The "I'm on my way!" of international diplomacy

No phone customer service agent ever notices my mastery of the phonetic alphabet and that's why society is Broken

Incredible enterprise story here via @rorywh.bsky.social. Alberta voter data found on website of US company linked to Centurion Project www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/20/i...

The week @nationalobserver.com broke news about a Trump-linked US company hosting Albertans' electoral data, our site started suffering from massive outages. Our provider tells us their servers are under attack. We don't know if we're the target, but the timing is weird. Thanks for bearing with us!

Wild story.. I signed up for the website of the US Republican group 10XVotes on Monday to test how it works. What I found was a search tool packed exclusively with the names and addresses of Albertans. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/20/i...

Amazing series for Montreal Victoire!

Huge scoop from Rory.

The question I want answered is how are those lawsuits going. I'm guessing not great.

CJF Hinton Award Finalist Spotlight: @rorywh.bsky.social of @nationalobserver.com, with contributions from David McKie, was shortlisted for an investigative series uncovering a group that used artificial intelligence to create persuasive climate disinformation targeting local politicians-

BREAKING: US TO WITHDRAW FROM CUBA AND PANAMA

Carney and Eby are meeting in 15 minutes. No questions will be granted. Which seems fine given that surely no one has pressing questions about the relationship between the feds and BC after last week's clusterf— er, cluster of announcements.

1/ Excellent op-ed in the @Timescolonist on by bike lanes, cars, and the geometry of cities. It's in response to a really bad one they published a few days ago. #yyj #yyjbike #urbanism #traffic www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comm...

I believe this is known as liquified natural gaslighting. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Have you identified a pervasive societal problem or was one person weird to you

Sometimes I get very vexed when people whine about uses of the passive voice that aren’t uses of the passive voice. This is a use of the passive voice.

This guy started a war that's wrecking the world because he was high from the recent kidnapping he did, and thought he could do the same thing and wanted to look smart and strong. Said war can't end because he now has to save face and that's more important than ending it. That's it

This definitely feels like a comms cleanup operation.

The response from Fraser and the OLP continues to be an expression of full confidence in the system, even after learning of all the irregularities claimed by Erskine-Smith. This in and of itself is an odd move, @supriya.bsky.social writes.

War is peace. Emissions are emission reductions. Ignorance is strength. Strong words from @jameswsthomson.com www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/15/o...

The only song that can adequately explain the Carney government is, appropriately, Canadian. And turns 30 this year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW5q...

When you make deals that are supposed to garner the good faith of the most bad-faith actors in the country, that's on you.

It should go without saying that diversifying Alberta’s exports would mean supporting any export besides oil and gas — and reducing emissions requires emitting less of them. My column on today's announcement for @nationalobserver.com

A three-clause claim, and two are Orwellian falsehoods. Doubling down on a single export is not diversifying. Adding emissions is not reducing them.

BREAKING: Prime Minister Mark Carney is throwing his support behind a new oil pipeline, with a goal of putting shovels in the ground by the fall of 2027.

Oil-importing countries have seen an unprecedented shock from Trump's war in Iran. But what must make leaders' blood run cold is what Trump is doing to Cuba: laying the groundwork for an invasion by starving it of oil. The safest time to electrify is yesterday; the second safest is today.

For once, the Alberta separatists have a right to be angry. That's because Danielle Smith wasted their time and energy with a petition that was unconstitutional and bound to get set aside by the courts. Now, will they turn their sights on her? #abpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/15/o...

Important to note that the only way in which this holiday is observed is by going camping — an activity that I'm certain Queen Victoria never once participated in

i watch women’s sports so i can watch MPP help laura stacey off the ice and so i can watch stacey return for overtime and then they win i literally love you women’s sports #pwhl

VIP Snorkel is already the saddest set of two words that have ever been put in a sentence together, but "...at Pearl Harbour" really seals it

In which I kick off a story with a Joni Mitchell lyric and wrap with a reminder that the last time this government made changes to FOIPPA, the minister confidently stated they would improve the system Five years later, we know she was wrong The current minister is making similar claims #bcpoli

Shout out to the @winnipegsun.bsky.social I worked here as a photographer for 5 years and the best thing I ever did was leave. Using AI imagery for stories, what a fucking piece of shit newspaper.

UK: Brexit hit the economy harder than covid Alberta: hold my mask

Smith really had no plausible deniability at this point regarding the UCP’s ultimate position on separatism but this proves beyond any doubt that the separatists are in control.

Two Canadian teams heading to the PWHL final for the first time! 🥳

Remember when Hollywood made more than one good movie per quarter?

🧵 Why are we suing the Calgary Police? It’s hard to describe what happens to you physiologically while being smeared in public by powerful people. It’s a mix of uncertainty, fear, frustration, rage, indignation, and anguish, on a thick layer of pity — for self and others you know are in it, too. 1/

Say what you will about Trump, he's the perfect president of the America that America is, not the one it thinks it is

This story flew under the radar today but it's worth checking out. "Debate Me" is coming to a campus near you.

ANNOUNCEMENT After two years of accountability failures, nine of us are suing the Calgary Police, City of Calgary & University of Calgary for brutality & Charter violations suffered May 9, 2024. We will provide a public statement at UofC TFLD Quad, 12:30pm today. drugdatadecoded.ca/for-immediat...

My seven-year-old niece was over for a sleepover on Friday. The ONLY thing she asked to do was watch Lord of the Rings (for the first time). No idea how she even knew about it, but she loved it.

We got visitors at our campsite last night

At least a dozen municipalities in Ontario have recently passed resolutions supplied by the natural gas company Enbridge. Using Civic Searchlight, @matinsarfraz.bsky.social discovered near-identical, Enbridge-drafted resolutions being passed in support of the province’s gas expansion.

We're going to keep on this story. If you have tips about the voter data scandal, the Centurion project or the connections between the UCP and the separatists, you can email @rorywh.bsky.social: Rory (at) national observer

WHO IS THIS FOR WHO WANTS THIS

My niece is currently yelling "OK GOOGLE, PAUSE" at my (not smart) radio, and this must be how it feels to be a genius

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New scoop by @rorywh.bsky.social and @readtheorchard.org

I went home recently to write about Alberta’s separatists. What I found was a movement wildly, dangerously disconnected from reality. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Publicly subsidized privately profitable / The anthem of the upper tier puppeteer