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We love you, ALBERTA

Oct 16th, 2026
by Craig.
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You know, believe it or not, Alberta, we in the rest of the country have heard a lot about your referendum, and not just from the CBC. And, only speaking for myself, we care.

I’m not going to get all hysterical about it, however, and actually claim that you should vote to stay in Canada because, “We love you.” I’m just going to state that with everything else going on in the world, breaking off a significant piece of the country is not a good thing. It wasn’t a good thing a year ago and it won’t be a good thing a year from now.

There has been much talk about comparisons to the Brexit referendum in the UK; that was a disaster, and half of the people who voted for Brexit — i.e., about half of 51.89% (17.4 million people, or 8.7 million of them) would vote to undo what they voted for. Yes, I know this from personal experience, and no, I’m not going to back up those exact numbers with my life, but ask a reasonable number of Brits where they stand, and if you’re lucky they’ll be honest and give you an honest answer.

And I get it, you’ve got the short end of the stick in many ways for years, and that’s not good, but I think things have changed for you. You have a conservative liberal running the country, and he is doing good things for Alberta, and I don’t think that will change at the next election. Might it change at some point in the future? Possibly, but with Carney now giving you some of the slack you haven’t been given in the past, I think it will be difficult for a future prime minister of Canada to turn around at the beginning of the next government’s term and say, “That’s enough, Alberta, get back in your cage.”

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think things can change that fast.

I’ve read all ten of the questions being asked of you in the referendum on Monday. There’s lots of information about them and how they are worded. I’m not saying that any of you are too stupid to read through them all and decide carefully how you are going to answer them (although I question if anyone could expect to show up on Monday and expect to read and think about all the questions within a reasonable amount of time), but the “no to the nine” mantra is good advice. As Carney has pointed out, this isn’t a poker game where you’re trying to bluff you way to a win, and Smith seems to think that it is, despite the fact that she is even all giggly in Mark Carney’s presence and claims to support staying in Canada. Too many “yes” votes will result in Danielle Smith overplaying her hand with Ottawa, and putting Alberta in a difficult position (or positions) for years to come. You don’t need that, and the rest of us don’t need (or want) that either.

So I’ll end my plea here: Please vote, “No to the nine”, and then vote, “Alberta should remain a province in Canada.” It’s as simple as that. And then, go home and GET INVOLVED in politics in some way. Don’t just sit on your ass and watch American television all day. That’s my point, get involved in some way; don’t just sit there and let the politicians, whether they be federal or provincial or even municipal, tell you what to think. Think for yourself, and take action to support your positions.

Thank-you.

The Brits need to make up their minds

May 13th, 2026
by Craig.
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It’s almost as if the Brits have adopted the American electoral system.

They haven’t officially, of course, but I’ve never seen the consternation that has overtaken the country now, in 2026, after their local elections. Not living in the UK I have to admit that I am not intimately familiar with their overall system; for example, in Canada our party system doesn’t carry across levels of government. Here in BC, our provincial “Liberal” party (since renamed “BC United” and not even having a website any more) is right wing, and not even associated with the federal Liberal Party of Canada. And on the municipal level, parties are formed — as near as I can tell — based on local issues, and they come and go at the drop of a hat. One might know that Joe Blow is a “liberal” or a “conservative” based on his (or her) political positions or who supports them, or even their having previously represented a particular party at some time in the past, but on the municipal level they don’t run under one national banner or another. On the other hand, in the UK they do.

So I can see that if one party or another loses a lot of seats, that (of course) reflects badly on the party itself, at all levels. Which makes me wonder why parties at the national level associate themselves with municipal parties of dog catchers, etc., which make me wonder about the wisdom of such a system. I don’t pretend to be a political scientist, and I don’t even play one on TV, but there must be a historical reason for such a system that I missed while I was passed out in class. (The topic didn’t interest me when I was a kid.)

Anyway, I see little of Starmer except when he’s being a decent international leader on the TV news (that’s infinitely more than I can say about trump!), so it’s a little surprising for me. It’s particularly surprising since the Conservative Party just went through six (!) leaders since 2016, and the Labour Party should have used that as an example of how not to run a party. However, the Brits seem determined to play musical leaders, no matter which party we’re talking about.

Should I then support Reform UK (kinda the successor to UKIP), who have apparently been major beneficiaries of the largesse of the UK public? Not really. Nigel Farage has been a leader in search of a party, which is no different than a party in search of a leader. And really, the voting public can’t complain if they are so fickle that they toss out party leaders as quickly as the calendar turns. If they don’t have the patience to let a prime minister serve out his four- or five-year term, they don’t deserve to have a prime minster for his/her full term. If Farage ever makes it into the prime minister’s post, one wonders if the British public will let him last. That said, even without being prime minister, he’s fucked Britain by bringing about Brexit!

A relative in Scotland claims that Starmer “is not popular as [he is] very woke”. But if he is “very woke”, are not Labour supporters also “very woke”? And would they not continue to support a “very woke” prime minister? This is the whole problem with that very word; what, exactly, is “woke”? I’ll save that question for another day, but I will say that there is a happy medium on the “woke” scale, it’s just that users of the word seem to assume that there isn’t; you’re “woke”, or your thought process is pure.