Ship, not thy home

@caribouwho @ikwilson @KenBoessenkool To be fair, most of you are saying: "We won't allow to leave." "The treaties!" And the ever present: "If you leave, we'll make your life hell." Some go as far as threatening military action. Now, in terms of "making it better," how do you plan that? AB is ignored already.

@ikwilson @KenBoessenkool no, we’re saying, “Our country is not broken. Let’s work as a confederation to make it better.”

A very powerful piece by three people I’m privileged to call friends from across the broad spectrum of the Alberta political right. Lead. Not Leave. open.substack.com/pub/theline/p/…

@CanadaWillPrj @ikwilson @KenBoessenkool I note your whataboutism doesn't actually provide an answer. For a federalist looking to solve Alberta's grievances: What's. The. Mechanism? It's a simple question. What plan, what method, allows for these grievances to be addressed that hasn't been tried?

@ikwilson @KenBoessenkool Fantasy? You mean the fantasy that a separate AB will be richer by not contributing to confederation with transfer payments? Or the fantasy of fully funded services, and no income tax? Or the fantasy of remaining independent, and not inevitable annexation by the USA? #ableg

@kenfubar128 @JonFromAlberta Correct. There is not one "right" answer, just several of many well spoken ones. Which makes it all the more damning that they can't articulate even one, doesn't it?

@JonFromAlberta There is no one answer to that question.

I walked around Ross Street Patio and City Hall Park in Red Deer asking people one simple question: Are you patriotic to Canada? Most people say yes. But when you ask the obvious follow-up question — “what does that actually mean?” — the answers get thin very quickly. That is the problem. A lot of Canadian patriotism today seems to be shallow loyalty to a flag, a government, or a system that many people have never seriously questioned. But real patriotism is deeper than that. It is loyalty to your people. Your home. Your culture. Your heritage. Your values. Your shared dreams for the future. That is why I call myself an Alberta patriot. Being Albertan is not an ethnicity. It is a mindset. I have met Ukrainians, Filipinos, and other immigrants who understand Alberta patriotism better than many people who were born here. What I saw left me disheartened. Homelessness. Addiction. A struggling downtown. Immigrants willing to talk. Homeless people willing to talk. But many comfortable lunch-hour Canadians just walking by, completely oblivious to what is happening around them. Years of bad government brought us here. And yet people still cannot explain what they are loyal to. youtu.be/x2rps-qWyg4

@ostrichfarm4evr @JonFromAlberta It's deeper than usual, but I don't think you need to be a philosopher or genius to answer it. Regardless, if they can't articulate that, they have no business calling others "traitors" for: A referendum Pursuing secession Pointing out canada's problems.

@JonFromAlberta " when you ask the obvious follow-up question — “what does that actually mean?” — the answers get thin very quickly. That is the problem." You're asking a deep, abstract question to ppl at random. The problem is with your expectations and your interpretation of what you did

elon could solve world hunger literally this second all he has to do is full stack dump all his shares, cause a stock market recession, wipe out trillions, delete tens of thousands of jobs, and then he'll be able to fund the federal government for about 18 minutes

Mark Carney planted a tree while it was still in the plastic pot. Is this guy even a human being?

@JonathanRa3474 @FringedCanuck Funny you saying that, Mississippi beats canada on per capita GDP. It's an upgrade.

@theepori_mathai @MrKapitalist @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok Also, you didn't answer me about Elon. That's a guy that's making new shit in, like, 4 different fields off the top of my head.

@Nomadicvalue @MrKapitalist @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok Look at what Quebec, Ontario and BC exports

I've never paid taxes on a used car. Is this common in other provinces??

@theepori_mathai @MrKapitalist @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok QC: iron ore, aluminum, refined petroluem. Digging things out of the ground. No good. ON: auto industry, trucks, gold. Either digging or using things AB digs out of ground. No good. BC: Forestry, seafood (harvesting), petroleum (digging again). How unproductive.

@TazSims11 @Dad_Presents @LSaffrett Woah, hey now. You're the one with the big brain here. Why are you asking poor little nobody me to get you funding? Who am I to help? Why don't you act all smart like Elon's daddy and get your own funding going? I'll still watch, though, all the same. Keep me updated.

@Nomadicvalue @Dad_Presents @LSaffrett Elon is a trust fund baby. He had daddies money to start this. So get me funding and watch.

This whole Elon “trillionaire” conversation is depressing because it reveals how economically illiterate we are. A $1 trillion net worth does not mean Elon walked into a village, stole everyone’s bread, and locked it in a vault. In fact, he probably consumes fewer real-world resources than the average Hollywood climate activist screaming about him from a private jet-adjacent lifestyle. Elon built things people voluntarily use, and invested in companies that created massive value to billions of people. The collective quality of life of society has been elevated by this man’s work. He didn’t get handed a trillion dollars and start hoarding all the food, houses, and medicine. Elon is a contributor. Not a taker. Probably the biggest one alive. Which is why he’s worth $1 trillion and the people who don’t understand that are still yelling “fair share” into their iPhones.

