One unacknowledged assumption is most certainly shared by the would-be leaders of a “free” Alberta: The new country they hope to create could not function as a democracy.
Indeed, from the perspective of the many aspiring Fathers of Deconfederation (and that of Premier Danielle Smith among the vanishingly small number of their maternal counterparts) the new country must not be truly democratic.
How could it be? Like all utopian ideologues, the Americanized separatist fringe that now controls Alberta’s United Conservative Party and dominates all separatist subgroups in the province does not, will not, and truly cannot acknowledge or accept the legitimacy of the many political philosophies that are present, and often prevalent, in any healthy democracy.
Like believers in the One True Church of your choice, all available evidence indicates that advocates of Alberta separatism universally share the same dystopian dogma associated with the so-called Make America Great Again movement south of the world’s longest undefended border. Any alternative view is therefore seen as having no validity, and anyone holding it no right to power, no matter how many votes they can get.
So, how can a state have a functioning democracy when every stream of political thought outside the MAGA cult must be proscribed in order for the prevailing official ideology to remain in power?
South of the Canada-U.S. border, what isn’t MAGA has no political legitimacy in the eyes of the Trump Administration. This is clear from its conduct. It is what drives the ICE invasion of Minnesota, the contempt for Congress shown by administration officials, and President Donald Trump’s threats of prison and death against Democrat politicians who oppose his unconstitutional policies.
This is the same administration with which the unelected trio of Alberta Prosperity Project zealots now claim to be negotiating the removal of Alberta from Confederation against the wishes of the clear majority of Albertans. Presumably they are singing a song of easy access to all the oil, water and rare earths President Trump could desire to their unnamed contacts in Washington.
The very same administration, that is, that’s plotting to purge more than 20 million American citizens, including millions of married women who have adopted their husbands’ last names, from state voter rolls in preparation for stealing November’s mid-term Congressional elections.
Obviously, there’s not much respect for democracy or the rule of law in MAGA circles on either side of the 49th Parallel.
In Alberta, as we have already seen from the opposition to premier Rachel Notley’s moderate government from 2015 to 2019, the nascent MAGA right argued fatuously that the NDP had no right to implement its own election promises.
Wildrose Party finance critic Derek Fildebrandt claimed in 2015 that the NDP had “hoodwinked voters into believing it would lean only slightly left.” (In the event, that was exactly what the NDP did. Lean ever-so-slightly left.)
Mr. Fildebrandt now publishes an online news site that the APP describes as an affiliate. “While APP builds the movement on the ground, the Western Standard delivers the hard-hitting journalism that fuels it,” the APP says on its website. The Western Standard describes itself as “an independent source of news and commentary” that is “fighting for a strong and free Western Canada.”
In 2016, Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Chris Alexander led a demonstration against the NDP’s carbon tax in chants of “lock her up” – the target being Ms. Notley and her “crime” of trying to do something about climate change. And when the UCP led by Jason Kenney took power in 2019, promising a “summer of repeal,” it set out to repeal all NDP legislation, good or bad, in imitation of Mr. Trump’s efforts to obliterate Barack Obama’s legislative legacy.
All this was long before the MAGA movement reached its present level of derangement south of the Medicine Line, and spread its tentacles into Alberta.
In Alberta today, the minority who want Alberta to separate from Canada consider progressive conservatives, socially liberal democratic conservatives, and other right deviationists to have no more right to power than New Democrats, old Democrats, mere democrats, or, God forbid, social democrats!
From the MAGA perspective – and the Alberta separatist cause is MAGA to its core – none of those political camps in which a majority of Albertans would be comfortable have any place in the ideological Nirvana they intend to build. (Just the same, they were infuriated when a pollster suggested large numbers of Albertans would leave in the event their project succeeded.)
Why do you think the APP Traitor Tots say an independent Alberta would need an army, right away?
It’s not needed to defend against Canada. Canada, unwisely perhaps, is committed to a constitutional process by which any province can separate as long as there is a demonstrably fair referendum, the result is decisive, and the resulting negotiations with the rest of the country reach agreement on the division of assets and liabilities.
