China, will never allow themselves to be put in that kind of energy stranglehold again, so they are moving towards renewable energy sources such as hydro that they can contain within their own borders.
Smith is stuck in the 1970’s.
The last pipeline was a waste of money, and any more are a bigger waste. I hope Carney sees that because Smith is too beholden to her oligarchs to accept the world has moved on without her.
As you say, the sad part is, there’s so much more that Alberta could be doing–but won’t–because their stuck in that Imperial mindset from another age.
If that was the case, Alberta could just arm their police with brass swords and we could get the rest of this show on the road.
Article: “An interesting clip from a 2021 meeting of the so-called Canada Strong & Free Network, earlier known as the Manning Centre, shows former Reform Party leader Preston Manning schooling Ms. Smith on how to blackmail Canada into doing Alberta’s bidding by threatening to become the 51st state.
“‘… Or do they have to say, ‘Maybe we have to do something, to keep that energy sector and its development in Canada,’ and to accede to some of these other demands.’
“… ‘Is there some way that fear of the United States can be used as a lever to get some of the things that the West needs to have addressed?'”
Fossil-fuel boosters and petro-lackeys (including the NDP variety) routinely conflate the interests of the largely foreign-owned O&G industry with the public interest.
What’s good for the oil patch is good for Alberta. Or, as Preston Manning puts it more broadly, the West.
Or more broadly yet, the national interest. If Ottawa knows what’s good for Canada, the feds will surrender to the O&G industry’s demands.
So politicians justify major fossil-fuel projects supported or funded by tax dollars as “nation-building” projects. Hence, petro-nationalism. Supporting pipelines is simply the patriotic thing to do.
Conversely, any criticism of the O&G industry is anti-Albertan, unpatriotic, and nigh on traitorous. Hence, Kenney’s “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns”.
Note the conflation of the “energy” industry with the province of Alberta. Our interests are one and the same.
CAPP, oily politicians, and Postmedia columnists routinely conflate oil & gas with the entire “energy” category — inflating oil & gas revenues by taking credit for contributions from other sectors, such as nuclear, hydro, coal, and renewables. Inflating Albertans’ contribution to federal coffers as leverage for more pipelines. A notion embodied in the never-ending squabbles over equalization.
Preston Manning’s rallying cry “The West wants in” actually meant “Alberta’s O&G industry wants to dictate the national agenda — or we’re outta here.”
In particular, the oil mafia wants to dictate Canada’s energy and climate policy. Big Oil opposes all regulation as federal intrusion, while milking all levels of government for subsidies by the barrel.
It’s clear where their prime allegiance lies. Not to Alberta, not to Canada.
The oil mafia will cheerfully break the country apart in order to achieve its goals.
Pop Quiz: What is the greatest threat to national unity?
Who are the real traitors?
I truly hate that line: “The West wants in”. BC doesn’t want this project. Only the mid-western provinces want this pipeline. But they will build on our land and risk our fisheries, our crops and our tourism and, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. And BC won’t get a penny.
We signed this right off the bat and look forward to Mr. Lukaszuk throwing this one in Dingy Smith’s face. It is refreshing to see this is one she cannot stick her fingers in and control, especially since she blocked the attempt of the two UCP MLA’s that defected and want to re-start the real Conservative Party in Alberta and she likes to stick her fingers in most things that are not in her court. The controlling everything everywhere looks like it might be starting to fall apart, to my delight.
“she likes to stick her fingers in most things that are not in her court”
Indeed. Now she is telling British Columbia that they don’t have any say in their ports and harbours. I assume she consulted the Alberta Minister of Ports before she jumped into that position.
That would be (consults internet) Todd Loewen. Forestry and Parks has responsibility for all the boat launches in Alberta, so he must know all about harbours and things, and as he is an Alberta Provincial Minister he must have control over ports in other provinces, because Alberta is the economic engine of the country, right!
The “Calgary-school conservatives” have been waging this war on industry’s behalf for decades.
Alberta Agenda (Wikipedia)
“The Alberta Agenda, the Firewall Letter, was a January 2001 open letter by seven prominent conservatives in Alberta—including Calgary School professors and Stephen Harper—addressed to then Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein, setting out a five-point firewall to ‘protect Alberta’ from the alleged ‘intrusions’ by the federal government. the Alberta government to fully exercise the province’s constitutional powers. The group, who called themselves the Alberta Residents League (ARL) proposed the Alberta Agenda—a ‘new vision’ for the province, which focused on ‘More Alberta, less Ottawa’. The letter was composed by Harper—then president of the National Citizens Coalition.
