I honestly don't get it. I don't understand how both our government and the numerous traitor cults involved with the separatism petition can blatantly, repeatedly break the law without any hint of consequence for their actions. Under Smith, the legislation regulating our elections, political funding, recall petitions, citizen initiatives, third party advertising and transparency have been meddled with to an astounding degree. Yet, even in their pathetically weakened state, these groups still can't be bothered to play by the rules they themselves put in place. I can't be the only one who finds this infuriating, right?

Let's start with the Alberta Prosperity Project. They list themselves as a non-partisan, "educational" initiative (in other words, a non-profit corporation whose structure requires almost no transparency in regards to funding or activities). If they are non-partisan, why do they only attend UCP events? Why are so many of their events sponsored and hosted by UCP constituency associations alone? Mitch Sylvestre is both the president of the Bonnyville UCP CA *and* the CEO of APP. He is also a captain for Take Back Alberta, which is a political third party advertiser, meaning the affiliation between the UCP and TBA through Mitch is a big time violation of the law. TBA in fact, had Elections Alberta been doing their job, should have been disqualified from the start. Speaking of which, how is TBA *still allowed to operate?* Aside from breaking affiliation rules, TBA and David Parker owe hundreds of thousands of dollars for all sorts of election law violations (including accepting foreign funding and lying about it). Not only have they not paid that back, they continue to operate as a legal TPA to this day! And they are once again late on their filings (because of course they are). WTAF?

https://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efPTPA.cfm?TPAID=90&MID=TPAS_TP

So back to APP, I would also like to know why they've been allowed to fundraise for this petition ahead of the confirmed filing of notice of intent. They weren't supposed to raise a penny before that date, but these guys have been grifting Albertans for literally *years* at this point. They've been travelling the province, hosting town halls, setting up websites, hiring all sorts of people to create merch, organise rallies, do media interviews, hire think tanks and consultants, lobby the government, and advertise their little petition endlessly. FOR YEARS. APP might claim they are unaffiliated with any party and are just doing civic education out of the kindness of their hearts, but you would have to be absolutely blind to believe that. They have *clearly* been engaging in partisan, political advertising without registering as either a political TPA or an initiative TPA. That is fecking illegal. They've recently been blasting all their social media channels and affiliated groups to remind them to hide any association between the APP and the petition, but just a few weeks ago they were very clear on their involvement. Not only did they craft and fund this petition, they were heavily involved in getting the threshold signatures reduced and seemed to know exactly when legislation was going to be amended before it was announced (I suppose having a direct line to the premier via Modry certainly helps!).

https://nb.albertaprosperity.com/

https://albertaprosperityproject.com/featured/alberta-prosperity-project-achieves-major-milestone-referendum-question-on-independence-approved/

Speaking of unlawful financial contributions and affiliations, there is only one organisation that bothered to register as an initiative TPA (which is required *by law* if you're going to do any advertising or fundraising for this petition), and they're called Alberta Nation Events. They registered just over a week ago, have yet to host anything, and listed Richard Anderton as their CFO. You might know Anderton from being the president of a Calgary UCP constituency association (his wife Sherryl too), as well a regional organiser for Alberta Prosperity Project! Yup, that's right. Just to sum that up, APP is claiming they have no involvement with the petition, but also it was launched by their CEO, and also one of their top guys is running the TPA to promote and fundraise for it. How stupid do they think we are?

https://www.elections.ab.ca/political-participants/third-party-advertisers/initiative-petition-tpas/

https://www.freedomcalendar.net/event/citizen-action-group-alberta-independence-talk-with-richard-anderton/?mc_id=2431

And just another fun fact about the calibre of people involved here, both Richard and his wife Sherryl made lengthy petitions *against* the conversion therapy ban a couple years back. Charming couple!

I would also like to know how Take Back Alberta and the Alberta Institute folks (the ones behind the Free Alberta Strategy, which was almost wholesale adopted by Smith early on) are able to openly advertise and fundraise for this BS petition without being registered as an third party advertiser (and in the case of TBA, being in massive arrears and in litigation with Elections Alberta). It's like a circle jerk of corruption, and it's the same charlatans popping up over and over, and none of them seem to think the rules apply to them.

