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Continue Reading →: An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions
An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions
Folks who readily accept qualifying other people as “racialized” are the most frequent users of the “racist” accusation. This is the second part of a multi-part series leading up to the October 19 Alberta Referenda. I arrived in this country as an adolescent, with two languages to learn in a new country and a revolution…
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Continue Reading →: Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing.
Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing.
The 1980 referendum didn’t empty Montreal. It was the socio-economic program. On Epiphany (January 6), 1978, Sun Life Assurance announced that it was moving its swanky head office to rented space in Toronto. Someone spray-painted “Bon débarras,” good riddance, on their Dominion Square massive granite building in Montreal. Montreal Exchange brokers called the day Black…
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Continue Reading →: Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915
Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915
This is the first essay in a series that begins today, 1 September 2026, the 121st anniversary of Alberta’s founding, and runs until after the referendum of 19 October. The series will cover the questions on that ballot, arguments of Albertans voting yes and no, key features of Alberta political culture, and how Albertans have…
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Continue Reading →: Mexico Kept Its Head. Canada Raised Its Elbows.
Mexico Kept Its Head. Canada Raised Its Elbows.
Donald Trump has insulted Mexico more crudely and more often than he has insulted Canada. Mexico’s negotiators are three rounds into talks and 85 per cent of their exports still cross the border tariff-free. Canada faces a 50 per cent tariff on US$20 billion of its exports starting August 19. The difference deserves a careful…
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Continue Reading →: The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong
The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong
An anonymous infographic claims Alberta separation is constitutionally illegitimate because treaties and Confederation came first. This brief argues otherwise: Canada’s Constitution permits secession negotiations, treaties include land cession clauses, and constitutional arrangements have repeatedly changed through negotiation and democratic consent.
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Continue Reading →: The Grocery Greed Myth
The Grocery Greed Myth
“It’s not okay that our biggest grocery stores are making record profits while Canadians are struggling to put food on the table.” —PM Justin Trudeau, September 13, 2023. A couple of days after the above statement, the then-prime minister and his government continued a campaign to blame rising food prices on grocery retailers. The line…
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Continue Reading →: Inclusion and Disorder: Unlearned Lessons from Palestinian Protests
Inclusion and Disorder: Unlearned Lessons from Palestinian Protests
Canada’s obsession with “inclusion” has eroded civic discipline and blurred the line between free speech and coercion. Sweden, once equally naive, regained balance by restoring boundaries between citizenship, responsibility, and national coherence.
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Continue Reading →: Break the Fences, Keep the Frontier
Break the Fences, Keep the Frontier
Alberta leads Canada in prosperity by dismantling barriers, but old guilds and new obstacles—subsidies, DEI mandates, and debanking—threaten progress. To remain the frontier, Alberta must keep tearing down walls and driving economic freedom forward.
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Continue Reading →: Canada’s Elite Mock Alberta, While the U-Hauls Keep Coming
Canada’s Elite Mock Alberta, While the U-Hauls Keep Coming
Alberta is mocked as Canada’s land of hicks and hydrocarbon heretics. But migration data since COVID tells another story: Canadians keep moving East of the Rockies. For decades, Alberta has carried the caricature imposed on it by the national press and Ottawa’s political class. According to the story told in Toronto and Ottawa, Alberta is…