Of course, the admitted goal of many separatists is to unilaterally declare independence despite the wishes of most Albertans and ignore the constitution and the rule of law with the backing of the Trump Administration. Indeed, that is the only way they are likely to succeed.
The purpose of that Alberta army, then, must to defend the new government against Albertans.
Can you imagine what would happen if, in the first election after a unilateral declaration of independence, Albertans elected the NDP? Or a progressive conservative party? Or any government committed to seeking readmission to Canada? Well, those work camps and deportation centres aren’t going to guard themselves, are they?
Look, if the APP’s leaders had an ounce of respect for democracy or the rule of law, they never would have crossed the border to try to negotiate the breakup of our country and secure a loan to finance their takeover.
We know from that alone how likely a functional democracy would be in Alberta post separation. And that’s without considering the company they keep Stateside!
So if you support Alberta separation, you have a legal right to do so. But please don’t try to persuade anyone it would be a democracy!
Some positive commentary about Canada
When the separatist crowd melted down at the suggestion by a pollster that a significant percentage of Albertans would get the hell out of Dodge if they succeeded, their online bots kept whining that no one was making a positive case for Canada. This was pish-posh, of course, like a lot of separatist propaganda. But on Valentine’s Day, in response to that plaint, both University of Calgary political scientist Lisa Young and Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt published commentaries making a case for Canada. Dr. Young also linked to Senator Paula Simons’ excellent The Case for Sticking Around. These are all good pieces, well worth reading.
Cheerful positivity alone is not enough, though, when the people with whom you disagree have given up on logic, facts, and critical thinking and willfully adopted stupidity, corruption, mendacity and, arguably now in a few cases, outright treason.
Happy Family Day!
Today is Family Day in Alberta. This year, obviously, there are bigger fish to fry. Nevertheless, readers can access my past thoughts about the February long weekend here.
These separatists don’t have it all figured out, and are running on blind emotions. Danielle Smith and the UCP feeds them, because, they too, are separatists. Alberta comes out on the losing end.
Anonymous I had a letter posted in the Lethbridge Herald on Saturday and I need some help with you commenting on what I said. Add whatever you think I missed.
“Separation will not make our lives better”
I deliberately gave them what I have been through as a bank manager just to see what sort of reaction I would get and much to my surprise no one has backed with me with anything.
I hoped someone would.
It’s hilarious that when you call seniors stupid the stupid ones assume you mean them. Lawyers told me they would and they were right.
Our northern MAGA crowd, like the one to the south is quite delusional. In our case, I feel they believe it is only Ottawa or the rest of Canada that imposes progressive ideas on Alberta. After separatation, they believe we will revert to being a conservative one party state again.
Unfortunately that thinking ignores many competive provincial election results over the last decade, when progressive parties won a lot of votes, as well as many progressive candidates who also won repeatedly municipally.
While Brexit is not always the best comparison, let’s not forget Labour won election in the UK after that mess happened. It is also quite possible that if Alberta separates, when all the damage becomes apparent and the local right wing government no longer has Ottawa to blame, voters could turn on them and elect an NDP government here too instead.
Heck, even in some places in the US that were fairly reliably right wing like Texas they have now become so fed up with MAGA, its constant picking fights, false promises and chaos, they are voting for the Democrats.
So I am skeptical the separatists attempt to create a one party right wing state here will really work regardless whether they succeed in separation or not.
Alberta separatists have a problem. It’s called a lack of “practical activist thinking” (how to get what you want from a power structure). This is also known as a planning.
Nobody asks them the obvious questions to break through the whinging self-delusion.
It’s a good technique for anybody doing something or working with activism groups.
It starts with this question: “What Needs To Happen?”
–in other words, what is the outcome? The goal? The demands? What do you need to accomplish? Legal gay marriage overturned? More housing? More oil revenue from the oil companies? What is their actual *goal* here that isn’t being met by the feds? The goals that build a better future in Alberta? Separation or joining the USA isn’t a guarantee of any of that…in fact, quite the opposite is the likely result.
