As a fairly new Canadian...of 71 yrs(immigrant parents & sister..arrived from England in early 50s)..I seem to have a perspective few multigenerational Canadians share...yet my Japanese ESL students from the 90s also noticed(being required to read & understand newspaper articles)..we are told what to think..not given information/facts/details..rather given an interpretation of by the 'experts'..journalists/government/apologists for policy...people rally around opinion not a value driven assessment of circumstances and situations...thereby expressing confusion when what was obvious 40 years ago is now being played out...our education systems have been dumbing us down as much as the US has their population...our immigration system ties into that reductive state such that if you want to to move along, you must get along..with prevailing opinions being the reference point...new ideas not necessary...little recognition of the gifts being brought by newcomers to expand and develop our institutions...they remain entrenched 'as it's always been'...to maintain status quo...and now here we are concerned about the American mentality influence on our population where getting and having more for the fewest number is the flag that's waved...accumulate/stockpile/control then reduce the number of people getting access to whatever drives success.
Why do Canadians think we're so different from Americans when our institutions have been run by Americans for decades upon decades...universities, businesses, medicine, law, politicians...
I'm interested in connecting with fellow Canadians sharing values of community, social justice, environmental stewardship...which Charlie's Resistance movement appears to reflect...I hope more connections will be made during the road tour to build possibilities of strength & growth in our collective identity...immigrants all.
“Doctor” Jordan Peterson is someone who, as a female in the oil and gas industry with two Canadian Red Seals in male dominated industries under my toolbelt, I use to listen to, but he’s gone off the rails. Seeing him blubber all over Piers Morgan was embarrassing to watch.
I love our parliamentary democracy. I love the traditions carried down through the ages, history in the making, the pomp and circumstance, that thread line through the ages.
I stand against authoritarians and fascists. The age of imperialism is over. The age of commonwealth is here.
As our late lovely QEII once said. “a country unto itself cannot survive.” America is learning the hard way on its blind downhill slide into a failed state.
Never forget the Holocaust.
I am not an antisemitic, I do not hate jewish people, though I am an anti-Zionist. I do not approve of killing others based on their differences, let alone the IDF sniping babies in the face.
There is a HUGE difference between the two and not enough people are realizing that or discussing it.
Israel today is not the same one Jesus knew, not the one I learned about from the Bible growing up.
Today, they call the starving “animals” and calls children of Palestine “little terrorists” and according to one recent poll 82% thought it was okay to kill them all.
It’s happening again right now live streamed in 4K right onto our computer screens, and other than a quick aside, America is still funding and providing weapons for that ethnic cleansing.
The same is happening in Ukraine right now. As Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “if the Russians stopped fighting, there’d be no more war. If Ukraine stopped fighting there’d be no more Ukraine.”
Next will be US and Greenland or a sneak attack into Canada, probably on Alberta, who is in a weakened position and has a jellied backbone.
While some people scream “Say thank you!!” Other people say Never forget.
Maple MAGA and Alberta Conservatives are working a scam on us! They want us off balance and scared of responding publically to their tactics. For the last few decades they have protrayed themselves and by location us, as victums of the EVIL Feds and Eastern powers. Take a closer look at who leads their movement, political actors who chum around with far-right wing USA organizations, the NRA, anti-vacers, racists and people who are just plain criminals.
It is time to end our polite rebuff of their movement and raise our voices in public to show the uninformed the truth behind the UCP and Maple MAGA. Use your voice, vote and intellect to reject them. Remember they rely on your fear and silence to win their victory.
It is scary to be a Canadian living Alberta and “invested” in Alberta (children, granchildren, owning a home (that may soon have low value, so I can’t move elsewhere 😵💫)). I can’t “pick up stakes” and move elsewhere. Here I am in my early 60s thinking I’d be set for retirement. Now my home may be at risk, my CPP (upon which my pension relies) at risk, my kids will undoubtedly leave me behind. It makes me sad, angry, confused. I never asked for this, voted for this. I’ve worked hard all my life and contributing to making Canada better. But will I be a Canadian for much longer if I can’t leave?
