Because, hey, Canada needs some love as well.
Now, then, as a Yank to the Canadians, what has Stephen Harper done as Prime Minister, what were the top parties and how did the general election turn out this year?
I think he’d been given a severely distorted version of the language on freedom of religion.
And yeah, Alberta is very far right by Canadian standards. Ontario conservatives are also kinda bad, but Ontario doesn’t have a complex about Quebec or an inferiority complex. Mostly because the capital is here. An Alberta conservative ranting about Quebec might get some nods at first, but it’s a lot harder for that kind of sentiment to really take hold here because Ontario has a lot of French speakers. We’re not threatened by Quebec having French as a first language.
Ontario conservatism tends to be more fiscal "small state" "cut the social programs" kind of conservatism. Less "Mah Christian values" or "The gays" kind of deal. Ontario Conservatives also tend to be more pro-federal government.
Alberta Conservatives meanwhile tend to be more religious, way more into "social issues" like opposing gay marriage. They also tend to be far more opposed to the Federal Government. They also tend to sound like Captain Planet villains. Ontario Conservatives will like, make a token pretense that they care when gutting environmental programs usually on the altar of reducing taxes. Albertan ones tend to be "but mah oil"
Not to say that theres not both types in all provinces of course.
I'll say as a Quebecer it's fantastic how little we care about Alberta. Like, Ontario? Sure. The Atlantic? Yeah. Alberta, something major needs to happen for us to hear about it.
Edited by Ghilz on Feb 17th 2023 at 2:42:45 AM
Yeah, the Alberta vs Quebec thing is extremely one-sided. Alberta thinks Quebec has this insidious plan to take over all of Canada, force everyone to speak only French and to [insert stupid misconception about Quebec here]. Quebec is like "is Alberta the oil one?"
Most of it stems from Quebec getting a bunch of special concessions, mostly connected to things like language rights and Alberta not getting them. I asked my cousin what an Albertan version of the language rights would even look like and she had no idea. My mom also thinks that Alberta has an inferiority complex concerning British Columbia.
People love British Columbia. People go to Alberta for the Calgary Stampede and otherwise don't much care about it. And maybe Banff but a lot of people think that's in BC.
Edited by Zendervai on Feb 17th 2023 at 5:50:19 AM
Alberta does definitely have that rep of "Oh, the ass backward one that thinks it's Texas?" when it comes up. But it so rarely comes up. Non-Ontario Provincial elections will get a 2 min coverage the day it happens. We otherwise notice when the province catches fire like that one time?
Like provinces as seen by French Quebecers
Ontario -> Federal Government, otherwise friendly anglo neighbor.
New Brunswick -> Half-Quebec on their mom's side
Rest of Atlantic -> Fishing? Could not tell them apart. Buys our electricity.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba -> Farms. Could not tell apart. Most likely to not remember they exist.
Alberta -> Wants to be Texas.
BC -> Ontario but Far.
All the territories -> Snow and natives, kinda like north of the province.
Edited by Ghilz on Feb 17th 2023 at 2:57:56 AM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64683747
Emergencies Act used to clear the protests and the blockades in Ottawa were legal according to the report released to the commission.
Nah, Trudeau told it exactly like it was, and used the police appropriately to clear the trucklefucks out. You don't have to be polite to lawless mobs. Even in Canada.
Edited by Ramidel on Feb 17th 2023 at 6:16:52 AM
Glad the commission saw it that way. Annoyed it gave the truckers and their ilk a second platform to pretend to be victims on.
I'll begrudgingly agree that the comission was a necessary exercise to make sure we hadn't created a dangerous precedent to be used against actual peaceful protests (the way we constantly do when it's natives protesting).
Oh, the commission was absolutely a good thing. You exercise Emergency Authority, then when the emergency is over, you'd damn well better have to answer for it. And as we saw, Trudeau did answer for it and was cleared. (Y'know, unlike when the Mounties suppress indigenous protests.)
Sometimes the system works.
There’s people on the right already making their statements online voicing their anger on the report.
——
Also the POEC released the report in five parts. Long read I tell ya.
Also the commissioner made a statement.
https://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/final-report/
Report did say that what does public order emergency means in the national security context needs to be changed.
Edited by Ominae on Feb 18th 2023 at 8:13:45 AM
Outcry against an Anti-LGBT+ billboard lead to it being taken down
The Trudeau hate actually has nothing to do with the Charter (usually, though some people take exception to Quebec and all the exceptions to the Charter that they're allowed to have, including their own much laxer immigration policy). It has to do with the National Energy Program utterly destroying the Western provinces' economy in the 80s.
It probably wasn't entirely to blame, since the whole world went into a recession at the time, but the NEP being implemented right before said recession really didn't help.
I do think British Columbia could be well-served by having language rights for Mandarin or Cantonese, given how large the Chinese community is there. But Alberta doesn't need them, no.
Edited by PhiSat on Feb 21st 2023 at 3:25:09 AM
Oissu!https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/us-transgender-asylum-petition-1.6779692
This goes into the petition that has a lot of widespread support to allow for transgender and nonbinary people in the US and UK to be able to claim asylum in Canada, and the difficulties with it being those two countries in particular, especially the US with the Safe Third Country act etc.
Anti-Trans preacher Billboard Chris put his hands on a trans woman
, leading her to bite back in response. A bunch of media talks about how she “assaulted” him when he touched her first and she rightfully responded to his hateful rhetoric by cursing at him.
Trial opens over 1980 Paris synagogue bombing with suspect in absentia
https://ground.news/article/lone-suspect-in-1980-paris-synagogue-bombing-goes-on-trial_b59045
I'm cross-posting this from the French Politics thread since the man in question, Diab Hassan, is Canadian. He was extradited to France from Canada ten years ago, but was released when a French judge dismissed the charges. The evidence is very flimsy but French prosecutors seem very determined to go forward with the trial anyway. There seems to have been a lot of controversy about the extradition, since the French prosecution failed to disclose key evidence that would have exonerated Hassan from the extradition judge.
The CBC has paused Twitter activity after being labeled government-funded media.
Darrell Night
, the man at the center of the 'Starlight Tours' when he discussed how Saskatoon Police dropped him out of town and left him to die of exposure in the cold in 2000, has passed away. The incident was one of so many, endless example of Police abuse towards Indigenous people in Canada.

Most of Canadian conservatism is like Democrat conservatism in the US.
Alberta conservatism is Texas conservatism.