This is followed by, “How do I/We Make That Happen?”. This is the planning part. What are the steps needed to accomplish the above concrete goal/s? Who is going to do what task that benefits the whole?
You can bet the American Oligarchs behind this big push know exactly what they want in concrete goals. There’s no sentiment. No grievance nursing. They want risk-free profits and to break up Canada for their financial benefit. They are on the second question and one of their plans is, “Make Alberta Feel Aggrieved Again” because they know they’ll get a reactionary response that will impact the solidarity of the entire country. It’s exactly how any power structure reacts to activism when there’s an actual chance of winning anything–break up the group. Angry individuals and sub groups are easier to deal with than solidarity.
Why the media is so utterly useless on pushing back on this, I have no idea…well yes, I do–most of it is owned by American corporations and the CBC just wants to give everyone a say without upsetting the Americans.
These are the questions that need to be asked every time a separatist is in front of a camera. Just letting the leaders of this posture lie and whinge doesn’t serve the public interest–including Alberta’s.
The link below is to a song performed by Captain Tractor about pirates on the North Saskatchewan River. When I first heard it, I thought it was just a silly song, but apparently piracy on the Saskatchewan River is a serious problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G_L9tXEwmc
Piracy must on the Saskatchewan must be a problem, why else would the APP Proposed Policy Manual include the formation of an Alberta navy? (It is on the last page).
Incidentally, I was unable to find the Proposed Policy Manual on the APP website, I had to go back to Gerald’s link from a few weeks ago. Did I not look carefully enough on the website, or have the APP people removed it?
https://albertaprosperityproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Proposed-Policies-and-Governance-of-the-Sovereign-Nation-of-Alberta-Draft-Mater-Document-Feb-17-2022.pdf
@BoB
Alberta Navy??? (insert ROFLCOPTERS here)
Three war canoes and a flock of cobra chickens?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….
sorry i can’t stop. you made my day
The picture of Smith with the caption is spot on. Treasonous Smith and her supporters are traitors to Canada and should be held to account. Sadly, these traitors will never have to face retribution for their malice and they know that they can get away with undermining the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are deluded in the psychiatric definition of the word. Indeed, MAGA madness has crept throughout the world with the likes of Smith’s BFF Carlson who is running around being a provocateur and offering nothing but dumb shows and noise, but all MAGA is dumb shows and noise. This cacophony will continue as long as the UCP and MAGA are in office so expect things to get much worse if they ever improve because the damage that they are doing to democracy is relentless and total as in the Third Reich asking the German people for “Total war!” These people want to end the status quo and usher in chaos, death and destruction. Get your money out of the ATB while you can people! Save money to escape if you can. Plan to immediately leave with but a bag of clothes if you are lucky. Smith will enact her murderous rage on people as she is already doing, but expect her army to do their worst. Killing innocent people is not beyond the capabilities of MAGA nor UCP (ICE under MAGA is already building concentration centres and killing innocent people) so you can expect the same here in Hellberta. How lovely to wake up and lie to you children that everything is just fine and dandy. Lies are normalized under MAGA. Bondi, Noem, and Smith represent the desire of many people, so many in fact that they are getting away with destroying democracy and with it nations. The MSM is an amplifier for the MAGA cause. One wonders whether anything is worth pursuing except money, how pathetic. Dystopian nightmare – two words that describe our current lived reality. Apparently there is a pro Canada rally being organized on February 21 at 10am at the Alberta Legislature. At least it is one activity one may get involved in by attending and where one can voice opinions in support of Canada, rather than doing nothing. “May you live during interesting times.” What a bloody understatement. We live during times of unrelenting chaos on a road to our collective demise while the MAGA and UCP people laugh and dance to our public songs of dismay.
Please don’t use “Democrat” as an adjective. It is Republican hate speech.
Danielle Smith the UCP and their dangerous authoritarian libertarian leanings!
