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danielle smith

We love you, ALBERTA

Oct 16th, 2026
by Craig.
1 comment

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 plan 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 your 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.

A compendium of reactions to recent news

Jan 19th, 2024
by Craig.
Comments are off for this post

Danielle Smith in a time warp

I note that in Alberta the Danielle Smith government has done a time warp and thinks they’re living under a 2035 federal government led by none other than 63-year-old Justin Trudeau! (I wonder if he’s still as beautiful as he is here and now in 2024?!) It’s Trudeau’s fault that whoever is in charge of electrical power in Alberta dropped the ball and had to buy power from the nasty, commie pinko NDP government in British Columbia! Yup, those nasty, commie pinkos are really good at running economies into the ground and then begging for help from right-wing economies, as we all know. Even Washington State in the good ol’ (definitely non-commie pinko) US of A had to buy power from us commie pinkos in the recent cold snap in this part of the world!

Editorialising teleprompter readers

I noticed last night (18 January) that Chris Gailus, one of the Global BC teleprompter readers, tried to make some sort of off-the-cuff editorial remark during the six-o-clock news, but stumbled and ended up dragging it our for more seconds than was really necessary. I can’t even remember what it was about, but I think it might have been about driving in Vancouver snow. Weirdly, a BBC teleprompter reader also made an editorial comment yesterday! I’m actually quite shocked at that, because I usually hold up their teleprompter readers as the epitome of professionalism, but I suppose standards are slipping there as well!

The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS)

There was a report on the news about the rise in the number of complaints from the public to the CCTS. It was a masterpiece to see the nuanced, massaged reactions from the cell-phone companies to the complaints they had received! “Yes, we know we have a huge number of complaints, and even one compliant is too many, but we have the fewest complaints per subscriber with ringworm!”, said the spokesperson for RogersBellTelus! Jesus H. Christ! What kind of warped and twisted upbringing and education do you have to have to come up with their beautiful lies?! (I think they call it “positive spin”!)

Milani Plumbing Vancouver review

Every time I see one of their ads on TV I just shake my head. We used to be good customers of theirs. Then we moved, and I guess we just used a plumber that was familiar with the townhouse complex in which we lived. Then we moved again, and when our first plumbing issue came up, who did we call? Milani, of course. There was no question and no hesitation. I don’t remember whether or not I was informed when I made the appointment or afterwards that they had a minimum $200 charge just for showing up (I’d have to re-read my notes), but it wouldn’t have made any difference because I assumed that the person who came out would do the job we needed and the bill would likely come out to more than $200 anyway. No problem.

But the guy that showed up essentially just told us what we already knew about the problem (“You have a problem!”) and had no intention of fixing it and installing what we wanted on the gas line! He was just there to collect the $200. When he left I was standing there $200 poorer and still with the plumbing problem! So I called Milani and complained, and I was informed several times by the person I spoke to that their service technicians don’t carry around the full stock of a Home Depot in their vans! WTF??! Who thinks that they do?! (Obviously that’s something drummed into their heads in what little training they get, and I’m sure they love telling stories around the water cooler about their stupid customers who they think expect that!) The problem we had needed just some expertise, and may have required some parts that any journeyman plumber would have in his tool kit, never mind in his spacious three-quarter-tonne van or one-tonne cube van. I will grant that we didn’t expect him to have the part we needed for the installation on the gas line, but we expected that we’d pay for the hot-water issue to be fixed, and then he’d come back — maybe another day — with the parts needed for the gas work. And we expected that the work for both would add up to more than $400!

Anyway, after I had been treated like an idiot by the idiot on the phone at Milani, I told them not to bother coming back with the part for the gas-line installation. Presumably it became part of the huge inventory that their plumbers carry around with them in their Home Depot-sized vans. We have never called them back to come and work on our plumbing ever since, and never will. But clearly they still get a lot of suckers paying them $200 a shot to come and do nothing for them; that’s how they pay for these expensive TV ads!

Instead of a flashy plumbing company who can afford to run TV ads we got an old guy (named Gabriel [Gabe] Khoo) in to do the work, and we’ve used him ever since. He shows up with a white van full of tools and parts and doesn’t rip us off for $200 a shot just to show up and tell us what we already know. He’s better than Milani Plumbing in Vancouver and their painted trucks and flashy uniforms any day!