Nobody in this province seems to look at the recent history of BREXIT and internalize that the if the UK’s 60+ million people watched its economy slide after an emotionally-charged decision driven by a minority, Alberta doesn’t have a hope of coming out of this both independent and strong.
Although extremely upset to be living in this time of monsters, I take reassurance by the pushback exemplified by the indigenous people. Theirs is a history of frequent betrayals and their resilience is a blazing light against the current haze engulfing Alberta.
Yves Blanchette says it best "Quebec sovereignty is about a culture and a nation"; Alberta's - what is the culture basis of oil and gas?" Greed has never been a national rallying cry.
It is blatantly insulting to compare Albertan's to Ottawa's version holocaust victims.
The population of Gaza has quadrupled during the last forty years - an odd sort of genocide methinks. If Hamas gave up their Jewish captives and went into exile the war would be over. Starvation was a weapon of war the allies used on Japan during WWII on a scale that dwarfs the siege of Gaza. The Jewish holocaust and Ukrainian holodomor were genocides which the author mendaciously compares to the Gaza war. Gaza is suffering causalities of war including collateral civilian casualties of a war that they started and Israel will finish.
Why is this separation still a thing? The First Nations own the land - case closed. I'm quite cranky about this and would like the First Nations to deport Albertans, Danielle Smith first.
Not only was Keegstra the mayor of Eckville, he taught social studies at the high school; his own Holocaust denying curriculum. Way beyond mere "statements", he was indoctrinating students.
I'm in my 7th decade & this has been going for most of my lifetime, pushed by political lackies in the easy & west post-Expo '67. People have died from it but we never seem to learn.
I taught at the University of Alberta in the 1990's. Two of my students went to Eckville to try to understand where Keegstra's authority came from as there was no public library. Their findings are worth repeating. While many locals kept Bibles, Keegsta had the biggest books in the village and referenced them in the school where he taught and in local public talks. The book was Mein Kamph, which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, and an abridged edition appeared in 1930. By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages. What's worse than burning books is the ability to read but watching gigantic televisions instead. Literacy is doomed by aliteracy (can read but don't read), and the right wing has figured that out. Who needs truth when MAGA thinks for you?
After reading your post today Charlie and your emphasis on DENIAL two books came to mind.
Book #1
David Moscrop "Too Dumb for Democracy" 2019
“ When people try to bypass deliberative rationality—the kind where we treat one another as citizens, as agents worthy of engagement and respect—and (instead) drive straight into manipulation or exploitation to get what they want, they undermine the democratic process.
Compare that to when reasons are connected to deliberative rationality, when they form part of a process. When that happens we get good political decisions, trust, and legitimate outcomes”. (page 91)
I believe those who operate from a mindset of denial have difficulty being deliberatively rational as that would require a level of maturity and self-awareness that bullies don't possess. They would prefer a MY WAY or the highway approach or you could call it an Agenda.
Book #2
Industrial-Strength DENIAL:(2020) Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible from the Slave Trade to Climate Change written by Barbara Freeze an Environmental Attorney from Minnesota.
Chapter Contents cover over 100 years of history where profit came before health of citizens.
The Alternate Reality Crafted by the Slave Lobby
Radium, Risk and Responsibility
Carmakers Avoiding Blame for Highway Deaths
Bias, Tribalism, and Leaded Gasoline
CFC's, Ideology, and Manipulated Uncertainty
Tobacco's Mass Production of Denial
The Financial Crisis and a Culture of Exploitation
Fossil Fuels, Climate Denial and Distrust Building
Charlie, I hope you are planning a trip to Saskatchewan. You have many supporters here.
You’ve well articulated why some of us have been calling it AlberDUH for several decades now, Charlie, and applauded the arrival of ALBERTA VIEWS magazine almost 30 years ago which is still about the only centrist media source produced in this province.