We in Alberta are not at full blown fascism yet but we are well on the way. For Smith and the UCP freedom means freedom for people who agree with them and they are happy to use the mechanisms of government against anyone who disagrees with them.
In 2003, political scientist Laurence W. Britt studied seven fascist regimes including Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. He identified thirteen characteristics that appeared consistently across all of them.
He was describing a pattern and patterns, once understood, become unmistakable.
Here are those thirteen characteristics. How many apply or partly apply to current day Alberta?
1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
Fascist systems rely on emotional national identity centered around restoration. Smith wants to create a ” conservative paradise ” that mimics the 1950’s. Her Nationalism is focused on Alberta.
2. Disdain for human rights
Clearly, the repeated use of the ” not withstanding clause ” to violate certain peoples rights under the Charter is a clear indication.
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
Fascism requires enemies to unify followers. Despite a half a century of conservative rule/mismanagement/corruption in Alberta, all our problems can be blamed on Ottawa. Quebec gets special treatment. We pay an unfair level of taxes etc. Its always someone else’s fault never Alberta’s.
4. Supremacy of security force as an instrument of internal authority
Smith wants her own provincial police force, need I say more? Now she wants to control judges and the courts to get her way.
5. Rampant sexism
Authority becomes associated with dominance and masculinity. Smith may be female but she has the personal attributes of a traditional male. The trans issue is also suggestive of issues in this area.
6. Obsession with controlling narrative legitimacy
Independent truth becomes subordinate to leader/party’s defined truth. There is no room for dissent in Smith’s Alberta or the party (look at Peter Guthrie as an example).
7. Obsession with national security framing
The threat to Alberta is seen as permanent. Immigration, dissent, and protest are framed as existential dangers requiring extraordinary authority. We are already hearing about immigration as an issue according to Smith.
8. Religion intertwined with political legitimacy
Political authority becomes linked with religious identity. Alberta Christian Nationalism and the UCP have close relations and this population make up a significant part of the UCP base.
9. Protection of corporate and elite economic power
Smith clearly is a protector and booster of the oil industry and nothing else matters to Smith not the environment, not low royalty rates, not Billions of dollars in abandon oil wells and not the fact that the industry is mostly foreign (USA) owned.
10. Suppression or delegitimization of labor power
Independent worker power is weakened. Economic messaging emphasizes hierarchy and individual accumulation rather than collective bargaining power. Use of the not withstanding clause to force teachers back to work and take away their rights to bargain.
11. Disdain for intellectuals and expertise
Expertise becomes suspect when it contradicts authority. Scientific institutions, intelligence agencies, and academic experts have been dismissed when their conclusions conflict with political messaging.
12. Obsession with crime, punishment, and social control
Authority becomes the primary solution to disorder.
13. Cronyism and loyalty based authority structure
Personal loyalty becomes the primary qualification for power. Authority centers on the individual (Smith) and Party (UCP) rather than on independent institutional function. There is rampant cronyism just look at the Corrupt Care Scandal as a perfect example.
Fascism does not arrive with announcement. It reveals itself through patterns. Its clearest signal is the elevation of one individual or ideology above the system itself.
When loyalty to a person/party/ideology becomes more important than loyalty to law, institution, or shared reality, the transformation is already underway.
History does not need to repeat exactly. It only needs to follow the same structure.
I’m thinking we need a theme song to help focus people on why not to support Danielle Smith and her fellow separatists. How about Tom Cochrane and Red Rider’s “Lunatic Fringe”?
Lying eyes, the eagles is a song I play after listening to Smith talk.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
In thing that has long puzzled me is that the Alberta separatists fail to take into consideration the way the U S treats its overseas territories such s Haiti, Puerto Rico, and others. They also seem to be oblivious to the likelihood that president Trump is interested in Alberta only for its natural resources including water, oil, minerals, lumber, and agricultural products. It is most improbable that Trump and the rest of the American government would be interested in paying anything near market price for any of these commodities. Nor would they be interested in employing Albertans, except a few in menial and poorly paid work. In addition, Alberta and, presumably later, the rest of Canada would be a convenient dumping ground for the less desirable of those living in America. A lose-lose all round for Alberta and the rest of Canada.
