Rainer Knopff

NEW COLUMN: Time to tackle shoplifting, before it turns into even more crime Winnipeg's shoplifting crisis is shutting down businesses and we're all paying the price. Yet another 7-Eleven is closing due to shoplifting. Some call it a "survival crime," but police data tells a different story: much of it is organized, profit-driven theft. And the costs don't disappear. They get passed straight to consumers, fuelling the very grocery inflation used to justify stealing in the first place. The "broken windows" theory warns us where this leads: small crimes ignored become big crimes normalized. It also tells us what’s needed: real enforcement, real consequences for repeat offenders, and a culture that stops making excuses. Stealing is wrong. Full stop. winnipegsun.com/opinion/koop-t… #cdnpoli #cdnpolitics

The status quo is not desirable, but a referendum on separation is even less so. Alberta must lead, not leave. readtheline.ca/p/alberta-must… #cdnpoli #ableg

This is like when you're in middle school and too afraid to ask your crush out on a date so you say, "What would you say if I asked you out?"

That 35% is higher than in previous polling. By making the referendum question non-binding, Smith has given license to soft(er) separatists to support leaving, since it's "safe" to do so in this first round. Which makes the issue endure indefinitely. Great for investment!!

This morning @TravisToewsAB @jfdinning @PGarritty @trevortombe @andrew_leach @jengerson @DrJaredWesley and I launched Lead not Leave. Read our joint statement here. 1/6 leadnotleave.ca

.@CBC, @MarcMillerVM, @RachaelThomasAB, @MLInstitute. So disappointed at CBC’s scandalous use of taxpayer money to try to humiliate and stigmatise private citizens who defend Sir John A. Macdonald and Canadian history more generally. As my letter details, I too was targeted.

Like the vast majority of Albertans, I’m both a proud Canadian, and a proud Albertan. We are a smart, hard working, innovative and loyal people. Those who went before us built one of the most prosperous and generous societies on Earth. And we’re not going to let anyone tear apart our home, the true North strong and free. It’s time to fight for our country. Alberta: let’s lead, not leave. votetostay.ca/about/

Let's not blow our chance to supply the world with energy by voting to separate from Canada. ourohttps://montesolberg.substack.com/p/the-math-for-staying-isnt-mathing

Where is the costed and detailed separatist plan for a New Alberta? open.substack.com/pub/montesolbe…

There’s a reason it’s called the Statute of Westminster, 1931. Anyway, you can’t invoke the power of the Crown to reject the Crown. The principle of democracy is exercised within the constitution: once you reject the constitution, you can’t appeal to it to constrain the exercise of democracy by any city or territory. You blow up the system, you deal with the fallout.

I know the last decade under the Trudeau-NDP was difficult and Albertans have every right to be frustrated. But thanks to the leadership of Albertans, the tide is finally turning in our favour. The vast majority of Trudeau’s ‘9 bad laws’ have been scrapped or reformed. Investment has begun flowing back into energy, tech, and agriculture, and we are creating more jobs than the rest of the country combined. Now is not the time to give up hope. Now is the time to double down and help Canada reach its incredible potential. With Alberta leading the way, we can turn Canada into one of the most strong and prosperous economies in the world. On October 19, I will be voting for Alberta to remain in Canada. I hope you will join me in doing so.

Just watched Smith"s tv address, but am about to step on the lacrosse floor so will have more substantive comments later. But two quick observations: 1) a complicated question 2) most pro-Canada comments I have heard Smith say since becoming Premier.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says everyone in his party will be campaigning for Canadian unity in Alberta. He says as prime-minister-in-waiting, he will personally be campaigning across the province to encourage Albertans to stay in Canadian family.

Danielle Smith has actually been willing to slay some sacred cows in Canada (i.e on healthcare), which is one of the many reasons why her decision to include separatism in the fall referendum is so counterproductive. It both overshadows and undermines everything else she's done

Useful read on how this problem developed in Canada. Initially parliamentary supremacy prevented it, but the imposition of the 1982 Constitution gave federally-funded & often bureaucratically-directed legal activist groups broad leeway to direct policy through the courts.

@daniel_dsj2110 Leo Strauss on the English:

Jason Kenney was supportive of me when my records were unlawfully accessed by Lethbridge Police Service, so now it’s time to return the consideration. No one deserves this, and it is high time for there to be consequences for targeting people for their time in public service.

Smith needs to tell the separatists that if they want to force a secession vote on the province, they need to start a party, stand up their own candidates, and win in a general election -- exactly as the PQ did. The data breach scandal gives her all the cover she needs.

@MPelletierCIO "We've created a political environment that discourages investment, but we can make it a little easier to operate if you give us a cut of your profits" is a protection racket, not a growth plan.

I wrote about a line in the Spring Economic Update that I think deserves more attention: “Building Canada Strong includes a strong sporting system.” The Carney government’s $755 million investment in sport is easy to read as a feel-good budget item. I read it differently. It’s about health, youth participation, safe sport, soft power, and something harder to measure but just as important: belonging. In a country dealing with precarity, regional tension, and declining trust, sport may be one of the few institutions that can still make Canada feel like a shared project. Read the piece here: davidcoletto.substack.com/p/carneys-spor…