“The Alberta Agenda letter was written in the wake of the Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government securing its third consecutive majority government in the 2000 Canadian federal election …
“A 2015 National Post article summarizes the Firewall Letter as a plea for Albertans to insulate themselves against an ‘increasingly hostile government in Ottawa.’ Proposals in the letter included that the province should let its contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police expire in 2012, and establish a provincial police force to replace the RCMP. Alberta had a separate police force from 1917 until 1932. The letter recommended that Alberta withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and establish a separate Alberta Pension Plan. It called for a separate collection of the province’s income tax, as opposed to letting the Canada Revenue Agency handle tax collection.
Buffalo Declaration (Wikipedia)
“The Buffalo Declaration is a Canadian political manifesto published on February 20, 2020. The publication was written by four Albertan Conservative MPs: Michelle Rempel Garner, Blake Richards, Glen Motz and Arnold Viersen. They denounce the underappreciated place that Alberta holds within the Canadian confederation as well as the lack of consideration with regard to its policies, its economy and its culture. The authors declared that it was a ‘final attempt to make [Alberta] an equal partner in Confederation,’ and the alternative will be that ‘a referendum on Alberta’s independence is an inevitability.'”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Oct 1, 2025): “This is a test of whether Canada works as a country, because if we can’t build with the collaboration of the federal government and between provinces, and everybody gets to have their products going to market except Alberta, than it’s not a country.”
If Danielle Smith does not get everything she wants, Canada does not work as a country.
If Carney does not repeal all climate legislation inconvenient to the O&G industry, then it’s not a country. So Alberta will threaten a national unity crisis.
If Alberta does not get pipelines built in all directions, overriding other provinces’ concerns, regulations, protections, and jurisdiction, then it’s not a country.
It’s an extortion racket.
Smith’s demands are unceasing. The O&G industry is insatiable. Nothing short of absolute surrender will satisfy.
It’s up to Ottawa to resist the O&G industry’s extortionist tactics. Not pander to them.
It’s actually a patently anti-democratic movement. They go into hiding when there’s a Conservative government in Ottawa, and come out from the closet whenever the rest of Canada has the temerity to elect a Liberal one. Essentially they believe that no non-conservative government can ever be legitimate.
Case in point: when the Alberta NDP was elected in 2015, ending 44 consecutive years of Progressive Conservative Party rule in this province — and 80 unbroken years of small-‘c’ conservative rule, if one includes Social Credit — no sooner than the Notley government was sworn in than we heard endless ranting about the “accidental” NDP government.
Yes, vote splitting between the PCs under the late Jim Prentice, and the Wildrose Party under Brian Jean, was a factor in some seats that put the NDP into majority territory. But there was nothing “accidental” about our oft-maligned “first past the post” electoral system functioning exactly as designed, and besides, conservatives vehemently resist any suggestion of changing the voting system anyway.
The real reason for the “accidental government” slur, and the overt hatred that spewed from the conservative base against Ms Notley and many of her ministers — most notably, Sarah Hoffman and Shannon Phillips (misogyny, anyone?) — was simply that only conservatives have the right to govern in Alberta, and by extension Canada.
If we come back to today, does anyone really believe this would be going on if Pierre Poilièvre’s Conservatives had won April’s federal election? Of course not.
They aren’t mad at Ottawa. They’re mad at all of Canada for not voting Con.
Jerry: I recall a talk by pollster Janet Brown in which she debunked the “accidental government” slur. The NDP victory was unexpected, including by many NDP supporters. But it was not an accident – voters knew who and what they were voting for. If anyone had a right to call it an accidental government, it would have been those True Orange voters who expected it to take a more aggressively progressive line. But, face it, when Conservatives lose power, they say a lot of stupid things. Who can forget Derek Fildebrant complaining that the NDP duped voters because it kept some of its promises. https://davidclimenhaga.wpcomstaging.com/2015/10/welcome-to-the-orwellian-world-of-wildrose-where-keeping-your-promises-makes-you-a-liar/ DJC
Thanks for writing this, David, and welcome back after your much deserved vacation.
