News and insights from The Tyee

“An Alberta Spooned From A Churning Cauldron Of Conspiracy Theories And Right-Wing Fantasies” Marcello Di Cintio didn’t want to write this week’s cover story. Like many of us, he’s grown a little tired of the fixation on Alberta’s wackiest conservative excesses. “I didn’t feel the current separatist tantrum warranted the nation’s attention. Or maybe I was just embarrassed.” Then, he walked into the heart of that tantrum and came away feeling something else. Di Cintio went to two separatist events: an Alberta Independence Rally in Calgary that attracted 3,000 attendees; and “A Christian Perspective on Alberta Independence” session at Fairview Baptist Church that drew about 500. What he heard repeatedly, were bloviations about Ottawa’s tyranny, false Facebook memes reheated into political conspiracies, religious fundamentalism and — most passionately — a hatred towards immigrants. That’s why he wrote this week’s cover story. “I wanted Canadians to understand that Alberta separatism, at its heart, isn’t motivated by equalization policies, Senate seats, carbon taxes or oil. These tired complaints may ride shotgun on independence, but bigotry drives the truck.” The rest of this week is all about Avi. Lewis, that is. The newly elected leader of the federal NDP was barely off the convention floor when he faced a public attack, not from the usual conservative critics, but his Alberta NDP counterpart, Naheed Nenshi. “It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta,” wrote Nenshi in a public statement. David Climenhaga tries to understand why the orange violence. Climenhaga also tucks into the wild bout of red-baiting that Lewis’s coronation incited. Everyone from media pundits to Danielle Smith were casually throwing out the c-word (communist). “To give Alberta Premier Danielle Smith her due, she made me laugh out loud in CTV’s social media clip when she offered this evidence of the federal NDP’s drift toward Socialism with Canadian Characteristics. ‘They want everyone to have a heat pump!’ If that’s not full communism, what the hell is?” Elsewhere... This is all a big mess, but Danielle Smith and her party might have “get out of separatist hell”-free card, writes Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean. They could nullify any referendum this fall by calling for an early election. [Women of ABpoli] What are the odds of that happening? Hell, of any of this separation stuff happening? For that just turn to the offshore gambling sites allowing bets on public policy. As of Tuesday afternoon, online gambling platform Kalshi sets separation at just over 19 per cent. According to CBC, there’s already been $50,634 US wagered on that question. [CBC] Remember the UCP’s efforts to ban certain books from school libraries? Now the government wants to expand its reach to all public libraries. A new bill aims to separate books with visual depictions of sex in all public libraries, putting them behind a counter or in a separate section (presumably behind a beaded curtain) to make sure children under 15 can’t access them. The Coalition of Alberta Public Libraries calls the bill an “act of censorship.” [The Canadian Press] The UCP government is also worried about what kids are able to think about in schools. New legislation could mandate that teachers be impartial and neutral when teaching, something the president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association assures the province is a solution to a non-existent problem. “Teachers are professionals,” Jason Schilling said. “They already teach the prescribed curriculum in a balanced, thoughtful and age-appropriate way. Any suggestion otherwise is unfair and quite frankly offensive to the profession.” [The Canadian Press] Last week we mentioned the boundary commission’s report on redrawing Alberta’s election map. What’s come out since is the “minority report” alternative proposed alongside that commission’s report that goes whole hog on splicing urban ridings with rural areas into new ‘rurban’ ridings. “What might be the minority’s true motivation for this?” the authors of the majority report ask. “Our friends south of the border may have a term for this type of redistricting.” [CBC] Data nerd Kyle Hutton has a more blunt assessment: “A very blatant, very obviously gerrymandered cheater map done by cheats.” Hutton’s analysis says the minority map, if adopted, would greatly increase the number of strong UCP seats. “With the commission majority’s recommended maps, we had 48 UCP vs 41 NDP, 15 of which were highly competitive… Under the UCP commissioner’s proposed boundaries, that would switch to 57 UCP vs 32 NDP, with only 11 competitive ridings.” [Blunt Objects]   Until next time, Jacob Boon, newsletter editor