1/ I wondered how much of what Poilievre said in his remarks at the funeral was true re the Canadian situation when Mulroney came to power.

Were Canadians facing the same challenges then as they are now, and was it due to similar policies?

It was a personal year of

#cdnpoli 2/ upheaval for me: moving to Alberta from Ottawa, taking on a student loan for the first time, and HIV/AIDS was spreading and had already killed someone I knew from high school. So I wasn't paying much attention to the circumstances around the ascension of BM to PM.

So.

1/ Vindicated.
After years of telling people to watch the connections between Harper, Scheer, Kenney and Modi and the fraud problems with Kenney's and Scheer's leadership races (Dear Jason: lack of evidence isn't the same as innocent), The Fifth Estate is catching up.

#cdnpoli 2/ And why was I so sure? Usually not a conspiracy theorist.

But my focus in my first degree was economic reporting and the petroleum economies of southeast Asia. India was not my focus, but I started to pay more attention after meeting a World Bank figure while working in HK.

@Lianne_Rood 1/ Here are some common sense questions for Liar Rood, which she will be able to answer right?

First, for 🇨🇦 produce a table showing how many sport changeroom/washroom sexual assaults there are every year by biological sex and identified gender and sexual orientation. @Lianne_Rood 2/ You have done that, right? Because a common sense person would actually have taken the trouble to be informed.

Here are the questions for the #cdnpoli crowd:

a) Who is most likely to commit assaults on people who are women by both sex and gender identification?

@meme99369 1/No laws were broken over SNCL - even according to JWR originally - except the original bribery case perpetrated by Conservatives Porter, Baird et al.
The WE scandal did not show any laws were broken by Trudeau.
So far there's no evidence of Trudeau breaking laws for ArriveCan. @meme99369 2/ His family were friends of the Aga Khan and the RCMP didn't charge him because he may have had authority as PM to approve the trip himself.
Suggest you bone up on Conflict of Interest Act and how the Ethics issues evolved from rules to the current system (by the Con govt).

1/A reminder about the actual #SNCLscandal: Arthur Porter was charged with fraud after he got a $22.5M "consulting fee" and awarded a $1.3B contract to SNCL, part of a massive Quebec construction scandal. This was during the Harper years, 2008-2011. Harper had named

#cdnpoli 2/ Porter chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee, and thus he was part of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

The crimes and shady international dealings of this Conservative darling caught up with him. He quit the SIRC early. He left the country. Interpol

1/The death of the intelligent, principled visionary Jack O'Neill, whose service to Alberta was exemplary, is a deeply felt loss.

Why do Alberta Conservatives no longer value integrity, honesty, and a commitment to the dignity of ALL?

Why do they now prefer

#abpoli 2/ ignorant populists who foster hatred, who attack the vulnerable, who lack integrity, who lie over and over, and who are more concerned with lining the pockets of their friends than with ensuring Albertans have food and shelter?

It's appalling what they've become.

1/ So let's talk about @CPC_HQ and their IDU membership.

The IDU exists to influence elections and get conservatives elected around the world. The Chairman is Stephen Harper and the CPC is a member.

IDU Assistant Chair Mike Roman was just indicted on criminal charges.

#cdnpoli 2/ Apparently Roman's efforts to overturn the election and subvert democracy in Georgia crossed the line. Conspiracy theorists could have a field day with Roman - a previous Koch brothers operative who went to work for Trump.

My interest is the IDU connection. This action by

1/ Young man knocks on door. He's wearing overalls too large for his frame, the straps creatively wound around his neck and shoulders. He appears to be wearing nothing else except shoes. He tells me he just spent 3 hours up a tree. He's watching the street, the cars.
#yegdt 2/ It's not the first time he has knocked on our door. I think this might be the fourth. Usually he's looking for yard work that will yield quick cash.
His tan - almost the same colour as his overalls - doesn't hide the needle marks. His eyes are golden brown, too, and today they

It's embarrassing that Stockwell Day is unteachable. 9 years to learn that it wasn't socialism that bankrupted Venezuela in 2014/15 and he still can't get his head around it.

His extremist Christofascist oiligarchy dream for Canada is a delusion.

#cdnpoli #abpoli 1/A reminder for those in the back about 2014:

Venezuela's GDP was 50% O&G
Canada's was 9%

Venezuela's exports were 95% O&G

When the US shale boom shifted the US into net export territory and Saudi Arabia, China and Russia were determined to keep market share, the glut led to

1/ What they don't talk about when they start praising the #yeg #RogersPlace project is this: how it stalled projects in east downtown and contributed to the crises we have now. How the smart development plans were suddenly too expensive because landowners saw their chance to 2/ manifest a gold mine from their gravel surface parking lots. How all the air got sucked out of The Quarters and the Boyle Renaissance and how that benefited some folks, but not the locals so much. How university students saw parking rate hours extended and spaces reduced,

1/ I remember dreaming/dreams maybe once every 2 years. I awake from this one that has the hallmarks of an anxiety dream, but it's comfortably within my own waking realm, although noone I know is in it. (typical of my dreams). So I am taking a covid test, in case that's the root. 2/ In the dream I am performing in a musical. I realize this could be triggered by the latest episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I have not finished watching. Or from any actual musical I have performed in or directed. Or next week's public reading of Physics for Poets.