Christina: At the risk of being pedantic, Haiti is not a U.S. territory – in law if not in fact – like Puerto Rico, American Samoa, etc. DJC
Good ol’ pragmatic centrist Liberal Canada has been a central player in the ongoing program of subjugating Haiti.
There are 2 pieces to this jigsaw. One is the 5th column which pretends to ask the USA for a ‘loan’ but otherwise feigns innocence. Canada’s treason law is very narrowly defined but becomes more pertinent with every utterance of annexing Canada by US politicians—which means asking the US to help Alberta secede could instead help in sentencing 5th-column separatists to lengthy prison terms.
Whatever these operatives are doing in DC, separatist ideologues of Alberta academia are busy peddling pie-in-the-sky “indpendence” which assiduously omits–even in book-length propaganda– that there is no legal, constitutional way for any province to secede from Canada; they stay away from the 51st-state and simply extol “freedom.”
Together they’re the two brain cells that keep each other company.
The other jigsaw piece is made up of followers, most of whom check their brains in the cloakroom of the separatist wagon laager wherein they wholly accept the guff that a simple, 50%+1 referendum approval and international recognition of an independent nation of Alberta is sufficient to secede. They likely either believe that natural or supernatural law trumps the Canadian Constitution and international law or that legitimacy grows from the barrel of a gun (only thoughtless anti-communists could paraphrase Chairman Mao Tzsetung). Their collective concept of secession is best described as inarticulate.
Never openly discussed—at least not outside the wagon laager— are inconvenient facts that the US Constitution itself has rules about acquiring extra territory and confederation thereof. Neither is debated are the many, many legal, political, and partisan reasons why Congress would NOT want to annex Alberta. Their separatist position remains ostensibly about “independence,” not 51st-state. Likewise, the 5th column never pontificates about “oil” (separatist argot meaning bitumen) but instead about “freedom” of the most redoubtable kind.
Plenty of room for disingenuousness here because some might support secession only insofar as it gets Alberta “a better deal from Canada.” This faction may include those who don’t necessarily want Alberta to separate or even believe that it would, could or should. For them, even a losing referendum result is politically useful to pressure Ottawa into treating Alberta with special distinction which westerners have long alleged the feds do for Quebec.
Like the 5th column and separatist ideologues of academia, this position omits much detail which is critical to the understanding of Canadian confederation and federalism. In any case, the notion of Alberta joining the USA is definitely on the QT–rather, it’s all about a “Sovereign Alberta in a United Canada”…
…which is Danielle Smith’s position, nice ‘n’ safe for the moment. But can she convince Big US Oil that its interest in the bitumen mines won’t be interfered with by any provincial or federal government? Will the Rupert Tube fill the bill? Naturally not because Canada and, so, Alberta are democracies. So is the USA, for that matter. Big money can manipulate elections but, especially with the built-in dual-loyalty of federated states, it’s never 100% that in the next four years the electorate’s mood won’t change–or just get moody: Quebec can vote Liberal federally, PQ provincially –and then set them both out with the trash the very next election.
Perhaps Big Bitumen would therefore rather Alberta NOT remain in one federation nor join the other but instead become an independent unitary state so-constituted that vicissitudes of democratic will cannot interfere with its operations.
Big Oil is sitting pretty like the Khazarian Khagan who summoned the three Abrahamic traditions to convince him which one he should decree the religion of his khaganate. But as recently shown, Big Oil is interested in petroleum, not politics, much less policing like Donald wanted when he gifted Big Oil Venezuela. Carney axed the carbon tax and agreed to help get a 3rd pipeline to the West Coast, rendering the difference between Liberal and Conservative governments to within an EV of zero. Even the Alberta NDP is more than a little bit pro-dilbit. Thus the Imam of Independence, the Bishop of Bitumen, and the Rabbi of Rupert are almost indistinguishable.
