"'It was a significant meeting, as Treaty partners and equals,' said Grand Chief Pete in a statement." #ableg www.bbc.com/news/article...

I think war is serious business, real life-and-death stuff, and should be taken seriously by people who initiate and prosecute it. Sorry to get so partisan, but that’s how I feel.

Via Kevin Maimann of CBC. Alberta Prosperity Project co-leader Dr. Dennis Modry took at least $1.3M from elderly relatives with dementia and Alzheimer's. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I’m struck by how every day the admin is like “whoever could have foreseen these consequences?!” when the consequences thus far — evacuations, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, rise in gas prices, etc. — are all the literal most obvious consequences.

Quebec sovereignty has dipped below 30% support, the lowest level since 1995. Of note, this is a Léger poll. Around here, the firm is generally trusted to be in tune with Quebec public opinion. www.journaldemontreal.com/2026/03/03/m...

Big news as someone who lives in Alberta and works in BC. 👀

Prof. Robert Pape: "I have studied every air campaign since WWI... I've modelled the bombing of Fordow and regime change in Iran for 20 years... We are now in the grip of the escalation trap... This has never worked in over 100 years... Trump is up against the weight of history".

Of course other people will pay the price for his choices. This has always been true. But the way he dismisses the consequences of his own actions as "the way it is" is just at a new level of sociopathy.

A few more thoughts. USFP/natsec usually works from bottom up, even for prez-directed policies. Bureaucrats, mid-levels, political appointees work the problem, then top people bless it. Diplomacy (JCPOA) works like this. Military planning can move faster w/ prior plans, but similar. 1/

Fun Fact: You've died, and this is purgatory

Alberta immigration trends and Danielle Smith's rhetoric: a visual timeline.

Wherein @maxfawcett.bsky.social expands on my point much more eloquently:

FWIW, I think Pancholi is largely correct. The Premier's address and proposed referendum questions seemed designed to address one of the grievances of the APP leaders. Unfortunately, the Premier hasn't learned that it won't be enough. #ableg

YEEEAAHH BABY. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

🚨 New paper out at @ajpseditor.bsky.social 🚨 Do the public hold meaningful attitudes? Using the case of abortion policy preferences, we provide strong evidence that policy prefrences can be coherent, stable over time, and causally explain vote choice. doi.org/10.1111/ajps...

YES. ONWARD. 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦

I love that this debate has existed for almost a decade. Incredible.

The UK government is in crisis mode over Mandelson's appointment. In the USA, almost the entire cabinet had ties to Epstein, and there's far less pressure on Trump.

CHRÉTIEN: At this moment, our friend from the south has created a mood that a Canadian have never been so proud to be Canadian ... The desire to have a referendum is very low in Quebec. I don't know what the hell is going on in Alberta. HARPER: I didn't sign the petition.

Just so everyone is clear: the valve here releases pressure that would otherwise build on her leadership from within her party. She would rather lose the country than her own job.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford asking Alberta Premier Danielle Smith "to stand up and say enough is enough" to those leading Alberta's sovereignty movement as they meet with U.S. officials, saying you're either with Canada or not with Canada.

Members of the Trump administration reportedly met three times over the past year with a group leading a push for Alberta to secede from Canada

The Alberta Prosperity Project has been touting meetings with American officials for several months now, but is this the first time anyone on the American side has even vaguely confirmed such meetings? bsky.app/profile/fina...

When I teach Vietnam, I explain that opposition to the war really grew in fits and starts. Some big rallies and visible protests, but also a steady stream of celebrities and ordinary folks breaking with their priors and taking a new stand. This last month, this last week, feels like a real shift.

From a recent interview with Dr. Dennis Modry, one of the APP leaders. And also, thetyee.ca/News/2025/06...

+1 to Williams comment here: #ableg

Twice this week when meeting a new person I've gotten an excited "Wow, it must be an exciting time to be a political scientist!" and both times I've answered "Not really. That's like telling someone it's an exciting to be a surgeon when there's a 63 car pileup on the highway."

The political socialization literature suggests that the present moment is likely to have enormous impact on the political views of young people for decades to come.

Federally, the @mark-carney.bsky.social government must summon the US ambassador for an explanation and, barring a complete retraction and an apology, expel him in protest. Provincially, Alberta government needs to pick a side. Are Premier Smith and the UCP loyal to Canada, or separatists?

A marked — and profoundly dangerous — difference from how the Clinton Administration commented on Quebec in 1995. To the separatists: how will this uncertainty and threat from the US make us better off economically? (Hint: it won’t.) #ableg

"Whether it proves a speech for the ages, however, depends on what happens next. If Canada is serious about charting a new path, distinct from the great powers of the world, it must do more than talk."

Let's assume that the skeptics were right and that Trump's threats toward Greenland were never serious. Allies are still noticing that Congress was willing to let the executive threaten a NATO ally. "Aren't you guys going to do anything about this?" remains the underlying trust problem.

Groundhog Day, but Bill Murray's character keeps waking up to discover that he's once again interim leader of the Ontario Liberal party. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

mad king moment from the PBS Newshour correspondent

Twirling, twirling towards...instability...

I wrote this on 1/6/21 while watching a mob of white Americans storm the Capitol, worried race would be sidelined in discussions of Jan. 6. “They do not simply come in defense of Donald Trump. They come in defense of white supremacy.” I hate how right I was. fivethirtyeight.com/features/sto....

Some reflections from me on January 6 in comparative and historical perspective (first time on substack) open.substack.com/pub/ziblatt4...

👇🎯

New piece in @goodauth.bsky.social on what Trump's actions in Venezuela might mean. goodauthority.org/news/what-ha...

Simply put, Canada shares a long border with a country led by someone with no respect for international law. The world just got a lot less predictable, and the range of outcomes has widened further.

There’s a few ways this is different from other similar acts in US history. 1) not even a pretense of a plausible national interest 2) transparently an attempt to shift attention from domestic failures 3) other presidents to do similar were self-conscious globalists, Trump is the opposite

At some point in the future, it will be interesting to see if America engages in some sort of reconciliation process -- the removal of the symbols Trump has put up, accountability for certain administration officials, mass attempts to reduce partisan polarization, etc.

given rising global populism — and tendency to demonize people with little power in society — worth reflecting that the hero in Australia's mass shooting was a Syrian refugee, and the key witness in the Brown University shooting was a homeless man

Before I went to grad school, I was a residential and auto insurance adjuster. I simply can’t imagine sorting this all out. Yikes. Stay safe, #yyc!

everybody is 12

"In the aftermath of the mass shooting, which left the country and its Jewish community reeling, Mr. el Ahmed’s bravery provided much-needed solace. Mr. el Ahmed, a Syrian-born fruit seller, risked his life and likely prevented the massacre from being even worse, officials said."

But he said, and then we had an entire election about — oh never mind. #cdnpoli