Angela Armstrong

We are SO excited about launching our new charitable intiative tomorrow - it's even more meaningful that our team was inspired to this by working with @SantaEDM this last winter. #wgybackpack

Even though crime is crime, a quarter million Kit Kats on the lam out there somehow seems like wholesome news in this world.

There was a time when people said that the internet wasn’t going to amount to much. AI is messy now but grabbing the reins is better than getting dragged down the field. Working with @deloitte & Lift Impact on AI fueled capacity building in the social sector is the next wave.

JUST IN: The war just hit your supply chain. Not oil. Everything made from oil. Thirteen force majeure declarations and counting. Not just energy companies. Petrochemical plants. Aluminium smelters. Plastics producers. Olefin crackers. Styrene manufacturers. Across seven countries. In twelve days. QatarEnergy declared force majeure on LNG, removing 20% of global supply. Saudi Aramco cut production at two fields and shut Ras Tanura refinery. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation declared force majeure on crude oil sales. Bapco in Bahrain declared force majeure on its only refinery. Aluminium Bahrain halted shipments from one of the world’s largest smelters. Then the cascade moved downstream. PCS in Singapore declared force majeure on 5 March after its olefin cracker lost Gulf feedstock. TPC Singapore followed on 9 March because PCS supplies its polyolefin production. Yeochun NCC, South Korea’s largest ethylene facility, declared force majeure on 4 March. Formosa Petrochemical in Taiwan declared on 10 March. Chandra Asri in Indonesia. TPIA in Indonesia. SCC Rayong Olefins in Thailand. Aster Chemicals in Singapore. TKSC in Kuwait halted styrene monomer production. Each declaration triggers the next. The olefin cracker that loses Gulf naphtha cannot supply the polyethylene plant. The polyethylene plant that cannot produce cannot supply the packaging manufacturer. The packaging manufacturer cannot supply the food company. The food company raises prices. The cascade does not stop at the refinery gate. It stops at the supermarket shelf. Asia polypropylene offers have been lifted or suspended entirely, with spot premiums rising $50 to $100 per ton. European suppliers are communicating price increases of 60 to 200 euros per ton for polyethylene and polypropylene contracts. These are the plastics in medical devices, food packaging, automotive components, construction materials, water pipes, and electrical insulation. The products that touch every human being on Earth every day. The mechanism is identical to the one that closed the Strait. Seven P&I clubs cancelled war-risk coverage under Solvency II on 5 March. That cancellation made tanker transit commercially unviable. The tankers that carried Gulf naphtha to Asian crackers stopped moving. The crackers that processed naphtha into ethylene and propylene lost feedstock. The plants that converted ethylene into polyethylene lost supply. The force majeure declarations are not separate events. They are the same event, propagating through a supply chain that begins at a London reinsurance desk and ends at a factory floor in Ulsan, Kaohsiung, Jakarta, and Rayong. The oil price captures the headline. It always does. Brent at $94 today, down from $119 yesterday, and the market exhales. But the force majeure cascade does not reverse when oil drops. The cracker that declared force majeure on 5 March does not restart because Brent fell $25. It restarts when its feedstock tanker can obtain insurance, transit the Strait, and deliver naphtha. That timeline is governed by the same 12-to-24-month reinsurance reinstatement window that governs the Strait itself. The war did not just close a waterway. It closed the industrial supply chain that feeds half the world’s manufacturing base. The Strait carries oil. The oil becomes naphtha. The naphtha becomes plastic. The plastic becomes everything. Thirteen force majeures. Seven countries. One insurance mechanism. And a cascade that has not finished propagating. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@doctorow You’ll be missed here. But we understand, too.

Today, I am posting a modified version, which adds: > If you'd like to follow me on Bluesky, I'm @doctorow.pluralistic.net. This is the last thread I will post to Twitter. 51/

Back in 2018, the Singletrack blog published a widely read article explaining the lethal trigonometry of a UK intersection where drivers kept hitting cyclists: singletrackworld.com/2018/01/collis… 1/

Go 🇨🇦 and keep up the great work.

Maclean's approached me about writing a personal essay as an Albertan about secession and my opposition to it. It was published today 👇 macleans.ca/politics/i-don…

