Tab Lawson

A graphic showing a list of costs to Alberta taxpayers which total $10 billion wasted.

There's a lot of talk in Alberta about the latest budget.

Here's a short (and incomplete) list of why the UCP budget for 2025-26 is forecasting a multi-year deficit which has nothing to do with Ottawa nor immigrants.

#abpoli #UCPCorruption #ableg

Science of sex and gender being misrepresented by Trump officials, experts warn Scientists say crackdown on gender-affirming care could have impact on healthcare of all Americans

Trump officials “don’t actually understand the science at all”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Researchers studied who’s spreading the most conspiracy theories in Canada. Here’s what they found Canadians are becoming more exposed to conspiracy theory content in their social media feeds, but only a certain number of accounts are responsible for promoting the vast majority of it, a new study s...

Interesting read: "Researchers analyzed more than 14 million posts between 2023 and 2025 across popular online platforms — TikTok, X, Instagram and BLUESKY — and found there are only about 100 very active Canadian users who account for nearly 70 per cent of conspiratorial content."

If you find yourself with some room in your budget for a new streaming platform, consider a PBS Passport membership. Public television could really use your support right now, and their library is absolute rocket fuel for creativity. (1/2)

Conservative push to re-evaluate asylum seekers’ access to Canadian health care defeated A Conservative-led push to crack down on asylum seekers’ ability to receive health-care services that some Canadians struggle to access was rejected by a majority of MPs on Wednesday.

Conservative push to re-evaluate asylum seekers’ access to Canadian health care defeated

“Whaddaya mean we can’t abuse asylum seekers like the US?” 😒

Closing time at Diageo's Crown Royal plant in Ontario sees tears, hugs after workers' last shift | CBC News There were hugs, tears and frustration outside the Diageo Crown Royal facility in Amherstburg, Ont., as workers left the bottling plant for the last time Wednesday. Their final goodbye comes a few mon...

Just awful.
I’m old enough to remember when Heinz pulled out of Leamington, Ontario and moved everything to the US.
Haven’t bought Heinz since and won’t buy Crown Royal ever again either.
#ElbowsUp
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Another instalment of why the hell isn’t Canada 🇨🇦 investigating the Epstein files? #cdnpoli
@globalnews.ca

Link to 10 minute video here:

vt.tiktok.com/ZSmbCKkM1/

Danish military evacuates U.S. submariner who needed urgent medical care off Greenland Denmark’s military said its arctic command forces evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine off the coast of Greenland for urgent medical treatment.

US announces plans to deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, claiming its people are sick and have no access to healthcare (they have free public healthcare)

Later same day, Danish military does emergency evac of US naval officer from a submarine and transfers them to a hospital in Nuuk

WOW!

Rakhi Pancholi pulled zero punches in her response to Smith’s address last night!

“Cut the bullshit and call an election!”

(That’s a real quote)

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?

“[People in the plastics industry] are very happy for us to look at ourselves and at each other, and not look at them,” says @bethgardiner.bsky.social, author of "Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash our Future."

The political effects of X's feed algorithm https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2 Received: 16 December 2024 Accepted: 4 January 2026 Published online: 18 February 2026 Open access • Check for updates Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk's platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users' feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X's algorithm has persistent effects on users' current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right.

Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement.

This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

Countries that do not use Fritos as currency could be "left behind," says Frito-Lay CEO Ken Biddleman

Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."

COLUMN: Ramblings and Musings — Holding Humanity After Tragedy - Clearwater Times Councillor Ken Matheson calls to centre victims, communities, and care in the aftermath of loss

"Scapegoating vulnerable groups does not make communities safer. It makes them more fragile. It pushes people further to the margins, discourages them from seeking help, and deepens the conditions that lead to harm."

Stephen Harper links to Epstein? Receives $1M for Harper & Associates while he was still a sitting MP. #cdnpoli

Nerver have I been more tempted to start reposting on X than in response to my 'neighbour', Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong. Instead, I've donated to the recall campaign trying to unseat her.

(Grace Lore is MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill). #BCpoli
bsky.app/profile/grac...

Misinformation about trans people floods social media in wake of B.C. mass shooting Even before the identity of the shooter in Tumbler Ridge was confirmed by police, speculation about their gender identify spread across social media.