1/ Hey, @ElectionsAB: It seems Albertans are getting messages from a Stephen Harper regarding the Alberta election. Mr. Harper is not a candidate. He is currently Chair of IDU, an international body that seeks to influence elections around the world.

That current position puts 2/ his activity firmly in the realm of foreign influence. Yes, he's a former PM but NOW he's an international political operative and he has no business trying to influence an Alberta election.

I encourage anyone who receives such messages to report it to @ElectionsAB and the

1/ A note about the @CPC_HQ and @Alberta_UCP mouthpieces pronouncing on "authoritarian" China's COVID-19 policies.

China has low capacity for intensive care beds. 3.43 beds per 100k. Alberta has about 5 beds per 100k.

China has a population density of 153/km²; AB's is 5.7/km² 2/ In 2020, AB had 252 physicians per 100k pop. China had 290.

So China has much higher density, more physicians and fewer ICU beds. Give that some thought.

30x higher density means more chance for viruses to spread in China than Alberta. There aren't 30x more doctors/100k.

1/ When I was a minor, my parents were neglectful in a couple of ways that no parent should be.

I survived, but the decades of coping with the physical and emotional damage were mine to bear, not theirs.

We talked about in later life. They felt some guilt then, because they 2/ had seen the consequences of their lack of action. And while I understood the situation, I did not forgive. If I had to carry the damage, the least they could do is carry the guilt.

Seem harsh? Maybe. I loved them, but all those years of pain were in their power to prevent.

1/ The Conservative media propaganda campaign against the government of 🇨🇦 intensifies as they try to make the white supremacist-led protests seem justified by throwing everything behind a manufactured fake scandal.

With CPC in freefall, who is pulling these strings? Cui bono? 2/ What has the current govt done that makes it so urgent to undermine it even when the Opposition is practically leaderless and fractured?

If I were a conspiracy theorist - and I don't think I am, but I am on the intuitive side - I would have three suspects.

#cdnpoli

1/ This evening around 9:30 I was on the phone with a friend in Toronto. I was getting ready to go get a few groceries, and observing the rules: go to the bathroom before you get in the car.
I was interrupted in my task by an odd rustling sound from the
#yegdt #NotAngryAB 2/ livingroom. So, still with ghe phone in one hand and pulling my pants up with the other, I turned the corner into the livingroom...

...where a stranger, wearing my winter coat, was stuffing things into a gym bag. A box of 3 votive candles. A boxed New Testament. A paperback

1/Today is a brilliant, sunny day in #yeg.

Summer.

Been a tough week in North America as millions woke up to the realization that corruption and misinformation are winning the battle for control over us.

Too many people didn't take it seriously enough early enough.

#abpoli 2/ Now the challenge is to stave off despair, to continue to find joy in our daily lives while we fight for a better world.

One where the word "freedom" isn't used to enslave people. Where death merchants can't buy from politicians the right to terrorize and kill women, children

1/ When I started HS, I was in awe of the lanky Tommy Tune-esque kid who was in the musicals. I think we only overlapped that one year.

He became famous, but not as a musical theatre star.

His name was Peter Evans and he was a hero. He caught HIV early and went public, his 2/ dying being captured by a documentary team. He wanted the world to see and understand what AIDS does.

He died.

The first of many in my expanding professional and personal circle.

So I marched, wrote letters, worked with groups to promote safe sex, fought against the bigots.

1/ Team O'Toole post-election says people didn't want this election, they don't like PMJT, don't agree with Liberal policies.

Plus we had the full force of the Postmedia misinformation machine working against the Liberals.

If all those things are true yet the Libs still saw 2/ an increase in seats while the Cons were static in seats and lost a fair chunk of popular vote in true-blue Alberta, imagine how massive O'Toole's team is saying the Lib support was BEFORE PMJT called the election. If this result is what Canada voted despite their anger at

@CPC_HQ 1/ In Alberta, Conservatives don't believe in lifting everyone up. They reduced minimum wage for the young, increased tuition, are wanting rollbacks - retroactive - for HCW and PSE. They overpay their Con racist pals, increase corporate welfare and reduce accountability. @CPC_HQ 2/ And @jkenney is your pal, and just like you. He made promises too. He broke them. He canceled contracts just because the previous govt made them - politicking, not governing. He gambled and list - billiins of $ and thousands of lives.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #UCPcorruption

1/ Yesterday I tried on some clothes at Winners. The lighting in the fitting rooms was wonderfully unflattering. I looked old and fat.

It's a bit like a funhouse mirror, but more frightening.

I've shrunk an inch or so from my 30s. Now at 6'2"+ and 173 lbs, I'm not

#yegartist 2/ in the overweight ranges of the charts. I feel great.

So I did a quick set of measurements.

Chest is 40", waist 33", hips 39.5".

The clothing was my size and seemed to fit nicely. But there's no denying the light made my body look bulgy and saggy and grey.