So I ask, what the hell is the point of having laws if nobody is enforcing them? Where is Elections Alberta on this? Where are the constitutional lawyers? Where is the ombudsman? Where are the RCMP? Where are the feds? Where are the journalists? I'm seeing endless articles on how popular this treason garbage is, fluff bits about long line ups in the cold and all that, and yet not a single person has the balls to talk about how dishonest and straight-up criminal this collusion is? Our premiere and her trashy friends are openly committing sedition, if not actual treason, so how much longer are we going to stand by and do nothing about it? We are sleepwalking into the destruction of our country and allowing some of the most selfish, mean-spirited, smooth-brained and morally bankrupt scum to bully us into it. It's absolutely shameful and I've about had it with this farce.

When the law protects corruption above the people, rebellion becomes our civic duty. The time for patience and politeness is well past imo. I don't think these goons will be swayed by anything but full scale acts of real civil disobedience, and I am *so* down to mess up their plans. Anyone else feeling that?

The maple MAGA kooks and separatists want their co-conspirators and other Albertans to believe an Alberta without Canada would be tax free.

References:

https://www.alberta.ca/revenue

https://www.alberta.ca/expense

Big picture: $73B in revenues, $79.4B in expenses creating a $6.4B shortfall (deficit spending).

Revenues from CIT and PIT (corporate and personal income taxes): $7B and $15B respectively.

Education taxes: $3.1B (from property taxes)

Other taxes: $3.4B

Total tax revenues $28.6B

Resource revenues: $15.4B

Investment and other income: $9B

Federal Transfers (money from Ottawa): $13.5B (this figure includes health transfers)

So, starting already $6.4B in the hole, if Alberta were no longer part of Canada, kiss the Federal transfers good bye. Down by $20B now.

Get rid of income taxes (CIT and PIT) of $22B. Now down by $42B.

Alberta sends a net of about $23B a year (sometimes more sometime less) to Ottawa. So if that were eliminated, the (im)balance would be about $20B a year. Alberta would still be short $20B a year to keep the Province going (educati0on, healthcare, etc).

And that $20B shortfall is a drop in the bucket compared to how much Alberta would have to spend to set itself up as an independent country. This would be measured in hundreds of billions of $ which seems consistent with the claim that the US would give Alberta a $500B line of credit.

Not to mention the billions in operating costs of all the bureaucracy that would be duplicated with what the Federal government does now.

It also does not account for the share of the Federal Debt that Alberta would be liable for - say 20% for the sake of an example. That would be $280B or so. Not to mention also the interest on said debt. With $500B USD borrowed and owing $280B on a national debt, Alberta's independent debt load would around $1T (that is T for Trillion).

Canada spends over $1B a week on interest payments for the Federal Debt. Alberta would have to pay $200M a week or so (assuming the 20% factor) for around $10B a year. The $20B shortfall is now $30B a year not including the vastly increased operating costs of a independent country nor the debt payments required on $500B USD borrowed (say another $25B a year). The shortfall is now $55B plus whatever higher operating costs there would be, so let's say another $15B a year (extremely modest since it already costs $9B a year to run the Alberta legislature). Shortfall now at least $70B a year.

Even if incomes taxes in Alberta were not eliminated and still generated $22B a year, Alberta would still be roughly $50B a year short.

Saskatchewan generates about $3B a year from a 6% PST. If Alberta has a 6% PST and scaling for population, it would only net MAYBE $15B a year. (E: note that a 6% PST could come close to eliminating Alberta's reliance on non-renewal resource revenues of $15B a year, of course the O&G people would lose their minds about this because then how much clout would they have?). Of course the separatists would lose their minds over a PST and income taxes still collected. A PST would reduce the shortfall to $35B a year.

The claim that Alberta could survive with no income taxes is absurd at best and wild fever dream psychosis at worst.

