So you’re saying we could get 178k people and hold a referendum on whether the Albertans agree to have Family Day become a monthly paid statutory holiday - on the third Friday of every month?

Longest referendum ballot challenge?

This sounds like a fun can of worms! Can’t wait for the debate in the newly renamed “Ledgy McLedgeface”!

That’s very useful context that I wasn’t aware of - thanks for sharing!

For others interested: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Quebec_referendum#Opinion_polling

Yep agree. I like having the numbers with these headlines, to avoid people getting the wrong impression.

E.g. “70-75% of Albertans oppose separatism, comparable to Quebec”

Provides similar information - but doesn’t give the impression that everyone wants to separate. Its a threat, but let’s not give it any extra credibility than it deserves?

There’s polling from Angus Reid on this; it’s not particularly popular - not enough to come close to winning a referendum, but it’s still an uncomfortably high number of people who don’t value Canada.

https://angusreid.org/smith-shapiro-sovereignty/

Me as well. I don’t remember where / how I got the CD. Linux as a desktop has come so far since then!

This brought back some memories: https://www.mandrakelinux.org/

I’m in an Alberta riding which is very likely to go CPC, but exercising my right to vote is also my civic duty.

So while it might not affect the outcome this time, my vote contributes to popular vote metrics, turnout, and in the case where there’s lots people who happen to surprise (it is within the margin of error), my vote might in fact be the deciding vote that sways a riding.

It’s a shame when people value democracy so little they can’t be bothered to vote.

I highly recommend taking a look through pages like this: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/platform-crunch-3-every-party-is-promising-tax-cuts-and-cash-transfers/

Its really interesting to see how the proposed changes actually benefit different income brackets. TLDR: Proposed income tax changes from the Conservatives and Liberals predominantly benefit the richest tax bracket(s). If you happen to be in those tax brackets, I can see how conservative policies might ‘appeal’ to that demographic.

In general, when parties propose tax cuts (unless very thoughtfully targeted), they benefit the rich - who already have ample financial resources to pay for things they might need (like healthcare, private education for their children, etc.), while those who get net benefit from taxation through services are net losers from tax cuts… Because cutting taxes necessitates some reductions in service funding to balance the books. (I’m always fascinated when low income voters vote conservative as opposed to NDP.)

That would sum it up nicely; however, It’d be unfair to not mention the 77 million Americans that voted for this clown, the 90 million people who neglected their right & responsibility to vote, and the 75 million americans who voted against him.

Voting matters…until it doesn’t.

I’m also a subscriber - and that was my initial reaction as well - but perhaps if they can get more Canadians (to whom that ad appeals) reading the Globe instead of Postmedia, we end up in a better place?

I still think it’s a bad look if they just ran partisan ads supporting a specific party - I wonder how many stories they ran as promotional / paid content? Hopefully a blend of stories?

This clip by 22 minutes is pretty solid: https://youtu.be/NsFo_ZvMC8I or: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=NsFo_ZvMC8I

It’d be a much better headline inverted. (Unfortunately less clicks?)

Now that said, there’s also the effect where this type of article stokes nationalism in the majority of the population - and that may play into a shift away from supporting the UCP and by extension/relation the CPC in some cases.

I’m seeing many more canadian flags on houses these days. 🇨🇦

Its especially dumb as a landlocked province…

I agree with you - those who don’t like being part of Canada should leave… They can find out if the grass is in fact greener.

It’s hard knowing that 1/4 to 1/3 of my fellow Albertans don’t see value in being a part of Canada.

On the other hand, 3/4 to 2/3 do… So there’s that!

Ah sorry about that – Foreign Exchange rates - USD / CAD

I was heartened last week when the US pre-sales were delayed but Canada was not… However, here we are.

I wonder if FX is another factor at play here. With such volitility in the market, and almost two months until release, I can see them wanting to limit exposure to both FX and Tariffs. The easiest way to do that is to wait.

Interestingly, this tendency to wait applies to almost all business investment decisions when there is uncertainty / volitility… Leading to increased risk of recession caused by the orange man.

I got a Framework 13 a couple months ago - it’s been awesome so far. I’m happy to support their business model & repairability - it’s super awesome.

Sucks for you guys south of the 49th parallel who have to deal with (pay) all these ludicrous tariffs!

“I didn’t ask the US to interfere in the election, I just asked them to stop doing things temporarily so that we could get a certain election outcome.”

Surprisingly taxation isn’t hugely different, at least for average income levels, according to the latest OECD report – and we get publicly funded healthcare!

I suspect many of these wannabe Americans would be in for a nasty surprise when they learn that the US in fact does have reasonably comparable taxes… And limited healthcare coverage, and very poor maternal leave benefits, shorter average lifespan, lower minimum wage, the list goes on…

I for one, am proud to be Canadian! 🇨🇦

OECD (2024), Taxing Wages 2024: Tax and Gender through the Lens of the Second Earner, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/dbcbac85-en.

It was around Sept 2023: https://futurism.com/elon-musk-moved-twitter-servers-himself

You can also just search: “Elon Musk Twitter server move” and the terms “Sacramento” or “Pocket Knife” might help.

Purchased some local onions instead of onions from the US, along with a few other things. Salsa from Mexico. Was a small grocery run, but my purchases would have been 15% American previously - but 0% this time.

If everyone is doing this, the numbers do start to add up quickly to a meaningful impact.