General bookings for COVID-19 vaccines opened — in theory — three weeks ago in Alberta. I still haven't been able to book any for my children. Just tried again this morning and got hung up on again by Alberta's 811 HealthLink, with an automated message blaming "higher than expected call volume."

“The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) notified PHAC that Canada no longer holds its status. Canada can re-establish its measles elimination status once the current outbreak is interrupted for at least 12 months.”

Working thesis: tech bros are socially maladjusted weirdos who create products assuming the rest of us are also www.businessinsider.com/meta-cto-and...

"Conservative Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux announced Thursday he is resigning from the House of Commons, according to statement shared with CBC News, a decision that comes after rumours swirled this week that he was considering crossing the floor to the Liberals."

Before-and-after Fox News headlines on a story based entirely on AI-generated videos they found online. The new version of the article comes with an all-time “Editor's note” at bottom: “This article previously reported on some videos that appear to have been generated by AI without noting that.”

"CBC News reached out to both Premier Smith's press secretary and Service Alberta, the department that oversees motor vehicle registrations, but did not receive any response from either."

At 2 a.m., the Alberta legislature passed a bill that will force 51,000 teachers back to work, impose a four-year contract and use the notwithstanding clause to stave off a legal challenge and suspend teacher bargaining at the local level. It includes fines for Ts and the ATA if they defy it. #AbLeg

Baseball BlueSky has the juice

While we’re all watching baseball Janet is watching the Alberta legislature as the suspension of teachers’ Charter rights is pushed through in the wee hours of the morning

Also getting a first look at the bill (we get advanced info under embargo but not the actual text): The notwithstanding clause would allow the govt to override the Charter, the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Alberta Human Rights Act. You may recall UCP members pushed hard to bolster the BoR.

I’m watching debate live for a while. There are about 27 people watching from the public gallery of the legislative chamber. Many are wearing bright red sweaters or scarves. The govt has time allocation motions on the order paper, which allows them to vote to limit debate at each stage to 1 hour.

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵

“Totalitarianism today begins not with the suppression of speech but with the systematic degradation of meaning… Its goal isn’t to convince anyone of one story over another; it is to make people stop believing that any story could really be true.”

Doug Ford: "My champion Wab Kinew, he's 100% behind it. Another champion, Premier Eby, as well ... total different political stripes than I am but we're all sticking together." Reporter:"Danielle Smith doesn't like the ads, though..." Ford: "Of course Danielle Smith doesn't like the ads..."

Fun story on the "theory known as Roko’s basilisk, which holds that a future AI super intelligence would torture any human who didn’t help it come into existence." "Now, in a twist that should please any writer, the guy who’s spearheading Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses is named Rocco Basilico."

Trump called the border An 'artificially drawn line' But check out those polls It's minus ten / forty-nine

Are people OK? I saw this Reddit post and thought it was at least half joking. But in the replies, many folks are 100% serious, offering quite practical and creative suggestions for places to go to scream.

“So far this season, two per cent of Albertans have received a COVID vaccine.”

This thread will catalog the people in the United States who have been detained or arrested after playing songs in the vicinity of ICE / DHS / CPB / National Guard / other authorities. Please let me know if I have missed any. 🧵

Official voter turnout in Calgary's 2025 election is 39%. But "official" can mean different things in different places in different years. In 2018 I wrote about why turnout figures, especially municipally, "should really be considered as more of a 'general indicator' than a precise measurement:"

The only way to book COVID vaccines for young children in Alberta is by calling 811 / HealthLink. Bookings opened Monday. It’s now Friday and the system is still saying call volumes are too high and auto-hanging-up on callers. 🙃 (They also cost $100 a pop, if you can ever get through.)

How it started / how it's going etc.

"Speculation has pointed to Hunter Biden"

I haven't attempted it yet but I know people who have tried for days without success to get COVID vaccines for their kids since bookings opened Monday. (You can't book online for kids under 12 and have to call, but operators were overwhelmed.) As for booking in B.C.? Can't do that until Nov. 24:

Amazing that basic, verifiable aspects of officially archived history, within the living memory of many people, have to be introduced by news organizations as: "It wasn't fake."

Alberta ordering about 12,000 public service employees to stop doing hybrid work and "return to a five day per week in-office standard" as of Feb. 1.