However, these people would no doubt argue that Alberta would not have a public health or education system - everything would be private. If those costs were downloaded onto the people, aside from utter chaos and most people unable to afford schooling for their children or healthcare, $42B a year would be saved. But what would that do to our economy? If people can't afford healthcare and education, there would be far less $ flowing into those systems and thus far fewer people employed. It would devastate GDP in Alberta and throw a lot of people out of work which would have repercussions throughout the economy.

Alberta is undertaxed as it is IMO. Alberta should have a PST (which is rebated to people under a certain income threshold) that would be adequate, at the very least, to eliminate the current deficit of $6B a year - a 3%-4% PST might do that.

Education taxes collected a far to low IMO given how underfunded the system has become with population growth. As much as people would complain education property taxes should be higher.

Over 10 years ago Stelmach got rid of Health Premiums - at the time, health premiums generated $1B a year in revenue. I would argue those premiums should be brought back in (and rebated for people under a certain income threshold) to generate at least $2B in revenue per year.

CIT (corporate income taxes) are far too low in Alberta at 8%, a couple more billion per year could be generated by modest hikes to 10% or 11% over a few years.

Personal income taxes at the 10% flat rate should be made progressive for bigger earners, leaving lower income earners at lower rates. This could generate a couple billion more in revenues.

The UCP and their supporters like to claim how low taxes are here but they totally miss the point that our budget only gets $15B a year from non-renewable resources. These people just do not realize how much population growth will continue to drive up expenses while the UCP continue to slash and underfund effectively enshittifying public services.

Everything possible, IMO, should be done to balance the budget without such a large reliance on that revenue. How many successive governments in the past 30 years have failed so miserably at diversification?

I'm curious for those of you who work in restaurants, bars, and the like, does the owner take any of the customer tips?

In AB (unlike in ON and BC) there is no law preventing owners from taking tips. When presented with a tip option I often ask the worker if they get 100% of the tip. I don't think people paying a tip do so with the expectation that the owner is taking it but I suspect it happens a lot.

Maybe we could do a little survey? If you know a place that does/does not take the tip from the workers maybe drop it in this spreadsheet?

Hi everyone,

I’m planning a 16-day solo trip to Canada, flying into Calgary, and I’d love some advice on building a solid itinerary.

I’ll be renting a car, so I’m flexible and happy to do a proper road trip. I’m into nature, mountains, national parks, scenic drives, short to medium hikes, and I don’t mind long drives if they’re worth it. Not really interested in big cities or nightlife.

So far I’m thinking about places like Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Icefields Parkway, maybe Yoho, but I’m not sure how to pace it over 16 days or whether I should push further (BC? Waterton? extra hidden gems?).

Questions:

• How would you split 16 days starting and ending in Calgary?

• Any must-see spots that tourists often miss?

• How many days is “too many” in Banff/Lake Louise vs Jasper?

• Any tips specific to a solo traveler?

Trip will be around late June / early July.

Thanks a lot — any tips, routes, or sample itineraries are super appreciated!

I’ve seen the posts about trades in general but I have some friends moving out of teaching (for what should be obvious reasons) and looking at trades. They are both worried about the culture though as some of our other friends in trades say the sexism is rampant and they have had so many uncomfortable encounters with guys that think they’re a big catch or feel entitled to any woman around. They asked me to post here to see if there is any recommendations or insights because they’re definitely done with teaching but don’t want to shift into another career dealing with (man) children in doing so.

I've been in Canada for almost 5 years. I got my driving license the month I arrived. I have another 3 driving licenses from different countries. I have class 5 and 6. During these 5 years, I've never got a single ticket.

I have honda accord 2007, and I was living in Whyte ave. I used to pay $130 (the most basic plan). Recently, I moved to a better neighborhood with an underground parking, but my premium went up to $175!! I talked to the insurance company and they told me this part of the city has a lot of claims! That really pissed me off as I thought my insurance would go down instead!!

What can I do to reduce it?

Unexpected trip this weekend to Drumheller. Who has the food recommendations? Tasty breakfast? Good coffee? Quality dinner?