Dear Fellow Albertans, This letter is written not as a partisan, but as an emergency physician who has cared for more than 100,000 Albertans, a former MLA, and someone who has devoted a working life to this province. Across Alberta, the strain is obvious. Housing is scarce. Emergency rooms are overcrowded. Schools are stretched. The cost of living weighs heavily on families. Anxiety about the future is real and justified. This is not anger. It is concern, because moments like this demand leadership. When people are under pressure, leadership is not just about solutions, but about direction: an honest explanation of what is actually going wrong, and reassurance about who we are as a society while we fix it. In recent weeks, Alberta’s challenges have been framed by the Premier, Danielle Smith, in a way that has left many people angry, not at systems or long-standing policy failures, but at immigrants and other governments. That is deeply troubling. The frustration people feel is understandable. But much of that anger is being misdirected at immigrants. With the exception of Indigenous peoples, all Albertans come from families that arrived here seeking opportunity. Immigrants did not break Alberta’s healthcare system or tear up family doctor contracts. They did not close hospital beds or cancel planned hospital capacity. They did not under build housing, assisted living, long-term care, or schools. They did not dismantle community care. Politicians did. Every day in emergency departments, the consequences are visible: acute-care beds occupied by patients who should be at home or in long-term care; ERs functioning as inpatient wards; and population growth encouraged without matching investments in primary care, continuing care, and hospital capacity. In 1992, Alberta had approximately 11,700 hospital beds. Today, with nearly double the population and a much older demographic, we have roughly 8,800. This is not an Ottawa or immigration problem. It is a planning and capacity problem. Many of the people caring for seniors, staffing hospitals, and holding the healthcare system together today are newcomers themselves. Blaming them delays real solutions and divides communities. That lesson is personal. Growing up as a newcomer involved violence, black eyes and broken bones, and learning early what happens when fear is tolerated and adults look away. Home was not always safe either, shaped by alcoholism and domestic violence. Those experiences leave marks. What mattered most was a mother who taught that anger shrinks a life, while forgiveness, discipline, and service strengthen it, and that opportunity carries an obligation to give back. That belief led to decades in emergency medicine, the training of thousands of doctors, and public service at personal cost. Those experiences lead to a clear conclusion. Albertans deserve leadership that lowers the temperature, not raises it. Leadership that fixes systems, not finds scapegoats. Leadership that takes responsibility for planning failures and invests in capacity to match growth. For these reasons, Alberta needs a change in direction and ultimately, a change in leadership, so the province can unite around practical fixes rather than division. This is not about racism. It is about judgment, competence, and the ability to govern responsibly during difficult times. Alberta needs leadership that brings people together and focuses on solutions, not blame. Premiers Lougheed, Klein and Stelmach have led through very difficult times and would not take our province to this sharp edge. Albertans are much better than this. I am a Canadian, an Albertan and I am an immigrant. God bless Alberta. Dr. Raj Sherman @ABDanielleSmith @nenshi @FreeAlbertaRob @PfParks @NightShiftMD @Alberta_UCP @UCPCaucus @albertaNDP @TheBreakdownAB @ryanjespersen @cspotweet #yeg #yyc #ABleg #cdnpoli

So happy for the upcoming holidays with my whole family in yeg for the first time in many years- wishing you and yours a beautiful season too. Winter solstice around the corner and more daylight imminent!! Best of the season to all ; stay healthy and safe.

Great thoughts from @AmandaLang : inter-prov trade barriers amount to unhelpful regional protectionism. Leveling internal playing fields is going to require will & coordination & there’s never been a more important time to do it. open.substack.com/pub/amandalang…

So happy for their continuing run- go 🇨🇦!!!

Spending time on the road learning& connecting is a great reset; so valuable to build F2F community. #Canada is at an important inflection point; and we are incredibly capable. Nations, like people, don’t thrive divided, they thrive by starting from the common ground. ♥️🇨🇦

@JefCru @ryangerritsen Full article describes a good trade relationship and plan- click bait headline globalnews.ca/news/11321040/… Mexico’s Sheinbaum says ‘no need’ for bilateral trade deal with Canada - National | Globalnews.ca

@ryangerritsen Canada didn’t go there to get a new deal, why would they do that when we already have a FTA with Mexico…. You’re reading too much into the headline.

How are those elbows feeling?

Pretty sure that steel was manufactured in South Korea. Did it use Alberta coal? Maybe. But Northback is owned by Australians- so the only thing Canadian about this ad is the export of metallurgical coal. I’m not against mining but only .05% of our coal exports are metallurgical.

This gorgeous sunset and a lovely pelican over it. We live in a beautiful world.

Happy Canada Day! Whether you're out at the lake, firing up the grill, or just soaking up the day off—we hope you're enjoying it! How are you spending your Canada Day? 🇨🇦🎆

The misinformation in this post and so many of the threads below! 1. OAS is only paid to a non-resident if that person resided in 🇨🇦 for 20 years or more. 2. Service Canada can see who is non-resident and align taxpaying status with receipt of benefits. I have seen a case where a non-resident was incorrectly collecting and Service Canada took action to recover funds. 3. There is loads of public information about the OAS. If anybody wants to make bullshit claims, they should easily be able to substantiate those claims.

Alberta native bee spam incoming . I could watch these guys all day!

It’s Friday the 13th… but we’re not scared 👻 Because when your business is prepared, even the spookiest day can’t throw you off. 💼✨ --

Guy is speaking my love language