But none of them wants to talk about Albertans waking up in a 51st State like most anti-secessionists do. I’m more puzzled why separatists aren’t constantly put on the spot by reminding them that it’s not legally possible to secede –and asking them what they’re gonna do about it.
Here is a fun ‘what if?’:
Suppose a separation referendum goes ahead, and the vote is to separate. We are still supposed to have a provincial election in the fall of 2027. Assuming that goes ahead, I expect separation would very much be the election issue, as people use the election as an opportunity to have a sober second thought, especially people who thought their separation vote in the referendum was just to gain negotiation leverage.
So what happens if the 2027 election produces an NDP majority, or a minority government with the NDP and Peter Guthrie’s Progressive Tory Party holding the balance of power, and either scenario the government uses their mandate to cancel the separation plan? Both the NDP and PTP have made their federalist sentiments known, and would surely include it in their election platform, so they can easily claim the election result gives them the mandate to stay in Canada.
The Alberta holiday should properly be called “Getty Family Day” as you and others have often reminded us.
Regarding the separatists, a lot of the hard core activists suffer from “Trudeau Derangement Syndrome” — a recurring affliction in Alberta since 1968. Smith and her coterie exploit this phenomenon, but their cynical goal is really just to gain the same leverage over the Rest of Canada that they think Quebec enjoys. You once aptly dubbed this strategy “Pequiste Envy.”
Brilliant
As an aside, I always get a chuckle when the Alberta Report/Western Report/Western Standard (Byfield’s baby) is referenced. This is a publication that continually hemorrhaged money and only survived thanks to anonymous benefactors. Shouldn’t the market decide? Sounds an awful lot like socialism to me…….
Also demonstrates its limited appeal, despite the supposed deep and wide support for it being a (not really!!!) “independent source of news and commentary”, alongside the Fraser Institute, Cardus Institute and many others that, to tie into your larger theme, would be better positioned as “Don’t Think” Tanks.
I’m here for the Traitor Tots, or rather the moniker.
So it seems that Alberta women will be among the first people to lose rights in the next election cycle. APP Traitor Tots will take it all away. Danielle Smith has kept her birth name (because she loves all things Quebec?), but will Alberta adopt Quebec’s system of civil law? This would be a great way to protect women’s franchise in the stupid new MAGA world. Women’s names aren’t allowed to change upon marriage in Quebec. All government documents must use the birth name. Here it is optional and requires an application and documentation for approval. Warning to all: keep your birth name after marriage if you want to keep your franchise rights. Speaking of birth, it might be time to stock up on birth control or get an IUD. (Already happening among women of childbearing age in the US due to lack of reproductive healthcare access.) Don’t expect Traitor-Tot types to pay child support if there’s a birth control failure. Am I right, APP guys? YKWIM. 😉
The men on horseback with sweary flags will decide who gets what. Don’t think you’re safe if you’re a man, because they’re itching to take your rights away, too. They won’t overlook the colour of your skin, your religion, your ethnicity, etc. Ride a horse, be a cosplay cowboy with a sweary flag if you want to blend in.
There’s so much to say. None of it is good. Democracy will be dead if these horsey-man-babies get their way. Do they know Danielle Smith is a woman, or do the plans include replacing her with a horsey-man-baby? One dictator is as good or bad as any other, I suppose.
For anyone who wants to know how a woman who changed her name after marriage can regain the franchise in the U.S. should it be removed, read “Republicans Will Detonate Their Secret Weapon at the Midnight Hour to Stop Women from Voting”, by W.A. Lawrence on Substack.
We’ll know soon enough if Alberta is on the same track by listening for Kristi Noem’s words coming out of Danielle Smith’s mouth.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/krisit-noem-voter-id-midterms-b2920636.html
Smith wants Noem-style “little bastions of freedom.” Noem wants the “right kind of people” to vote in the mid-term elections. Danielle Smith has laid the groundwork to prevent females who were not recorded as female at birth from participating in competitive sports. This is different from a birth certificate. The same terminology could be applied to restrict women from voting using any other name than their name registered at birth.
