For my Canadian friends

Thank you S2
Re #198
"In this case asking for a write-in ballot isn't to let you vote for any sort of third party candidate. It's because there are some 130 plus candidates on the official ballot and this makes it easier to vote for the individual you want to support - no need to wade thru a massive list to find the "right" candidate." S2 #200
- oh -
I understood there over 100 candidates in the race. I didn't realize over 100 of them were on the ballot. - yikes -

note:
When I cast my write-in ballot, the candidate had prepared a how-to flier, as this jurisdiction (like many others I imagine) have legal requirement which
a) must be met for the vote to be counted, &
b) if not followed are likely to exclude the ballot from being counted. "The Devil's in the details."
 
Have to say that Canada can only hope voters are paying attention

Battle River-Crowfoot voters are getting in the know - Poilievre wants to win the August 18 By-election as a means to an end - he’s desperate to get back to any semblance of power he had in the House of Commons. He doesn’t give one hoot, holler or rat’s ass about what the people of BRC want or need
😡
Bonnie Critchley is asking voters about what their needs are, with honesty and value to actually help BRC residents.

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STARLAND, AB – CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre’s chances in the upcoming Battle River-Crowfoot election have been thrown into doubt, after his competitors announced that oppo research has unearthed Poilievre’s shocking past as Leader of the Opposition.


With the by-election only a month away, Poilievre’s victory had seemed as inevitable as horses dying at the Calgary Stampede. Or it did, until his competitors announced the shocking revelations that have rocked Poilievre’s campaign to the core. “It’s one thing to find out he was Leader of the Opposition,” said one unnamed Conservative pollster, “but it’s another to see just how bad he was at it. Wow.”

Rumours are swirling about the most damning discoveries, such as Poilievre singing “New York, New York” during Question Period, getting ejected by the Speaker of the House for calling Justin Trudeau a “wacko,” and repeated claims that electricians take lightning from the sky and put it into wires. One source pointed to evidence of Poilievre frequently bringing up women’s biological clocks as especially off-putting and “really not helping combat his whole incel vibe.”

The revelations – the product of countless research hours in obscure databases such as CPAC and Youtube – couldn’t come at a worse time for Poilievre. The beleaguered party leader was expected to win this Conservative stronghold as handily as he lost his home riding to Liberal Bruce Fanjoy in April.

Poilievre’s opponents are now hopeful they can turn the tables, citing focus group reactions to their research. Karen Lakest from Kneehill commented, “Did you know he’s obsessed with dumb little slogans? ‘Axe the Tax’, ‘Boots Not Suits’, ‘Spike the Hike’ – he’s like if the most obnoxious kid on the Debate Team bought a rhyming dictionary.”

Bradley Vernend of Camrose was unimpressed to learn of ....

CONTINUED
 
"Have to say that Canada can only hope voters are paying attention
Battle River-Crowfoot voters are getting in the know - Poilievre wants to win the August 18 By-election as a means to an end - he’s desperate to get back to any semblance of power he had in the House of Commons. He doesn’t give one hoot, holler or rat’s ..." S2 #202
Perplexing.
God didn't invent badness, self-serving miscreants only after Trump was videoed on down escalator to announce ... .
Has bad somehow gotten worse in the new millennium?

And what of voters? Their collective I.Q. lowered 20 points just to boost newspaper sales a little ?!
 
Have to say I've never understood why PP appeals to the Conservative Party. He's never had a job outside of politics and during all his years as an elected MP he's never accomplished anything except being chosen party leader. Never been able to understand that.
 
"Have to say I've never understood why PP appeals to the Conservative Party." S2 #204
"It's déjà vu all over again" Yogi Berra
"Have to say I've never understood why DT appeals to the Republican Party." s #205

par·a·site (părə-sīt′)
n.
1. Biology An organism that lives and feeds on or in an organism of a different species and causes harm to its host.
2.a. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
b. One who lives off and flatters the rich; a sycophant.
[Latin parasītus, a person who lives by amusing the rich, from Greek parasītos, person who eats at someone else's table, parasite : para-, beside; see PARA-1 + sītos, grain, food.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

I believe rather than the party welcoming the parasite, the parasite has invaded and seeks control of these parties.
“In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve” French diplomat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville
Up yours Al !
 
The real question right now isn’t what Trump will do. It’s what Canada won’t do.