ConocoPhillips earned $2 billion in Q2. “We delivered strong results financially, operationally and strategically," its CEO said. “And we aren’t stopping there. We are leveraging our scale and technologies to drive a further $1 billion-plus in company-wide cost reductions..." The cost reductions:

COLLINS: Today you pardoned the founded of Binance. Can you explain why you did that? TRUMP: Which one was that? COLLINS: The founder of Binance TRUMP: I believe we're talking about the same person, because I do pardon a lot of people. I don't know. He was recommended by a lot of people.

As the current president literally tears down a wing of the White House, it’s wild to watch this video of a previous president being excoriated for putting his feet on the Oval Office desk. (Including by 🇨🇦 Ezra Levant!)

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

"You may think you know how recounts work. But new rules introduced by the provincial government mean we don’t actually have a lot of clarity today about how this recount will play out."

The Alberta government will pay $95 million to Evolve Power, an Australian coal company, as part of a legal settlement over changes to the province's coal policy. This comes after $143-million settlement with another company, Atrum Coal, earlier this year. Several other lawsuits are still ongoing.

Breaking News: President Trump pardoned the billionaire founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao. Zhao admitted in 2023 to money-laundering violations that allowed terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals to move money on the platform. nyti.ms/3J9mazz

Calgary's Ward 12 continues to be super close. A Better Calgary's Mike Jamieson now leads The Calgary Party's Sarah Ferguson by just 30 votes, a margin of 0.13%. 10 polling stations left to report.

The reporter called up a professor to weigh in and was told: “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”

The CBC maintains an account on X - but not on Bluesky (nor on Mastodon.) Why? I asked CE0 Marie-Philippe Bouchard and Editor-in-Chief @brodiefenlon.bsky.social when they appeared at the Senate Transport and Communications Committee this morning. #CBC #SRC #SenateofCanada #cdnpoli #X #Bluesky #TRCM

The race for mayor in Calgary has been decided (pending a possible recount!) but the counting of tens of thousands of advance, mail-in and other ballots for the other 14 seats on city council remains underway. Wards 1, 9 and 12 currently have the closest races. Full results here: cbc.ca/9.6941437

As we're still grappling with recent changes to municipal elections underway TODAY, the Alberta government announced changes to the NEXT elections. They are to include a provision that "only those who truly care and are serious about representing a community or riding are allowed on the ballot."

Polls close in Calgary's municipal election at 8 p.m. But voters in line before 8 p.m. are still allowed to cast ballots. Given the long lines, it might be a while until we get results. But as they roll (trickle?) in, you can find the latest numbers here:

I’m so mad. Our voting line is over 2.5 hours long. People are leaving. Parents don’t have childcare during the strike. Kids can’t wait that long. Check on your neighbours. Offer childcare. Bring an extra camping chair and toque and water for someone in line. #yyc #electionyyc

It's municipal election day in Alberta. It's also COVID-booking-opens-to-the-general public day. Both processes are operating under new rules imposed by the provincial government. Neither is going smoothly.

“I’m definitely in my single, flirty, manufacturing-powerhouse era. British Columbia’s hydrogen fuel cell industry is a whole mood.”

It’s municipal election day in Alberta! And the polls is Calgary are … still not open. And won’t open for more than an hour still. They open at 10 a.m. this year. Polls close at 8 pm. But counting of many of the advance ballots won’t even begin until tomorrow. The theme of this year’s election is

The report commissioned by the Alberta government into allegations of corruption in the health system is out and everyone should read the caveats spelled out by the retired judge at the outset to understand what's in there, and more importantly, what's not. #ableg open.alberta.ca/dataset/35ee...

it does not necessarily mean this though, because the dominant way people end up on Wikipedia is through Google, and Google has loaded the top of all of its search results with AI-mediated info taken from Wikipedia. This does not mean consumers prefer it this way, the choice has been made for them

Two hours until the Calgary mayoral debate on CBC. Starts at 7 p.m. MT Election is Monday. You can watch the debate live here:

No one in those three groups (assuming "violent criminals" means people who have been convicted of felonies) can vote in US elections. Apologies for pointing out the obvious, but we should remember that there was once a time when shameless lies like this would get people ostracized from public life.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen...they promptly let the individual go." The reality: Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. A must read from the very talented @nicolefoy.bsky.social:

As someone who is adequately babied, I can say that our family would likely be under-babied if it weren't for the 18 months of paid parental leave and subsidized child care made available to us in Canada.

I'm curious if anyone covering the NHL has asked the Vegas Golden Knights what, exactly, the "core values that have defined our organization from its inception" are.