Is it a coincidence that Smith has been transforming herself into a Kristi Noem look-alike since she took power?
DC: I, and many, many others, truly enjoy your commentary, research and analysis. However, I fear that one day YOU may become the target of the APP zombies. The first head above the trenches may be the first to spot the enemy but may be the first to be decapitated. Please take care and hire a gang of guard goats.
An independent Alberta is a fantasy, and that includes a military force designed to suppress the opposition. That doesn’t mean anyone is immune from sleepwalking into the separatist fantasy world, but we must be clear about this to understand what be really going on. The role of these clowns is not to negotiate anything, but to convince people prone to believing this sort of fantasy to vote for it. When we realize that independence is a fantasy, the inescapable conclusion is that the real goal is to have Alberta join the United States. Trump says so. Scott Bessent, the American Treasury Secretary (the one with the money) says so, in some detail. And if they are seriously negotiating with someone, the same logic that tells you independence can’t be the goal will tell you it can’t be the clowns. The only ones who can seriously be negotiating with the Americans are the UCP. As Sherlock Holmes said, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be truth.
Under David’s photo: “- don’t blame the horses for the rude message on the flags!”
Blame the horse’s asses riding them.
That’s fair, Tom. Interesting that the riders don’t mind using our Canadian maple leaf in that context. DJC
Hmm. The two political persuasions that seem to be opposed to the separatists and the NDP are to the left of the Liberals and to the right of the Liberals. Gee, I wonder who could knit together the opposition, if they could only look past their narrow self interests?
The human struggle on this planet and in this reality has always been one that is against the physics of inevitability, employing various futile strategies such as denial, mitigation tactics, intellectual fairy tales, or simply calculated resignation.
As such the current Alberta separatist movement and the green paradox involving petro-state politics are inextricably intertwined, as it would be in any master slave relationship involving dominance and submission. It is a multi-layered relationship involving multiple variables.
Where the employment of a standard cynical psychological ploy of inflaming the emotions of a population, [or mobilizing the passions of the masses] such as fear and anger, both mobilizes and motivates a constructed ‘populist’ movement that is being used by various actors to fulfill their own selfish ends, where; any means [lying, extortion, ect.] is viewed as necessary for achieving the desired objectives.
Finally, it is worth noting that:
The picture of the “Former federal Conservative cabinet minister and leadership candidate” is nameless – I assume that this is Chris Alexander, seeing as the photo is credited to him.
Sorry about that, Lards. Yes, it is Chris Alexander and now says so. Many thanks. DJC
I have to confess, I understand their thinking as with regards to the need for an army, where they think they can get one from ? This isn’t the days of the RCMP, when a few hundred troops were all that was really needed to be both a military and police force, the population then was tiny, even when gathered into resistance they were easily put down by the feds. Now they would need to defend not only FOUR insanely massive currently unguarded borders, but paramilitarily police a population of 4.2 million souls, half of which live in Calgary and Edmonton, in a province of over 600,000 square kilometres (which is almost ten percent larger than Ukraine, with a much tougher and more diverse terrain to conquer). Not only that, but the CANADIAN military, which has historically punched far above its weight in terms of operational capacity is literally ALREADY STATIONED IN ALBERTA. To which you can add, the previously mentioned RCMP, who have always been a military policing force (Calvary), also already stationed, IN ALBERTA.
So to summarize, they want to have a military to not only defend the border but the internal security of alberta, a province bigger than one of the largest countries in Europe, as well as one large enough to fight off the Canadian military, if it so came to that. To do this they want to draw from a population of just over four million people, of whom at least half do not agree with them, and only a small percentage are going to be able to be called operationally capable. (Too old, weak, sick, fat, criminal etc..). After you’ve done this you’re going to arm them with what exactly ? Which factories are you going to buy munitions from ? Let alone an Air Force, armoured divisions, artillery (shown to be a crucial concern for both sides in Ukraine) all the while great powers are doing their best to replace the materialle they’ve burned through in the last five years in the Ukraine war and Gaza. Which is to say, they might be able to secure a procurement contract somewhere, but those contracts functionally will not be fulfilled, the timelines for the previous conflicts I mentioned are so long they are laughable actually, and they’re definitely not bumping rump state of alberta to the front of the line.