When I read the CBC story about Mr. Lukaszuk’s announcement, I was surprised he was not already at the required number of signatures. Five thousand people collecting 300,000 signatures is only 60 signatures each. I was one of the collectors; I got twice that in 2 weeks before I had to quit.
I expect most readers of the blog have already signed the petition, so they know how they had to provide their physical address as well as a phone number or email address.
My prediction is that the software the government uses to validate the signatures will disqualify enough signatures that Mr. Lukaszuk’s submission will go from well over the required number to not enough. People were happy to sign the petition, but using a clipboard to fill out the information does not produce neat writing. Thus I suspect a huge number of signatures will be disqualified.
At that point it would not surprise me if the government realizes they need more forgiving software for validating signatures, just in time for the separatists’ petition.
I hope she doesn’t, just for the sheer schadenfreude of seeing 10 or 11 of her trained seals voting against Lukaszuk’s petition. Even better, if she made it a confidence vote … and her separatist clique delivers the coupe de gras.
It seems that all the things Gov. Smith wanted “off the table” in the last election campaign are now “on the table.” Pensions; police; declining economic impact & increasing environmental impact from the petrobros; recurring fatal epidemics; chaos in health care and education; and an increasingly authoritarian libertarian (book banning, notwithstanding clause pre-emptive invocation, anyone) governing style. Although 24 days can be a long time in politics and rural citizens seem oblivious to the destruction that is being caused to their local government services.
In the meantime, support your local teachers who are fighting the good fight on World Teachers’ Day.
Neither Danielle Smith nor her mentor Preston Manning can control the monster they’ve created. Danielle Smith should remember that the people who brought her to office could just as easily replace her when she gives them what they want. They are neither kind nor gentle. Never mind — she’ll be governor of Panama by then, where she can rule with an iron fist for the rest of her life. She’ll fit in perfectly. Hasta la vista, baby.
“An interesting clip from a 2021 meeting of the so-called Canada Strong & Free Network, . . .”
The business as usual growth forever charade is always selling itself for some reason and therefore requires endless magic shows involving the usual suspects using the standard rhetorical devices and conjurer’s tricks, because the “Current net zero policies will not keep warming to within 1.5°C because they were never intended to. They were and still are driven by a need to protect business as usual, not the climate.”
So, the self interested fossil fuel lobbyists acting as politicians and their related carbon energy PR think tank comrades know that business as usual is the only thing that matters to them (that is, clinging to outdated and foolishly simplistic ideas such as shareholder primacy and profit maximization as the social responsibility of business) and further knowing that one must never bite the hand that is responsible for both the economic growthism feeding them and that is also responsible for cooking the planet: “Despite six IPCC reports, 28 COP meetings, hundreds of other reports, and tens of thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel based system.” Big surprise.
Danielle Smith was mentored by Tom Flanagan long before she made her way to Preston “FailSon” Manning. As I’ve said before, if he’s not the walking definition of a spooked up academic he’ll do for now. Should be noted among his many controversial views is that he thinks the treaties Canada has with aboriginal nations are illegitimate.
Preston Manning, I’ll remind you, was head of the reform party when the heritage front, a notorious Canadian skinhead gang headed by notorious Canadian Nazi Wolfgang Droege, ran security for their events. They have long denied it, but they were infiltrated by CSIS at the time who documented that it was from at least may of 1991, to January of 1992. Wolfgang did many stints in prison for hate crimes before this; he was a well known Canadian fascist affiliated with everyone from
The KKK to the order in the United States. Being that it came out during a CSIS investigation the documentation is extensive and the summary is available online. Droege was also a contemporary and collaborator with notorious Alberta Nazi Terry Long.
If you read the Wikipedia most of the specifics have been scrubbed, and it’s noted that he was eventually kicked out of the Reform party, once they had enough momentum they knew they would achieve some sort of big tent on the far right anyway, but they were instrumental, and the idea that anyone in reform party leadership was ignorant of who these guys were is ridiculous.
By the way, the infiltrator later alleged that it was one Stephen Harper who was responsible for networking the two organizations, although again; they’ve always denied it. Would be weird if Harper went on to be the chair of a quasi fascist right wing transnational organization involved in all sorts of spooky stuff called the IDU wouldn’t it!? After all that !?
