CategoryColumn
-
Continue Reading →: Remain and do what? Take 2
Remain and do what? Take 2
Seven weeks, ten questions and a million early ballots later, the structure that brought Alberta here is still standing, and the attempts to answer what was asked have fallen short. The complaint heard most often about Monday’s referendum is that it amounts to a protest. Critics mean it as a dismissal. In their telling, a…
-
Continue Reading →: The Constitution is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps breaking
The Constitution is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps breaking
As Alberta prepares to vote, Ottawa might remember that constitutional obligations work both ways. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a good occasion to think about promises. Families and friendships rest on them. Countries are no different. On October 19, Albertans will answer ten referendum questions. Four concern changes to Canada’s Constitution. The…
-
Continue Reading →: Canada Funds Its Press, Mexico Buries Its Journalists.
Canada Funds Its Press, Mexico Buries Its Journalists.
World News Day celebrates journalism: Mexican reporters face murder and intimidation while Canada debates a press dependent on public moneyMexican reporters face murder and intimidation while Canada debates a press dependent on public money. Today (September 28), more than a thousand newsrooms in over a hundred countries marked World News Day, a campaign the Canadian…
-
Continue Reading →: Democracy Is for Losers
Democracy Is for Losers
A Commentary on Wesley and Boessenkool Most of our state institutions are worth defending, but they are not perfect, and sometimes the people who populate them fall well short of expectations. When they do, the electors are justified in keeping the elected on a tight leash. In Alberta, that reflex is Wednesday. Twenty-five days before…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.