These trade negotiations are hard enough without having a partner who moves the goalposts and treats economic coercion as a strategy. His deadline (replete with no extensions and no exceptions) isn’t diplomacy, it’s a power play.
But I believe our governments won’t accept anything less than what’s right for us as Canadians and for our country. We’ve heard our PM say that many times, and I believe he’ll get us there. We’ve heard our premiers say it too. It may not be tied up in some pretty neat bow or feel like Christmas when it’s all done, but it will be a negotiation that delivers what we need most and uses our strengths as leverage.

And sure, yes, we do need trade with the USA but they need what we offer just as much, and in some cases, more. And so does the rest of the world.

Stephen Harper said it clearly: we must expand our trade relationships and reduce our overreliance on the USA. That’s not a partisan statement. It’s plain common sense.

August 1st is coming. And yeah, its a tense moment. It’s been tense for about 7 months now. Canadians and Canadian businesses are nervous and that’s understandable. But being nervous doesn’t mean acting ....

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PARACHUTED POILIEVRE IN FREE FALL

Pierre Poilievre was badly beaten in his Ottawa suburban riding of Carleton in the recent federal election. Now he’s running scared.

He’s contesting Battle River-Crowfoot in central Alberta. Where the Conservatives have crushed all comers by huge margins in recent elections.

He has blamed his loss in Carleton on being too honest about his intention to cut public service jobs in an Ottawa-area riding, which is home to a large number of public employees.

The notoriously anti-union Conservative leader complained that the unions had ganged up on him. The excuse he made for his loss was that his national obligations superseded the interests of the 124,000 voters in his riding.

That sounds like blaming his constituents for not being able to take the truth. How will that logic play out in Battle River-Crowfoot?

Will they give him the benefit of the doubt? After all, Battle River-Crowfoot is so dyed-in-the-wool Tory blue that the polling agency 338Canada originally put the likelihood of

Poilievre winning the riding at 99 per cent. Readers are reminded Pierre Poilievrevre once had a 30 point lead against the Liberals.

Poilievre’s camp will make the case that by choosing him, voters in Battle River-Crowfoot could be electing a future prime minister.

But that promise seems like a tall order. Recent national polling numbers suggest ....

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Brilliant little read from an unknown writer that totally gets it. Sit down and learn a few things. JT

"If anyone’s wondering — I’ve voted Conservative, Liberal, and even NDP when the local representative was the best person running. I’ve always tried to vote for the person and the plan, not just the party.

Some of my old friends might be surprised by the tone of this post. Maybe even uncomfortable. That’s okay. I’m not here to convert anyone — I’m just offering some perspective from someone who’s seen governments come and go.

I’m not frustrated by disagreement — that’s healthy. I’m frustrated by the mindless reposting of memes, by empty slogans instead of actual solutions, and by the constant blame game that replaces responsibility with outrage.

Polls show that older Canadians are more likely to support the Liberals and there’s a reason for that: we’ve seen governments come and go. We remember the Petro-Canada era, the National Energy Programam backlash, the Mulroney cuts, the Chrétien surpluses, the Harper austerity, and the COVID-era interventions. We’ve lived through it — not just read about it online. What that history teaches you is that governance isn’t about slogans. It’s about outcomes.

So if we’re going to talk about the last 9 years, then let’s be honest and look at the last 30. You can’t understand where we are without knowing who brought us here.

Here’s how I see things. You can agree or disagree — that’s democracy. But let’s stop shouting and start ....

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Alberta was never meant to be a pulpit for corporate evangelism—it was fertile ground for democratic socialism. In the early 20th century, farmers, workers, and cooperative organizers built a movement to fight eastern banks and foreign oil interests strangling the West. This was the soil where the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) emerged: pragmatic, democratic, socialist. Its mission wasn’t utopian—it was survival. Ordinary Albertans demanded fair royalties on their resources, public ownership of utilities, and a social safety net to stop people from starving in a province swimming in wealth.

Enter William Aberhart and Ernest Manning, the Trojan horses of history. Aberhart’s Social Credit began as a populist reform party but, under Manning, mutated into a Christian authoritarian dynasty. Manning gutted the democratic socialist heart of Alberta’s populism, replacing it with evangelical sermons about divine markets and satanic socialism. He preached stewardship of oil not for public good but as God’s private gift to corporations. Progressive taxation, social welfare, and higher royalties were cast as sinful theft.