As a fairly new Canadian...of 71 yrs(immigrant parents & sister..arrived from England in early 50s)..I seem to have a perspective few multigenerational Canadians share...yet my Japanese ESL students from the 90s also noticed(being required to read & understand newspaper articles)..we are told what to think..not given information/facts/details..rather given an interpretation of by the 'experts'..journalists/government/apologists for policy...people rally around opinion not a value driven assessment of circumstances and situations...thereby expressing confusion when what was obvious 40 years ago is now being played out...our education systems have been dumbing us down as much as the US has their population...our immigration system ties into that reductive state such that if you want to to move along, you must get along..with prevailing opinions being the reference point...new ideas not necessary...little recognition of the gifts being brought by newcomers to expand and develop our institutions...they remain entrenched 'as it's always been'...to maintain status quo...and now here we are concerned about the American mentality influence on our population where getting and having more for the fewest number is the flag that's waved...accumulate/stockpile/control then reduce the number of people getting access to whatever drives success.
Why do Canadians think we're so different from Americans when our institutions have been run by Americans for decades upon decades...universities, businesses, medicine, law, politicians...
I'm interested in connecting with fellow Canadians sharing values of community, social justice, environmental stewardship...which Charlie's Resistance movement appears to reflect...I hope more connections will be made during the road tour to build possibilities of strength & growth in our collective identity...immigrants all.
“Doctor” Jordan Peterson is someone who, as a female in the oil and gas industry with two Canadian Red Seals in male dominated industries under my toolbelt, I use to listen to, but he’s gone off the rails. Seeing him blubber all over Piers Morgan was embarrassing to watch.
I love our parliamentary democracy. I love the traditions carried down through the ages, history in the making, the pomp and circumstance, that thread line through the ages.
I stand against authoritarians and fascists. The age of imperialism is over. The age of commonwealth is here.
As our late lovely QEII once said. “a country unto itself cannot survive.” America is learning the hard way on its blind downhill slide into a failed state.
Never forget the Holocaust.
I am not an antisemitic, I do not hate jewish people, though I am an anti-Zionist. I do not approve of killing others based on their differences, let alone the IDF sniping babies in the face.
There is a HUGE difference between the two and not enough people are realizing that or discussing it.
Israel today is not the same one Jesus knew, not the one I learned about from the Bible growing up.
Today, they call the starving “animals” and calls children of Palestine “little terrorists” and according to one recent poll 82% thought it was okay to kill them all.
It’s happening again right now live streamed in 4K right onto our computer screens, and other than a quick aside, America is still funding and providing weapons for that ethnic cleansing.
The same is happening in Ukraine right now. As Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “if the Russians stopped fighting, there’d be no more war. If Ukraine stopped fighting there’d be no more Ukraine.”
Next will be US and Greenland or a sneak attack into Canada, probably on Alberta, who is in a weakened position and has a jellied backbone.
While some people scream “Say thank you!!” Other people say Never forget.
Always Remember.
Never forget.
Maple MAGA and Alberta Conservatives are working a scam on us! They want us off balance and scared of responding publically to their tactics. For the last few decades they have protrayed themselves and by location us, as victums of the EVIL Feds and Eastern powers. Take a closer look at who leads their movement, political actors who chum around with far-right wing USA organizations, the NRA, anti-vacers, racists and people who are just plain criminals.
It is time to end our polite rebuff of their movement and raise our voices in public to show the uninformed the truth behind the UCP and Maple MAGA. Use your voice, vote and intellect to reject them. Remember they rely on your fear and silence to win their victory.
It is scary to be a Canadian living Alberta and “invested” in Alberta (children, granchildren, owning a home (that may soon have low value, so I can’t move elsewhere 😵💫)). I can’t “pick up stakes” and move elsewhere. Here I am in my early 60s thinking I’d be set for retirement. Now my home may be at risk, my CPP (upon which my pension relies) at risk, my kids will undoubtedly leave me behind. It makes me sad, angry, confused. I never asked for this, voted for this. I’ve worked hard all my life and contributing to making Canada better. But will I be a Canadian for much longer if I can’t leave?
Nobody in this province seems to look at the recent history of BREXIT and internalize that the if the UK’s 60+ million people watched its economy slide after an emotionally-charged decision driven by a minority, Alberta doesn’t have a hope of coming out of this both independent and strong.