"Misinformation about trans people floods social media in wake of B.C. mass shooting" www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

Group Plotting to Break Up Canada Reveals Jaw-Dropping Details of Secret Meetings With Trump Teams Leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project say they have met with high-ranking Trump officials three times.

“Dennis Modry, a co-founder of the group, told NBC News that border security, the Canadian pension plan, taxes, national debt, and the possible currency revamp were on the table. So was the development of an independent military”

#ableg #cdnpoli

www.thedailybeast.com/group-plotti...

TW this is absolutely horrific and hard to read. I have no words.

WAKE UP, HOSERS
NEW PETITION JUST DROPPED

Petition e-7148 calls to require all federal party leaders to obtain and maintain top-secret security clearance to ensure they are fully informed of threats to Canada’s national security and able to act decisively to protect Canadians and our democracy.

Ford–Geely EV Alliance Talks Signal Major Shift in Global Electric Car Race Ford is in secret talks with China’s Geely to cut EV costs, share autonomous tech, and expand European production amid tariffs, politics, and booming global EV demand.

The notion that the automotive industry's future is determined by US automakers is a very old-fashioned (and frankly provincial) concept, one that belongs in the 1960s and 1970s rather than the 2020s and 2030s.

Instead, they're playing catch-up now.

www.techi.com/ford-geely-e...

A graphic by the Alberta Government with a graph showing the steady increase of annual oil production in Alberta from 2 million barrels a day in 2010 to 4.1 million barrels a day in 2025. Headline reads: Alberta oil production sets a new record in 2025. Source: Alberta Energy Regulator and ATB Economics.

Our province is setting new records with output up 4.2% (more than 4.2M barrels a day in 2025) the highest levels ever recorded!

But Alberta needs to separate because the federal gov't production caps are killing Alberta's energy industry!

Read: atb.com/company/insi...
#abpoli

Canada rolls out whalesafe strategy to curb right whale entanglements | CBC News The federal government is rolling out its "whalesafe fishing gear strategy," a five-year plan to develop and support the use of new fishing gear to reduce the risk of entangling whales — specifically ...

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... acoustic signals to lift fishing pots from the ocean floor and removes vertical ropes in the water, and lower-breaking links, designed to break at 1,700 pounds of force, meaning it's easier for whales to free themselves if they become entangled.

The sad predictability of the CPC Convention None of what Arno Kopecky saw from Conservatives speaking on the first night of the party's Calgary convention was any more surprising than the strange disconnect from reality he encountered among att...

The crazy thing about the crazy things I‘m hearing, is that it isn’t rando rally-goers from the party’s base saying them.
It’s delegates, the party brass and membership. These are folks who run the party.

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/30/o...

Ford government storing records ‘central’ to secret cabinet deliberations in Google Docs | Globalnews.ca New information shows staff within Ontario Premier Doug Ford's office are using unsecured Google services to create or circulate official documents.

NEW: The Ford government is drafting and circulating sensitive documents it says reveal details of cabinet meetings on personal Google accounts. #OnPoli

globalnews.ca/news/1164609...

Fellow Canadians be aware our biggest promoter of disinformation is the United States. Not Russia, not China, nor India. It is our southern neighbor. It will stop at Nothing to drive despair, non-unity, fear mongering, to separate us. We are Canadian. We are sovereign and will keep our freedom. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

People need to be informed of the real-world consequences.
#abpoli #ableg #Alberta

Microsoft Pledged to Save Water. In the A.I. Era, It Expects Water Use to Soar. Driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, Microsoft is internally projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double by 2030 from 2020, including in places that face shortages.

Microsoft had pledged to save water. But now, driven by the artificial intelligence frenzy, the tech giant is projecting that water use at its data centers will more than double by 2030 from 2020, including in places that face shortages.

Man who wouldn't wear mask to protect people fine wearing mask to shoot them MINNEAPOLIS, MN – A man who refused to wear a mask to protect other people in 2020 has declared he has no problem wearing one while shooting them.

Man who wouldn’t wear mask to protect people fine wearing mask to shoot them

Galen Weston was the most hated man in Canada for like a week, and hastily resigned as Loblaws CEO because of it. He got off easy. We're being bled dry.

It's the worst kept secret in this country that we're being fleeced at the grocery stores because of near monopolies. #cdnpoli