I'm not on here much, but I am really focused on building out my newsletter this year. I'd love your thoughts on the small (<1 min) survey on it, and any other feedback you'd like to offer.

There is Light and Darkness Robert Davidson ~ Haida 2009

I saw this post on Substack on how the use of AI tools is really just a looking glass: if you're lazy and incurious, you will use the tool in the same way. If you're motivated to understand and analyze, it will support you in doing so. I'm inclined to agree.

From the article: 'Petitioner Heather VanSnick claimed in her application that Smith doesn’t live in the community and hasn’t made an effort to understand her constituents. “Our community and her riding is being ignored,” VanSnick told CBC News after filing her application to Elections Alberta.'

@stewartprest.ca’s whole thread here is powerfully apt. Cynical federalism is a pathway to national ruin.

I urge you to go to VPL Central Branch and eat a snack on the 9th floor. It never ceases to make me feel better.

If I were Sim’s media team, I would be inclined to limit his interviews after a performance like this…

Imagine the hole in Alberta’s budget when the price & demand for oil is in long-term decline in 2030s as a result of the energy transition and increased demand for clean energy. Not nostalgia for the past, it’s about winning the future. Just economics, folks.

One can agree or disagree with the reasons for his decision, but I hope everyone can see the value of politicians standing by their convictions in this way. www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Canada made weird tv shows because it was all being done with government funded art grant money so they fell in this wacky middle ground between “shoestring budget” and “no expectation to generate shareholder value” which is really the best way to make art

approved despite over 600 speakers signing up to speak to the budget, with all but a tiny number strongly opposed, and following a public engagement survey that found the majority of respondents supported a property tax increase to avoid cuts.

Vancouver's 2026 draft budget has PASSED. Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed. Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others. Full story to come.

Well said. Lots more uncertainty than Smith’s new sunny ways suggest.

About a dozen parents and children here at Vancouver city hall this morning for a change-in protest in response to the city looking at removing change tables and hygiene stations. Today, council votes on the 2026 budget that would see a zero percent property tax increase.

Signed up to be an organ donor today. Please consider it if you haven't already: register.transplant.bc.ca

What if we didn’t just give free advertising to people who will never do the thing their website says? What if we didn’t breathlessly believe every person who calls themselves a founder?

Terrorized me since Pinocchio with JTT in 1996 and it’s been love ever since. Rest in piece, king.

Hey, if you just can't get enough of me and @jmcelroy.bsky.social blabbing on about city budgets and the Vancouver mayor's race - then you need to hear our "This is Vancouver" podcast. This week's episode is epic. Hear it here: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/f... Or wherever you get your pods...

The President of the United States is publicly calling for the political prosecution of his political opponents, urging the death penalty because they urged soldiers to uphold the rule of law. This should be front page news everywhere. It is not, which tells much about how we got to this point.

Goddamn dude, just go ahead knock 25 percent off my 401k and get on with it, I can't take much more of this.

Well this is charming 🧀

The actual secret to why I know stuff is that I ask a question any time I don’t understand literally anything. I don’t care how simple it is. Anybody who makes fun of you for asking a simple question likely doesn’t know the answer either

ICYMI Vancouver's multiplex restrictions mean far fewer homes will be created than provincial reforms intended says senior economist @1alexhemingway.bsky.social. “They’ve only allowed a tiny increase above the amount of floor space you could build for a single-family home."

The Mayor isn’t here to hear speakers - the meeting is being chaired by Acting Mayor Zhou.

I am pretty sure that when Merv Leitch and Peter Lougheed first created the notwithstanding clause, they didn’t mean it to be deployed to bully and oppress literal school children. #ableg #abpoli #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Alberta #notwithstandingclause

Some good news, and some really dark news, but, most importantly, a more complex picture of how life on earth is evolving in the age of ecological breakdown and, more generally, the Anthropocene.

🙃🙃🙃

Ken Sim's comments on EarlyEd were delusional: His defense of "thorough budget presentation" suggested councillors were afforded multiple rounds of questions. In fact, critical councillors were given only two 5min blocks for questions and answers on 90 slide, 23p, $2.4b budget before ABC cut us off

GOAT

Great to see the Yukon to BC grid connection added to the federal major project list. A BC grid connection would allow switching from diesel both on community and on new mine projects! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Great quote from Mike Larson: “An FOI request is not really a request,” he added. “It’s a legal mechanism.”

File this under “incredibly niche topics that actually have massive societal implications.”

New opinion piece in the @vancouversun.bsky.social: A turn to austerity will cost Vancouver dearly. vancouversun.com/opinion/opin...

Working on a piece about Pyrrhus and it’s so satisfying to get to stretch my historian muscles.

I’ve always been fascinated (and frustrated) by light pollution. Standards like Dark Sky exist and I think are starting to show proof of concept, but extremely nascent. Hasn’t come up enough, IMHO, in urban design questions. Too worried about shading, I guess.

Happy Grey Cup Sunday to all who celebrate.

I'm planning on writing something longer later on my newsletter (@georgeprbenson.com.web.brid.gy), but these reports of Michael Burry (of "The Big Short" fame) are just burning in my mind right now. A couple thoughts on the state of AI and what a possible inflection point means:

😂

Effectively immediately, B.C. employers "cannot ask for a sick note for a worker’s first two health-related, short-term absences of five consecutive days or fewer in a calendar year." news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...

This is cool. Looking forward to learning more and seeing potential applicability in BC.

One thing to watch for on Day 1 of Vancouver Budget-palooza, which begins in five minutes: this staff proposal to raise fees for having events outside the Vancouver Art Gallery by 2400%. Additional big increases for Robson Square and the plaza on Davie Street. We'll see if it gets clawed back.

Every day Sim's behaviour resembles Danielle Smith's and Republicans a little more. This is DOGE-ism, plain and simple, and it needs to be shut down.

"I'm concerned that by cutting environmental programs, we're mortgaging our future," said @lucymaloney.bsky.social, a councillor with OneCity. That includes the city's commitment to fight climate change & improve residents' ability to adapt to climate disasters like extreme heat & wildfire smoke.

Ken Sim hopes you don't see this screenshot from the City's 2026 Budget Feedback report. By a more than 4-to-1 margin, residents of Vancouver preferred a tax rate that maintained public services to ABC's reckless 0% tax gimmick. #vanpoli #StopTheCuts #Budget2026 #FightForVancouver

Gutting the planning and sustainability depts and freezing the permitting dept - wtf. Those jobs are the fulcrum for our development, innovation, and int’l reputation. “Back to basics” just means going backward. Even our more dysfunctional past councils didn’t try to pull this #%^.

I couldn't stay for the whole thing, but it was so fun to be in the room to hear what all the smart people @theenergymix.com brought together had to say about what was, on the whole, Canada's rather lacklustre 2026 budget. Check out the other insights below! 👇

Thinking about this so much these days. As I do some re-jigging, I find, like Paris, how hard it is to move some things.

Some useful context on the potential disposition of the Iranians post US attack. The strategic lunacy of this whole thing hangs above all of our heads now.

A lot of AI debates are annoying and this is a good explanation for why on the side of critics. I won’t take the time to lay out why AGI nuts are annoying because it’s self-evident, but for people I am more inclined to agree with, this kind of double standard is not helpful.