Take off the CPC-tinted glasses. There was nothing comparable to Biden there. Carney handled that meeting very, very well.

Keep in mind, our neighbor to the south is the world’s leading expert in regime change with a long track record of causing civil unrest and undermining the social and democratic systems of democratic allies.

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

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

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

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

What a random and disconnected reply to my comment. Odd. Not sure what to do with that.

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

Bernier is awful, but a win would likely result in the PPC gaining strength in the next election, which would pull far right voters away from the CPC and weaken them while keeping the far right on the fringes. That sounds good to me. I don’t think it’s at all likely that he’ll run against Poilievre and win, but it would be fine by me.

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

Canada is now the front line against what’s rising in the US, and we’re not out of the woods with Alberta or our domestic far-right movement either.

But, do they know what to pair them with?

Trump is so desperate for someone to just make a deal with him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this case, Liberals did not understand the assignment. NDP voters did.

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

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

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

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

Yep. That’s more or less how I feel.

I don’t want Canada under the EU governance system, and I don’t think it’s necessary to join the EU as a member just to have close and mutually supportive relations. Unless the Conservatives win today, we’re still quite aligned with the EU in terms of values and commitment to similar international standards and goals, so I think we can form many trade agreements, cooperate on defense, and support similar international institutions, but just doing it with Canada as country that is a friend of the EU and not a member of the EU.

I have no interest in Canada joining the EU, which I see as having a bunch of governance problems of their own, but being close allies with well-integrated and mutually supportive economies via trade and other agreements sounds good to me.

Honestly, the idea floated that Canada would form a bloc with the UK, other commonwealth countries, and the EU, then have that bloc negotiate trade agreements with China sounds absolutely ideal to me. That’s apparently already been raised by Carney in private talks on his visits to Europe and the UK. It would unite most of the world and cut the US off unless they changed course on their insane path. That’s the foundation for a much more positive world order

The guy was allowed to enter the street as it was the end of the event and cars were coming in to pack up. He reportedly bumped one person with the side of his car at a relatively low speed and then suddenly hit the accelerator hard and went straight into the crowd. Video of him being held by people waiting for the police to arrive shows him looking like he’s also in shock and he apologizes for what he did. The guy’s brother was also murdered (not by a Filipino) and then his mom attempted suicide in recent years and he’s had a bunch of mental health issues and run ins with police, but seems to have no criminal record. I have no idea what was going on in his head. I don’t understand why he did what he did. It’s an awful thing to do. It just doesn’t seem like a terrorist attack.

Edit: He has now been charged with 8 counts of second degree murder, not first degree murder. Second degree murder is not premeditated, so not an act of terrorism. It suggests a decision made in the moment.

No kidding. Social issues aren’t off the table in this election. It’s just a matter of trying to save progress made on them rather than having them clawed back to mid last century.