Dave Cournoyer 🇨🇦

🤠🗳️ Longtime Daveberta readers will know that I am keenly interested in tracking candidate nominations ahead of provincial and federal elections in Alberta, so I am pleased to share with you that I am continuing this tradition as we approach the next provincial election.

Thanks, Tim! 👍

Province broke its own access to information laws in withholding Alberta Next survey results The Alberta government wrongly withheld hundreds of pages of results from its Alberta Next surveys an adjudicator has ruled.

Last week, I learned an adjudicator had sided with me in 5 inquiries re: the province refusing to release results of its Alberta Next surveys

GOA published the multiple choice results in Dec but has been ordered to give me 213 pages of open-answer replies that haven't yet been shared
#ableg #abpoli

Nenshi's NDP starts nominating candidates for next Alberta election Early March candidate meetings scheduled in Calgary and Edmonton ridings

With rumours of an early provincial election circulating since last year, the Alberta NDP looks like it will be the first political party out of the gate to nominate candidates ahead of the next vote.

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

The short but unsatisfying answer to the question Dave poses is: it will take all of us.

I'm grateful to all the conservatives who stand up to the nonsense coming from separatist leaders. Because this isn't a partisan issue.

It's much bigger than that. daveberta.substack.com/p/whos-going...

🤠🗳️ Longtime Daveberta readers will know that I am keenly interested in tracking candidate nominations ahead of provincial and federal elections in Alberta, so I am pleased to share with you that I am continuing this tradition as we approach the next provincial election.

Nenshi's NDP starts nominating candidates for next Alberta election Early March candidate meetings scheduled in Calgary and Edmonton ridings

With rumours of an early provincial election circulating since last year, the Alberta NDP looks like it will be the first political party out of the gate to nominate candidates ahead of the next vote.

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

Alberta is barrelling toward a referendum on the province’s separation from Canada. The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

🇨🇦 Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum?

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

A picture speaks 1,000 words: "Alberta separatist leaders Dr. Dennis Modry (left) and Mitch Sylvestre (right) with Premier Danielle Smith (centre) at the UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)" daveberta.substack.com/p/whos-going...

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

Alberta is barrelling toward a referendum on the province’s separation from Canada. The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

🇨🇦 Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum?

Alberta separatists might look haphazard and kooky, but they have a path to turn a 20% issue into a real threat.

1 - Normalize separatism so it no longer feels toxic.
2 - Tie it to every grievance.
3 - Find a political dance partner. The U.S.A.

They are now pushing all 3 at once.

Playing with 🔥

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

🇨🇦 Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum?

Alberta is barrelling toward a referendum on the province’s separation from Canada. The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

daveberta.substack.com/p/whos-going...

As a longtime Albertan who has lived away for years but continues to work in Alberta issues, this separation business is worrying.
We need a strong pro-Canada figurehead, with emotional appeal, to step forward.
We also need Ottawa insiders to see this as a real threat and take appropriate action.

The captioning under the photo from the article - ' "Alberta separatist leaders Dr. Dennis Modry (left) and Mitch Sylvestre (right) with Premier Danielle Smith (centre) at the UCP fundraising dinner in Bonnyville in May 2025 (source: Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul UCP / Facebook)". That says a lot.

Great question from Mr Cournoyer. Lukaszuk seems like a natural, but him and Kenney dislike each other intensely. I like Guthrie and Lukaszuk.

Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum? The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

🇨🇦 Who’s going to stand up for Canada in Alberta’s separation referendum?

Alberta is barrelling toward a referendum on the province’s separation from Canada. The time to stand up for a Strong Alberta within a Strong Canada is now.

daveberta.substack.com/p/whos-going...

Opinion | The Globalization of Canadian Rage

"Mr. Carney’s speech went beyond diagnosis, though. It also gestured toward a way out. The U.S. president left Greenland alone in part because Denmark and its allies put more troops there...

"The lesson: America might be pointing a gun at you, but it can be made to behave if you point a gun back."

Live updates: White House blames 'staffer' for racist Obamas post shared by Trump Trump administration live updates: New Jersey's special House primary too close to call

Haven't seen this angle mentioned, but it's an extraordinary national security risk to have an anonymous "staffer" impersonating the president of the United States, posting racist memes, from his personal accounts, at 10 PM.

I agree. 👍

Having grown up in Edmonton, I think Mark Carney has a much better grasp of this than Trudeau ever did.

I also think there has been a real lack of understanding among some folks in Ottawa that oil and gas isn’t solely an economic issue in Alberta, it’s woven into a lot of the province’s culture and politics, which makes perceived attacks on it an emotional issue.

Oil production in Alberta is higher than ever been, but that hasn’t resulted in a job booms like we’ve experienced before. The UCP has been effective at deflecting criticism toward Ottawa, and the flippant and tone-deaf responses by some Trudeau-era ministers strengthened their argument IMHO.

ICYMI - my speech yesterday evening on Bill C-12, and the dangers of trying to placate xenophobes. #SenateofCanada #SenCa #Alberta #immigration

Justin Ling: For years, Canada has used a secret U.S.-run terror watchlist. Now Trump could use it against us It's called TUSCAN, and it's a nightmare for civil liberties. We need to put a stop to it.

As America weaponizes its post-9/11 security state to terrorize migrants and target dissidents, her (former) allies need to unplug from it ASAP. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

a map of canadian unemployment by province

Canadian Unemployment by Province:

Newfoundland & Labrador: 9.2%
Prince Edward Island: 7.6%
Ontario: 7.3%
Nova Scotia: 6.9%
New Brunswick: 6.7%
Alberta: 6.4%
Manitoba: 6.3%
British Columbia: 6.1%
Saskatchewan: 5.3%
Quebec: 5.2%

a graph of canadian jobs data

NEW CANADIAN JOBS DATA:

Employment Growth: -25k
Unemployment Rate: 6.5% (-0.4%)
Prime Age (25-54) Employment Rate: 83.3% (-0.1%)
Employment Level: 21.1M

The Writ Podcast: Carney's bump, Poilievre's challenge and the NDP's choice The Pollster Panel is back to break down the state of public opinion in federal politics.

The Writ Podcast is back with the former party pollsters. We break down the state of the race between Carney and Poilievre, plus we discuss the lanes that are (or aren't) open for the NDP and whether Carney should or should not call a snap vote. www.thewrit.ca/p/the-writ-p...

🤠🇨🇦 Writing about federalism, separatism, grievance and complacency in Alberta in my next column, which I hope to publish in a day or two.

Hard to Recall: Fast approaching deadlines for recall petitions targeting UCP and NDP MLAs Will any MLAs lose their jobs because of these direct democracy campaigns? (Probably not)

It was always going to be really hard.

Two of the 26 recall campaigns launched against United Conservative Party and New Democratic Party MLAs have been submitted to Elections Alberta and have fallen short of the number of signatures needed to force a recall vote in those ridings.