This was not just ideology—it was a hijacking. Manning turned Alberta’s homegrown democratic socialist uprising into a top-down Christian corporatocracy. By the 1950s, Alberta’s natural wealth—resources that should have built hospitals, schools, pensions, and infrastructure—was flowing untaxed into the pockets of foreign oil barons while public wealth stagnated. Peter Lougheed’s later attempt to claw back a fair share barely scratched the surface because Manning’s dynasty had already cemented rock-bottom royalties as holy writ.

Fast forward: Preston Manning nationalizes ....

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The Great Resource Robbery: How Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre Engineered Alberta’s $596 Billion Wealth Transfer

Subtitle: Inside the coordinated Conservative network that upheld ultra‑low royalties, blocked sovereign‑wealth reforms, and framed public wealth capture as “socialist”.

Poilievre’s political ascent and rhetorical style were forged under Harper as part of the very machinery that defended low royalties and corporatist oil policy. While Harper operated as the architect and strategist of royalty suppression, Poilievre functioned as the relentless communications enforcer, shaping public opinion and .....

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The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada is STILL siding with the convicted convoy organizers

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Exposing 60,000 residents to continuous 24/7 diesel fumes is a health hazard. Exploding Fireworks in front of people's homes, scaring vulnerable people, their children and pets is cruel. Taunting and threatening people, including Senior citizens, because they choose to wear protective health masks in their own neighborhood is terrorism. Stealing food from the poor and homeless at downtown food aid facilities is criminal. Closing down locally owned small businesses with non-stop agressive behavior is so wrong. Defecating on our National War Memorial is beyond disgusting. I hope these two convicted organizer monsters awaiting sentencing get at least some time in prison, strict parole conditions and restrictions with harsh penalties for future criminal acts.
 
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Conservatives talk like their tough on crime and almost always favour longer sentences, except when the criminals are their friends. Organizers of the Freedom Convoy Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, that took much of downtown Ottawa hostage are folk heroes to the populist right. The crown is asking 7 years for Lich and 8 years for Barber for mischief and counselling others to disobey a court order, much to the dismay of the right.

“While rampant violent offenders are released hours after their most recent charges,” fumed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, “the Crown wants seven years prison time for the charge of mischief for Lich and Barber. How is this justice?” Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman claimed, without evidence, that the Crown prosecutor was seeking “political vengeance,” holding this up as an example of “why trust in our institutions is dwindling.” Conservative MP Andrew Lawton complained of the Crown’s “vindictive” penalties for “a three-week peaceful protest almost three and a half years ago.” Yes, the Crown almost always asks for more than it expects to get. That being said, the occupation of Ottawa posed an unprecedented threat to civil order and the rule of law. It wasn’t just an

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Amazing (amusing?) how someone that's a member of two minority groups (gay and Jewish) can be this bigoted.

Lantsman calls Poilievre’s remarks on trans women ‘the position of the Conservative Party’

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner runs away from questions about her thoughts on the leader's position, and other Tory MPs, including Scott Aitchison, the party's critic on this issue, say they have no comment.

 
I know this was written about Canada but it applies equally well, if not more so, to small town America

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My last post was about shopping local and this is another important 'local' conversation. It’s not just Trump and the American MAGA we need to worry about. It’s our own town councils and local school boards.

If we don’t wake up right now in Alberta, and across rural Canada, it won’t matter what Trump did last week. Because within a few years we’ll be living inside our own fallout.

This October, Alberta holds municipal and school board elections. And what most people don’t realize, or don’t want to admit, is that these small-town, low-turnout elections are the real front lines of a coordinated, well-funded, far-right campaign.

If you’re American, you already know the name: The Heritage Foundation. If you’re Canadian and tempted to roll your eyes, don’t. That same hard right evangelical playbook from the U.S. that takes over school boards, floods local councils, and undermines public institutions from the inside out is already here. It's called Take Back Alberta. And this is not a conspiracy theory. It’s a political strategy. I’ve been watching it unfold for years.

This beast is backed by people who do not believe in public education, do not believe in inclusive policy, and are not interested in governing for the whole.

So why are far-right political networks trying to stack school boards and small-town municipal councils? Because that’s where most people aren’t paying attention. Because those roles don’t pay well, take hours of ....

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