It's come to my attention that many outside this province don't know much about Danielle Smith, so let me to sum up: imagine if science combined the worst aspects of Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan, and your uncle who believes every conspiracy theory that crosses his Facebook feed. When we had a tainted meat scandal back in 2012, so asked if we could "cook it and feed it to the hungry".

The folks that say "It's not my job to protect you" are awfully happy to benefit from clean water and safe food and construction standards and all the other parts of living in a society that only exist because yes actually, it fucking is your job. The sheer unmitigated gall it requires to tell vulnerable people that they're on their own while you gorge yourself at the buffet of safety and security that is in place solely because the generations before you realized that we need to look out for another.

Those who dislike Jason Kenney tend to bring up his time in San Francisco where he advocated against extending recognition rights (including hospital visitations) to same-sex couples. It was morally indefensible.

I think what he did yesterday was just as bad. Here's why. 🧵 In June, when Kenney announced that most public health restrictions would end, he said that those restrictions would not be reintroduced. When asked about a backup plan, he flat-out stated that there isn't one.

Well, would you look at that. It would appear the government quietly released a survey on a Friday with no press release or social media post that sure looks like it’s aimed at paving the road towards selling public info to private companies. 1/ alberta.ca/privacy-protec… Buried at the VERY bottom of this innocuously-titled survey about updating privacy legislation is a question about how people feel about the government “sharing” (translation: selling) data on Albertans to private companies. 2/

Look, it's not just that vaccines are our way out of this. It's that vaccines are our ONLY way out of this. If you want to have a chance to travel and have normal lives again, EVER, get your damn shot. There's no conspiracy here. There's no chip. You think Bill Gates gives a shit that you spent your weekend binging Netflix on your couch? Come on. Oh, and now we think it's magnetic because someone on TikTok said it was? You can't possibly be that gullible.

Look, I get it. Conservative governments don't like spending money. They like "making investments". Fine. But for the love of God, how can you not see what happens when you invest in people? Do you not realize how much money in our health system is spent treating people that are unhoused, and how much could be saved by investing in supportive housing?

🧵 I went for a walk tonight.
Nothing happened to me.
Because nothing ever happens to me. A woman in a hijab approaches. Does she see me as a threat? I smile and nod as we pass. She smiles back. Does she know about yesterday? Of course she does. But still, deep down, I hope somehow she doesn’t.

In honour of Pride Month, my sister just told me a great story about pronouns that I have to share. 🧵

My sister works with a woman (we’ll call her Jane). Jane is a manager and has a woman on her team (we’ll call her Susan). Susan lives and works in a small rural town. If there was a progressive centre of the universe, this town is the furthest thing from it.

🧵 I've been thinking a lot lately about how we approach domestic labour in straight relationships, specifically around how we assume women’s responsibility by default. I think a lot well-intentioned guys look at the our relationships and see tasks where no one person is responsible. We both do the laundry. We both cook. We're doing great! But it's easy to overlook the fact that every job usually has a default owner.

Every time I read a story about police breaking up an encampment of people experiencing homelessness, I think about when I got laid off 12 years ago. 🧵 I’d moved out to Ontario after getting a job there, and nine months later they laid a bunch of us off. When they did so, they gave us full salary and benefits continuance for three months. They didn’t have to. I was lucky.

I don't normally tweet angry. Today is an exception.

I’m done being nice to antivaxxers. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I can’t force you, but stop spreading your ignorant bullshit around social media as though you have even the faintest idea of how this stuff works. You're not a virologist. You're not an immunologist. You read a Facebook status once from someone using big words and and decided that you know more about this topic than people that have dedicated their entire lives to its study. Stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.

I’ve seen a lot of “I’m going to remember what I learned about people over the last year” posts recently. And I am too. But maybe not in the way you think. Here’s what I’m going to remember. 🧵

I’m going to remember every one of you that celebrated your birthday on their couch. I’m going to remember every post about fighting with your airline for a refund because you cancelled a long-awaited vacation.

Every time it gets this cold, I think about a night a few years ago when I realized how strong my privilege is. I was buying something off Kijiji, so I drove to an apartment building on the other side of the city and picked it up. When I got back to my car, it wouldn't start. 🧵 I had AMA, but the wait time to get a boost was around three hours. It was probably -25 or so, and hadn't exactly dressed for an extended period outside. So I decided to wait in the buzzer area of the apartment building.

Here's a little secret for straight dudes in relationships: if you make an effort to be romantic and thoughtful throughout the year, your partner probably isn't going to care about what you do for Valentine's Day. The reason it matters to people is because it's their one chance to experience romantic gestures. There's no reason to save those for special occasions.

I understand that everyone wants to get “back to normal” as soon as possible, but seeing so many people complaining about vaccine delivery delays of a few weeks while poorer countries won’t get any vaccines for years is a really bad look. “But I might not get vaccinated until the late fall!” Yup. And a highly-vulnerable immunocompromised person in Ghana probably won’t get it until 2023.

As we watch Keystone XL go up in smoke, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to offer some unsolicited advice to Premier @jkenney. 🧵

Most Albertans don’t love oil and gas. What Albertans love is the prosperity that oil and gas brought to our province. I can appreciate that, for a province with some of the largest oil reserves on the planet, the idea of a world transitioning away from oil & gas is scary, and many desperately wish we could return to the halcyon days of high oil prices and the corresponding bulging public purse.

30 years ago, a man walked into École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. As an engineering student many years later, we were taught about the tragedy, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that my initial understanding was inadequate. 🧵 One man may have committed the act, but make no mistake: misogyny killed these women. Patriarchy killed these women. The belief that a woman could have the audacity to move beyond the confines of traditional gender roles killed these women.

Before we all cheer too loudly, it’s worth admitting something.

This is not a problem with Brendan Leipsic. It’s not a problem with hockey. This is a problem with manhood.

https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1258774587279642625

These comments don’t appear out of thin air. They’re the product of attitudes and beliefs that are fostered over a lifetime. Attitudes towards women. Attitudes towards people that are different than you.

Thread: Because I'm a deeply stupid person, I'm going to briefly wade into American politics.

I can understand how exciting it must be for progressive Americans to have a candidate like Bernie to rally behind. Finally, someone espousing honest-to-goodness progressive values. Medicare-for-all! 100% renewable energy! Free college! I can only imagine how energizing it is to have these ideas platformed on the national stage. And he's polling so well! No wonder the Bernie bros and gals can't wait to get out of bed and spread his message far and wide.

A thread on the value of kindness.

A number of years ago, my ex-partner and I moved into a new home. Our neighbours were a lovely couple in their early-30s. We weren’t close, but we had many of those random, friendly conversations that you have with your neighbours. During the winter, we had an unspoken agreement about snow shoveling: whomever got out first would shovel the walks in front of both houses. We never openly discussed it, but it was just one of those little perks when you get along with your neighbours.