So yeah what have we got left here, a functionally unarmed, hair brained, untrained, uncapable force that will somehow: control a resistant population, secure the border, and the airspace of rump alberta, against two massively powerful countries with very capable militaries, one of which, again, is already stationed within its borders.
To all of this we can add the indigenous resistance which will surely capitalize on all the chaos, who have their own resources and leadership that PREDATE alberta entirely, and will absolute act in a coordinated fashion.
To all of this I say, go ahead and try, you empty headed, whitewashed cisterns, it’s so completely ridiculous on its face and it is 150% alberta tough guy projection. These people are weasels, and they’re incredibly stupid, they don’t scare me a tiny bit.
@ A Little Bird
Murkkka will provide the weapons, dontcha know?
Likely the soldiers and “expertise” as well. And all that fancy multi-million-dollar fancy-dancy equipment that croaks in the snow or gets wiped out by a couple of thousand-dollar cardboard, old cell-phone chip drones that their radar can’t detect.
With what ? I get that readers of this blog maybe don’t follow international conflict all that closely, but the cupboard is nearly bare, and trump can’t keep himself from starting even more conflicts. It’s why the Americans have been pushing on the Europeans to take over with arming the Ukrainians. The Americans have the same problem as everyone else, you can’t just magic weapons systems into existence; and their MIC happens to be the most inefficient and corrupt one on the planet.
What these quisling traitors think is that they will be allowed to steal the wealth of alberta, without anyone firing a shot. Try us.
A knee injury kiboshed my plans to move to Victoria 2 weeks before I had to make the final financial commitment. A large part of my leaving was what I saw happening under the UCP, both Kenney snd Smith. As my knee slowly recovers, making a move physically possible once again, I am now judging when is the best time to put my plan into action. Even if the Traitor Tots lose. I do not want to live in a province where a largish part of the population would even consider leaving Canada. And I may have to adjust my destination in BC since the major portion of my income is an Alberta public service pension plan. And anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows Smith is coming for the pension funds, along with the Heritage Fund and the CPP.
Look over there, horses with 2 assholes!
Are separatists refusing to acknowledge there is no legal, constitutional way for Alberta to secede? Would they fall back upon the right of free speech? Yes, all quite legal and above board—the premier has even lightened the way, an angle worthy of bitumification if not cannonization, no doubt, but has anybody asked the separatists what they’re gonna do if they win the referendum?
This is my point as well. They seem to think that they’ll be able to just roll up alberta and walk out with it, constitution be damned. It then becomes a question of force projection and Canada is the one with an Air Force, not the APP. They’re fantasists.
What sorts of measurements would be on the chart in an assessment of a “healthy democracy”? Wealth distribution? Top .01% holds 5% of the country’s wealth. Bottom 40% hold 3%. The Carny Banker is dumping $6.6 billion into the Canadian military industrial complex. Looks like the system is hale and hearty! A veritable Donald J Trump in the form of a state!
During the 1990’s in a small community of Oka Quebec there was an incident that sent a strong message to the government of Quebec. Where group of indigenous people stood their ground to protect their land from being taken over by the municipality to build a golf course and housing. They received support from all other First Nations throughout Canada. It would be in the best of interest to all First Nations to come to the aid of Alberta indigenous people to stop any separatist from taking away any of their treaty rights. The separatists are underestimating the response they will face. The United Nations are more likely to recognize First Nation treaty rights than any unilateral declaration made by a rogue group of separatist . They act as if creating this new nation a one step action without any opposition .
Hello DJC,
Thanks for noting that Haiti is not a U S territory. I was thinking about U S interference in Haiti over the years and wrote it is a U S territory, which it is not.