🍁338Canada Government Approval Tracker | May 31, 2026 🟢56% Approve 🔴33% Disapprove 🟰Net +23 338canada.com/approval.htm

VERY relatedly, The Tyee now has a bit of a reporting hole that we will need to fill. If you're a journalist who has knowledge of the BC interior and is open to do some work, please message me.

The prime minister talked to the Pope about AI.

🇨🇦 The challenge for pro-Canada voices in the referendum is to not just be defenders of the status-quo. We’re living in a time when many voters increasingly believe the status quo is making life more difficult. We should aim to not just improve Alberta within Canada but improve Canada as a whole.

Image search found a starting point "Canadien protests against the English government in Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu, 1837" www.alloprof.qc.ca/en/students/...

Can any art lovers tell me what painting this is behind Bloc Quebecois MP Patrick Bonin?

Semi-regular reminder (especially with Pride season looming!) that I LOVE doing podcast/TV/radio/live event hosting, panels, and commentary! I will moderate your panel! Or come on your show and talk about gay stuff! Or also not gay stuff—I have range! Contact info, as always, in my bio ✨🌈

I guess, on the bright side, the Carney government being accused of "backsliding" on climate policy is a mark of progress because no previous government was in a position to backslide from anywhere.

In the middle of his long essay on the future of the UK Labour party, Tony Blair drops a Mark Carney diss track. institute.global/insights/pol...

Canada prices carbon far below the damage it causes The latest from the Globe's business commentary, by Paul Kershaw: www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

Here's the full Carney speech today. The challenge in framing it is a dramatic change or contradiction is that, except for that line, it's largely a restatement of the big things he's been saying.

I'm intrigued by the notion of dousing Western separatist sentiment with a reform that would add 12 seats to Ontario (and subtract three from Saskatchewan).

I think Carney's challenge is that he's trying to carry and balance a couple ideas at once: -That the world is experiencing a rupture and Canada must reduce it reliance on the US -That Canada and the US will continue to have a significant economic and security relationship

I wrote about the federal government's new electricity strategy for this weekend's @theglobeandmail.com. Surprise! I went with an optimistic take (gift link) www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/08cc899...

People are going to have very calm and reasonable reactions to this, I assume.

*taking rapid drags of a cigarette, eyes darting around the room, sweat pouring off my forehead, resting heart rate of 168* Everyone is using AI, right? We're all doing it! Like who even cares, right?

As someone who enjoys both reading and writing I'm not sure what I would use AI to do. But it also feels like using AI to do your thinking for you — if you're writing in a professional sense — misunderstands what AI actually does.

I have met plenty of people who somewhat pathologically really wanted to be thought of as "writers" but did not enjoy, nor have any facility with, nor derive any joy from writing so I can see how the word-spitting-machine might be appealing to those people, but they were never writers to begin with

not only do I never use AI for writing, I'm not sure what I would use it for. Some kind of super-googling? Questions like "show me quotes about TK"? if you are running your own prose through AI to punch it up or suggest alternate wordings or whatever may I suggest that maybe writing isn't for you

I’m sorry, but Germans buying a west coast LNG project (which was in the works under Trudeau) does not disprove Trudeau’s “infamous” claim questioning of the business case for an LNG terminal on the east coast. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

His political opponents are going to miss Steven Guilbeault. It's just going to be so much harder to make Julie Dabrusin out to be a movie villain.

Saying that the country has never been more divided is possibly an insult to Canada's rich history of being divided.

New from me. What will Mark Carney's role be in the Alberta referendum?

I wonder if Steven Guilbeault puts on his resume that he was the Macdonald-Laurier Institute's policymaker of the year in 2023.

I'm not going to spend the next five months interpreting all federal political events through the prism of the Alberta referendum, but... Steven Guilbeault's departure certainly doesn't undermine the idea that Mark Carney is not Justin Trudeau.

Fascinating rhetorical gambit

On this day in 1932, the government of R.B. Bennett created the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. In 1936, it was replaced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Learn more in my Deep Dive 👇 buff.ly/dW00Zp0

I remain fascinated by the ambassador's approach.

Interesting nugget in Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech today, in that he addressed the people who aren't exactly separatists but have said they'll vote that way to send a message. He points out how that went during Brexit, calling it "a very dangerous bluff.” www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Most of my understanding of referendums is based on reading about the 1995 campaign (forgive me, I was in high school) and so I had come to assume that every referendum had official Yes and No campaigns and so it's a bit discombobulating to discover the Alberta campaign won't be like that.

"ARI then asked a far more straightforward question: Should Alberta leave Canada and become its own independent country or stay in Canada? The results were even more decisive. Support for remaining in Canada rises to 67%, while support for independence falls to 30%."

Across age, gender, region, education, income level, and political affiliation, only two subsets in Alberta would vote against staying in Canada: 1) UCP voters 2) Federal Conservative voters

Carney drawing a direct comparison between the Alberta referendum and Brexit — in this case, in terms of the vote not being about simply strengthening one's bargaining position. Weird quirk of events and history that the prime minister at this moment can speak to firsthand experience with Brexit.

The story of public opinion in Alberta is one of polarization. Whatever consensus that may previously have existed about the province’s treatment in the federation has now completely eroded. environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on... #Alberta #federalism #CdnPolitics #CoT2026

Is support for independence in Alberta growing? Not really. In fact, there appears to have been no increase in support over the past two decades. 25% supported independence in 2005 - the same proportion as today. #CoT2026 #CdnPolitics Find out more 👉 environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on...

BlueSky's cycle of anxious self-questioning, triggered every time Someone Says Something and resolved by At Least We're Not X, makes it a soothingly familiar place for a Canadian.

Not legalising this still seems like a perfectly reasonable option.

It is 148 days until October 19, 2026 - referendum day in Alberta. 🇨🇦 Case for Canada: www.coreyhogan.ca/p/lets-talk-... 🍁 On Canada: www.coreyhogan.ca/p/on-canada 🦄 Three Alberta separatism myths: www.coreyhogan.ca/p/three-albe...

Dryden Serge Lemoyne 1975

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

I think if we're going to talk about how the Bloc Quebecois was nearly wiped out as of 11 years ago, we might debate whether Stephen Harper deserves most of the credit for that or whether Jack Layton deserves most of the credit for that.

To answer my question from last night: Stephane Dion — who allegedly knows a thing or two about the Clarity Act — says Alberta's question does not trigger the law.

Since 2019, the proportion saying that Alberta is not treated with respect has fallen by 23 percentage points, from 71 to 48 percent. ▶️https://environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on-alberta-2026/

I wonder how opinions in Alberta about the Canadian federation have actually been evolving? environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on...

For the first time in the Confederation of Tomorrow surveys, a majority of Albertans now reject the notion that Western Canada might as well go it on its own. environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on...

The residents of Ottawa could probably file a class action suit for damages associated with their city becoming shorthand for all unliked or unpopular actions taken by the federal government.

OTD in 1979, Joe Clark and the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality of seats to form a minority government. My biography of Clark, "Joe Clark: Progressive, Conservative, Canadian" will be published by @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social in early 2027!

The PM's first comments on the Alberta referendum.

We also spoke with Treaty Six Grand Chief Joey Pete tonight. He says while the premier says this approach to a referendum may not violate Justice Leonard's ruling, the Alberta government is still showing a "total disregard to First Nations." #Ableg