The report is not at all easy to find but here you go https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/lbrr/archives/jl%2086.s4%20s43%201994-eng.pdf the infiltrator later wrote a book I believe, and was after that involved in a bizzare case where someone attempted to steal their identity to discredit them, you really would be hard pressed to make this story up.
But yeah, as the saying goes, if you have a meeting with five Nazis collaborating with five “non nazis” you have a meeting of ten nazis.
Leaving aside the treasonous nature of the kind of thinking spouted by the “Alberta Prosperity Project” and its key spokespeople, there is no world in which a newly-separated Alberta would be accepted into the Benighted States as a State.
It would undoubtedly be a territory, like Guam or American Samoa, or at best a Commonwealth like Puerto Rico. That means no Congresscritters or Senators to represent them, even though they’d still pay American taxes and receive only American-level public services — say goodbye to single-payer public health insurance, and say hello to medical bill bankruptcies — and no votes in Presidential elections either. (Apparently “no taxation without representation” doesn’t apply to such places).
How anybody thinks this might be a good thing is beyond me.
Jerry: All good points. I wonder why the Alberta NDP isn’t saying this, forcefully and regularly? DJC
Nenshi is … on YouTube and in person. Question is, how many people are watching/listening?
I have been keeping mental track of how often he shows up on news, and it appears to be increasing … slightly.
He needs more media exposure, and I had opportunity to tell him so. He can’t rely on Mssr. Bonaparte’s adage. Now that he has mla slander protection, he needs to call Smith what she is.
Gerald: When the media constantly props up the UCP and Danielle Smith at every opportunity, and doesn’t give Naheed Nenshi the time of day, what do you think will happen? Danielle Smith has shut off the Legislature, and left it with very little sessions. This doesn’t help things either. Postmedia doesn’t care about the NDP, because they are UCP mouthpieces.
It is so sad to see how irrelevant the NDP has become. If the UCP calls an early election like suggested, it will not make any difference. If anything we get the full MAGA this time.
Carlos: The problems have different causes, and the NDP aren’t to blame. When you have a media that constantly championed the UCP from their beginnings as a political party, and does not even hold them to account for their epic missteps and boondoogles, there is a big problem. Danielle Smith lies like a rug, and the media will not expose those lies or criticize the lies she says. Before the 2023 provincial election, the media went along with Danielle Smith’s charade, and never took the UCP to task for anything they did wrong. Columnists for Postmedia were publishing lies about Rachel Notley and the NDP because they didn’t want them getting re-elected.
Danielle Smith hates being challenged, because she doesn’t want her empire built on lies and deceit to topple. It’s why she put off the by-election in the riding of Edmonton-Strathcona until the last possible moment so Naheed Nenshi couldn’t be a thorn in her side. That’s also why Danielle Smith shut off the Alberta Legislature to have very little sessions as possible, to avoid getting grilled for the Corrupt Care scandal.
That will not succeed, because Danielle Smith’s reign of error is coming to an end, and the UCP will scatter like dry leaves in the wind.
To be fair, it’s not all the media. The Globe & Mail’s Carrie Tait, and former CBC Edmonton journalists Charles Russnel and Jennie Russell, are providing more in depth coverage and investigative journalism than the UCP’s Postmedia house organ.
David, I’ve given up on the NDP. Their namby-pambyness is infuriating. But I don’t think Alberta can join the U.S. Once again, it would be unconstitutional and would ride roughshod over the treaties. It couldn’t survive a court challenge. And I’m hoping the court in November puts an end to this separatist bullshit by ruling their question unconstitutional. I’m cautiously optimistic about that, given the First Nations’ intervenor status and the paramount legal importance of the treaties and reconciliation. I’m so sick of Danielle Smith that every time I see her ugly mug I want to vomit. I think Sinclair and Guthrie have a good chance of helping boot the UCrap Party out of office if they can get their act together in time. But I’m so disappointed in Nenshi. He and his MLAs have to stop being so nicey-nice.
Nice guys finish last.
Michele: The people pushing separatism have no intention of abiding by, or even paying any attention to, a Canadian court ruling. I hate to advise anyone to read what they have to say on X, but they lay it all out there in hateful words. As long as Donald Trump is in office in the U.S. and there is a significant number of MAGA traitors within the UCP, there is a danger of something way beyond unconstitutional happening, in my opinion. DJC
Oh absolutely. According to some CANADA is not even an entity.
