Lorne Daniel

Lovely.

A regime that is solidly anti-science and anti-knowledge.

“We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy… The powerful have their power. But we have something, too: the capacity to stop pretending.”

— Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos, basically announcing divorce from America and receiving a standing ovation

From the speech: But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot "live within the lie" of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

From the speech: But I'd also say that great powers can afford, for now, to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what's offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It's the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at DAVOS is really, really, really good. He's not pulling punches about the collapse of world institutions.
www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Brooklyn Park police chief Mark Bruley: "We're hearing people being stopped with no cause & being demanded to show paperwork to determine if they're here legally. We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints. Every one of these individuals is a person of color... it has to stop"

Full-on authoritarian state. So many people standing on the sidelines, hoping that they won't get singled out for state abuse ... divide and conquer tactics.

Petition our MP to regulate size of vehicles? Visibility of pedestrians from new trucks is horrendous.

Yes agreed.
And at the same time, on a personal level, I often wear some reflective clothing. And always assume that I need extra vigilance after dark in winter.

And one of the challenges is that developers often face multi-year processes whether they build medium/small or large; the economic pressure is to build large.

I haven't read this particular piece but I'm always conflicted by these messages. What op-eds miss is the difference between pedestrians being visible for self-protection, and drivers adjusting speeds and driving practices for the safety of others. We need both. The 1st is personal choice.

Yeh the culture of people in uniforms, with weapons and power… sad and scary.

probably not

one of those rare, pure, 'life is good' moments

Not to mention that many (most?) promises of federal funding never actually come to be ... not that I'm a cynic or anything.

Exactly.
Invest in increasing health education programs, getting more skilled people into the workforce.

CRAFT: The Scientific (Memoir) Method by Sarah Boon | Hippocampus Magazine "Science memoir is an important sub-genre of memoir, and has a lot to offer readers." -- Sarah Boon in her craft column "The Scientific (Memoir) Method."

My article about what science memoir is, now up at @hippocampusmag.bsky.social www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2026/01/craf...

Proud to be a 'Brave & Brilliant' poet.

Big thanks to the team at @ucalgarypress.bsky.social for their belief in, and support of, What is Broken Binds Us.

#poetry #newbooks

The small things and hopefully too some large things.

Somewhere the tide must turn or this regime sets its self up for the long term.

Yes, I think many of these changes slow traffic which reduces noise without (studies show) actually reducing vehicle travel times. Moderate steady speeds are more efficient than fast bursts and braking.
The repaved Fairfield has also greatly reduced the noise of truck / trailer units - no potholes.

I'm going to give @victoria.ca feedback on noise as a health issue, while they are reviewing their noise bylaw. Calming streets leads to more equity in terms of proximity to damaging noise.

A great perspective on how life alongside busy streets CAN be improved, with better movement but also healthy levels of quiet and calm.

Totally agree.
This parallels my experience with Richardson. We live on Fairfield, which is very noisy with truck, bus & emergency vehicle traffic. You don't realize what you're missing, sound-wise. But on Richardson, calmed for bikes, we can now hear birds! And conversation. Just so pleasant.

Yes, Richmond would be a good addition - and agreed re the walking experience.

@burgundavia.bsky.social And Fairfield was repaved this past summer, so now it won't be on an upgrade / repair plan for many years. I get E/W well on Richardson but as mentioned, N/S from lower Moss St area to and through Fernwood is a gap. I can afford the time to do indirect loops but not all can.

"America is an oil company with an army."

—George Carlin

Colonialism lives.

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

We're going to one in Oak Bay this afternoon. Over by 5 pm.
#partytown

I did a bunch of interviews this fall & just got them listed & linked, if you're interested in poetry and the breaks and bonds in families. www.lornedaniel.ca/post/a-fall-...
Huge thanks to all the radio and podcast hosts!
#poetrycommunity @ucalgarypress.bsky.social @riverstreetwriting.bsky.social

Yes, there are probably differences within different communities and interest groups. In my Tweeting experience, I was doing mostly urbanism stuff and people in Greater Vic and beyond with those interests were very active in conversations. Plus, I had thousands of followers. Things change.

Must say, after some months on here, getting virtually no interaction. I haven't invested a lot of time, but it seemed that the old Tweet place generated its own energy. Here, a post gets maybe a couple likes, rarely comments, almost never back-and-forth conversation. Will likely set B'sky aside.