@LindaBowyer17 @JonFromAlberta She says, ignoring all the federalists that suddenly become the most racist and violent things in the room when a minority has a difference of opinion.

@JonFromAlberta You tell us. Separatists are the ones who support remigration. Unless of course you’re “culturally compatible” which is the term separatists use for “white”. The separatists posts that I’ve read would put this guy on a plane home.

Forever Canadians, do you denounce this? Or are the only Canadians allowed to have a political opinion about the future of Alberta the ones who were born here?

@DogmaticCanuck @ClydeDoSomethin It's impossible for a lefty to debate about anything without bringing up Trump. This actually, genuinely, is sad to see.

@ClydeDoSomethin If you weren't such a trump bootlicker, you would agree with me.

So many people say that I should leave Canada behind and stop commenting on it's continuous decline.. NO WAY IN HELL! Canada is the perfect example of WHAT NOT TO DO. The story of how Canada fell needs to be told again and again so other countries don't make the same miscakes.

@DWG009 @JonFromAlberta I'm not sure why you're bringing up "racist separatist posts" like it's a gotcha when you clearly don't mind being a vile racist POS.

@JonFromAlberta There is literally hundreds of racist posts by your fellow separatist clan on X. I have never seen you denouncing them! I don’t care what a Filipino immigrant says when he is supporting the movement to break up Canada. I do support any immigrant who supports a united 🇨🇦 !

Forever Canadians will you denounce this? One of your own. Apparently there are two types of Canadians, the ones born here who have a say and the ones who immigrated here who don’t have a say. Do you see the problem?

@shirleyturnbull @ABJeffBerube What federalists need to start doing, then, is actually suggesting a way to address those concerns. It's one thing to reject secession as an answer - it's another to actually suggest and push for solutions to those grievances. The latter never happens.

The real debate isn't whether these grievances exist. They clearly do for many Albertans. The debate is whether they constitute oppression or the kind of policy disagreements that naturally arise within a federation. Many federalists acknowledge concerns about equalization, resource development, and provincial autonomy while rejecting the conclusion that separation is the answer. The problem is that these grievances often become attached to the government of the day. Trudeau was unwilling to address many of them, but conservatives should also ask why these same complaints persist decade after decade. The Reform Party came and went. Stephen Harper governed for nearly a decade. Yet many of the same frustrations remain. At some point, conservatives need to examine whether recurring flirtations with reactionary politics, Christian nationalism, and right-wing populism are advancing Alberta's interests or undermining them. Political movements that narrow their appeal may energize a base, but they rarely build the broad coalitions needed to achieve lasting constitutional or institutional change.

An Albertan against independence but who won’t accept the status quo is just an Albertan that hasn’t tried to work through the issues on their own yet. Because once you start trying to solve the problems, you end up realizing independence is the only solution.

@TazSims11 @Dad_Presents @LSaffrett Look, you're educated with an advanced degree, right? Go do what Elon did, then. He's not brilliant, right? And you clearly are. Should be easy to get something off the ground that rivals Elon.

@Dad_Presents @LSaffrett Yes, me being educated and questioning you makes me the problem….. not you.

@theepori_mathai @MrKapitalist @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok Ah. So you're a fan of what Elon's doing, right? Fair point. By your metric, canada as a whole doesn't create fuck all - which tracks.

@MrKapitalist @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok x.com/theepori_matha…

@MrKapitalist @theepori_mathai @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok Nevermind countries. Some of our provinces can't get it figured.

@theepori_mathai @lukin2006 @Martyupnorth @grok And yet somehow many countries sitting on vast reserves of natural resources managed to completely fuck it up.

@theepori_mathai @Martyupnorth I mean, you're the one that said in the same breath, we're the most economically productive and that selling oil isn't productive. Child's understanding of the situation, borne from wanting to shit on conservatives and Alberta's achievements.

@Martyupnorth I dont know man, finding oil under your feet. most people would call that luck 🤷‍♂️

In Canada, if you achieve success, it's common for others to dismiss you as lucky, or even criticize you for stepping on others. Canadian jealousy doesn’t celebrate winners, it resents them. It doesn’t ask “How did you do it?” , it whispers “He's just lucky” . Tall poppy syndrome isn’t a quirky national trait, it’s a parasite that keeps the whole garden short.

@mariuspaul10 Might be the laziest threat I've ever read. Put your back into it.

@Martyupnorth Well, do allow one of us Indigenous warriors, to get near you, fucking Serf. We'll stick you with your ignorance.

My 200,000 year-old, finely tuned immune system did its job.

@theepori_mathai @Martyupnorth Almost like smallpox and polio aren't mid-range colds?

@Martyupnorth Weird that the said immune system didn’t stop smallpox or polio