Michele Hyman: The problem isn’t with the NDP, or with Naheed Nenshi. When you have a media that is totally complacent and compliant and will never bother to challenge the UCP for their major missteps, while openly lying about the NDP, the rare times they do mention the NDP, that’s one of the problems. Postmedia is a large part of the problem. Before the previous provincial election in 2023, the media in general never challenged Danielle Smith for her lies, and never brought up the major boondoogles of the UCP. That’s how the UCP got re-elected. It still continues, where the media will merrily go along with the UCP.
Danielle Smith waited until the last possible moment to have the by-election in the riding of Edmonton Strathcona, so that she wouldn’t have to face Naheed Nenshi, whom she clearly fears. The Alberta Legislature had its sessions reduced to such a low amount, because, once again, Danielle Smith is afraid of facing off with Naheed Nenshi. Those are other problems.
The complacent media and Danielle Smith have made it so that people will give up on the NDP and Naheed Nenshi. That’s only going to last for so long, because the corruption of Danielle Smith is about to catch up with her. The Corrupt Care scandal is going to be the end of the UCP.
Well, they are on *my* algorithms. Medium/ message… all a big blur these days.
According to right wing social media posts, the UCP plan is to have both questions on a referendum ballot in the spring. Allegedly. The word has been spread through private meetings involving senior government officials. Don’t worry – we’ll smooth things over, you’ll get your anti-Canada petition approved and the referendum question will be put before the voters in 2026. Whether what they’re telling their separatist supporters will come to pass or whether they’re just blowing smoke, that’s the question.
I expected from the start that Danielle would finagle a way to either nullify Lukaszuk’s referendum. I hope that Lukaszuk and his legal team are ready for the inevitable rule-bending (over backward), and are ready to challenge it.
I’ve signed the Forever Canadian petition, and also donated to help them defray their expenses. I suppose I’ll donate again in 2026, when the legal fights get started.
Danni has so fouled Alberta politics that it is hardly recognizable. The Hinterlanders are scary lot. At a time when national unity is so imperative, Danni preaches a dangerous brand of neo-conservative, parochial drivel. Our nation, our police, our pensions, our health and welfare, and our education have become fodder for our petty Premier.
On the bright side, there once was a day when Lukaszuk was a political adversary, today we are joined in common purpose to ward off a clear danger to our national identity, and perhaps even our national survival.
A closing tribute to all those who have worked to gain the required signatures that may harken a wave of sanity in Alberta.
Why on earth Presto Manning was granted the Order of Canada is one of those greatest mysteries that would surely result in the immediate execution (by slow boiling) of the idiot you thought up that hair brained notion.
In any case, the Forever Canadian option is a huge threat to Smith, because (likely in a drunken stupor) she tied her boat to a cadre of grifters, pinheads, and arseholes, who are intent on creating an abundance of chaos for the purpose of endless crowdfunding con jobs.
“Why on earth Preston Manning was awarded the Order of Canada was one of the greatest mysteries….”
The Companion of the Order of Canada was bestowed on Preston on May 3, 2007 by the Governor General gg.ca. “…he has centred his contribution to public policy dialogue through his involvement with numerous research and consulting organizations including the Fraser Institute, the Canada West Foundation and the Manning Centre for Building Democracy which he founded in 2005.”
Stephen J. Harper, Prime Minister at the time couldn’t have said it better.
If some Albertans think its a good idea to seperate and become the 51 st state, they might want to look at the news when ICE rappelled out of war like helicopters on to the roof of an apartment building. They then kicked in doors, arrested everyone. Children were taken out of their beds, linked together with plastic ties and then paraded to vehicles where they were taken to detention. Some of those children were marched through the street naked. Remember the current President of the U.S.A. had a convicted pedophile as a close friend and he himself had to pay millions to a woman he sexually assaulted prior to becoming Pres.
Voters who are not “white” might want to consider the assault on people of colour in the U.S.A. and the arrests of people for being Latino.
What constitutional problems?
Assuming a referendum that complies with the federal Clarity Act approves seceding…
…first amend the Constitution (7 of 10 provinces representing at least 50% of the national population plus the federal Parliament must ratify the amendment which will say all ten provinces plus the federal Parliament must ratify a secession of any province)…
…then present the approved referendum to the provinces and federal government to exercise the new amendment.
So what’s the problem? Treaties? National debt? What? Should be a piece of cake! Not!!