If Albertans could commercialize whine as efficiently as we do oil, we’d have a new leading export by next Thursday.
Although extremely upset to be living in this time of monsters, I take reassurance by the pushback exemplified by the indigenous people. Theirs is a history of frequent betrayals and their resilience is a blazing light against the current haze engulfing Alberta.
Yves Blanchette says it best "Quebec sovereignty is about a culture and a nation"; Alberta's - what is the culture basis of oil and gas?" Greed has never been a national rallying cry.
It is blatantly insulting to compare Albertan's to Ottawa's version holocaust victims.
The population of Gaza has quadrupled during the last forty years - an odd sort of genocide methinks. If Hamas gave up their Jewish captives and went into exile the war would be over. Starvation was a weapon of war the allies used on Japan during WWII on a scale that dwarfs the siege of Gaza. The Jewish holocaust and Ukrainian holodomor were genocides which the author mendaciously compares to the Gaza war. Gaza is suffering causalities of war including collateral civilian casualties of a war that they started and Israel will finish.
Why is this separation still a thing? The First Nations own the land - case closed. I'm quite cranky about this and would like the First Nations to deport Albertans, Danielle Smith first.
Elbows Up!
Not only was Keegstra the mayor of Eckville, he taught social studies at the high school; his own Holocaust denying curriculum. Way beyond mere "statements", he was indoctrinating students.
I'm in my 7th decade & this has been going for most of my lifetime, pushed by political lackies in the easy & west post-Expo '67. People have died from it but we never seem to learn.
Right. First they came for the Albertans.
Stay united & stay strong, Canada!
Look south to us in the usa for the consequences of NOT FIGHTING PEACEFULLY, LOUDLY, AND CONTINUOUSLY
I taught at the University of Alberta in the 1990's. Two of my students went to Eckville to try to understand where Keegstra's authority came from as there was no public library. Their findings are worth repeating. While many locals kept Bibles, Keegsta had the biggest books in the village and referenced them in the school where he taught and in local public talks. The book was Mein Kamph, which was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, and an abridged edition appeared in 1930. By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages. What's worse than burning books is the ability to read but watching gigantic televisions instead. Literacy is doomed by aliteracy (can read but don't read), and the right wing has figured that out. Who needs truth when MAGA thinks for you?
The man who put the Eck in Eckville. F Keegstra and his political spawn.
Hello Charlie,
After reading your post today Charlie and your emphasis on DENIAL two books came to mind.
Book #1
David Moscrop "Too Dumb for Democracy" 2019
“ When people try to bypass deliberative rationality—the kind where we treat one another as citizens, as agents worthy of engagement and respect—and (instead) drive straight into manipulation or exploitation to get what they want, they undermine the democratic process.
Compare that to when reasons are connected to deliberative rationality, when they form part of a process. When that happens we get good political decisions, trust, and legitimate outcomes”. (page 91)
I believe those who operate from a mindset of denial have difficulty being deliberatively rational as that would require a level of maturity and self-awareness that bullies don't possess. They would prefer a MY WAY or the highway approach or you could call it an Agenda.
Book #2
Industrial-Strength DENIAL:(2020) Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible from the Slave Trade to Climate Change written by Barbara Freeze an Environmental Attorney from Minnesota.
Chapter Contents cover over 100 years of history where profit came before health of citizens.
The Alternate Reality Crafted by the Slave Lobby
Radium, Risk and Responsibility
Carmakers Avoiding Blame for Highway Deaths
Bias, Tribalism, and Leaded Gasoline
CFC's, Ideology, and Manipulated Uncertainty
Tobacco's Mass Production of Denial
The Financial Crisis and a Culture of Exploitation
Fossil Fuels, Climate Denial and Distrust Building
Charlie, I hope you are planning a trip to Saskatchewan. You have many supporters here.
Just let us know how we can help you.
Have a good day everybody and elbows up !!
You’ve well articulated why some of us have been calling it AlberDUH for several decades now, Charlie, and applauded the arrival of ALBERTA VIEWS magazine almost 30 years ago which is still about the only centrist media source produced in this province.