Today's News: Poilievre wins, Albexit disastrous, Canada needs to toughen up, plus some short takes

So we will still have Poilievre to kick around some more
Poilievre's big speech was tonight. And he won the leadership vote by 87.5 per cent.
Sigh.
I guess Canada won't be finished with him until after he loses the next election.

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Poilievre just told #CP26 "There's never been a referendum crisis or a national unity crisis when Conservatives have been in power It's an interesting coincidence isn't it" False. BQ was the product of Mulroney's time in office. Borden - WWI conscription crisis. Sir John - Louis Riel. C'mon man.

— davidakin (@davidakin.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 8:42 PM

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It's fate

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Albexit would be a losing proposition for Alberta
Just as Brexit was a disaster for the British, so would Albexit be a disaster for Albertans
I found two great commentaries today:

”Separatists' math doesn't add up, warns Edmonton business leaders” #ableg #cdnpoli #Yeg #Yyc edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

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— Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk (@lukaszukab.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 5:17 PM

In the Edmonton Journal, Eric Bolling writes Separatists' math doesn't add up, warns Edmonton business leaders An independent Alberta would start off $600 billion in debt and take decades to recover economically, says Edmonton Chamber of Commerce

If Alberta separates and accepts U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer of a line of credit, the new country will be starting off $600 billion in debt and it will take decades to get back to the current economy, says a group of business leaders.
The Edmonton Chamber of Commerce issued a stark warning about uncertainty caused by the separatist movement and its encouragement from the White House, saying it has already driven away investment in Edmonton and the province....
[Edmonton Global executive vice-president Mustafa Sahin says] “There’s been an uptick in the last year of interest in exploring opportunities in Edmonton, Alberta and Canada as a risk-diversification away from the uncertainty that is the U.S. today. When people look at Canada from the outside, they see us as a politically stable, low risk environment. The goal is absolutely to try to keep it that way.”
He said the big capital flight danger are major projects, such as head offices or manufacturing plants, since companies usually only decide where to set-up those assets once in a decade or more. He noted a number of companies moved from Montreal to Toronto following a failed separation referendum in Quebec.
By separating, Albertans could also be shooting future job prospects in the foot...
Claims the temporary foreign worker program is taking jobs away from Albertans are also categorically false, noted [chamber vice-president Heather] Thomson. In reality, TFWs help keep the cost of living down, because they collect much lower wages than an employer has to pay an Albertan to do the same job. As any increased expense is passed on to the consumer, Albertans would be paying for the xenophobia of a few with much more expensive groceries.
Other promises trumpeted by separatist leaders don’t add up either. Jeffrey Rath has claimed if Alberta separated there could eventually be no income tax for Albertans, but information readily available shows the Alberta government collected $15 billion in personal income tax and $7 billion from corporations in 2025 — that’s on top of the billions in oil royalties used to pay some of the bills. Alberta also relies on billions in health and social program transfers from Ottawa, not to mention the $30 billion federally-owned Trans Mountain Pipeline — which Sahin noted a majority of Canadians are currently polling in favour of expanding.
Separatist sentiment that Alberta is the sole pillar holding up the rest of Canada doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, either. In 2023, the federal government collected $28 billion in income tax from Alberta. For comparison, British Columbians contributed $30 billion to Canada in 2023, Quebecers doled out $40 billion and Ontario taxpayers forked out $86 billion.
Confederation brings significant cashflow into Alberta’s economy too — the province exports upwards of $70 billion in goods and services to the rest of the country every year.
Thomson said the “buy Canadian” movement and shift in federal procurement policies will only build on that.
“We’re very encouraged by where the federal government is taking the Canadian economy and the strategy of how we can make sure our economy is not reliant on one trading partner,” she said. “Anytime there’s a buy-Canadian movement, it’s going to be a net positive.”
Describing Canada as a “family with 13 kids,” Sahin noted Canadians tend to overinflate domestic issues which don’t even hit the radar on the international stage and he hopes separatism is one of those....

And here is a great comment from Alberta rock musician Kyle Jordan:

What It Means to Be Albertan I grew up Albertan. I am Albertan. And there is a fierce loyalty in that identity that lives in my bones. Not as a slogan. Not as a flag on a truck. As something earned through weather, work, conflict, and time. To be Albertan means being tough. Not performative tough. Real tough. The kind built from long winters, hard work, boom-and-bust cycles, and learning early that nobody is coming to save you. It means speaking when something feels wrong. It means holding your ground when your values are tested. But that toughness was never just about me. If you believe in dignity for yourself, you owe it to other people too. The pride I grew up with was collective. We did not only look out for ourselves. We looked out for everybody, even when we felt frustrated, overlooked, or unsupported. Because we are Canadians. Because community matters. Because leaving people behind was never the deal. We showed up when barns burned. When floods hit. When jobs disappeared. When families struggled. We worked hard to get ahead, and when we had extra, we shared it. No speeches. No performance. That was just the culture. The Alberta I grew up in carried country and Western values rooted in fairness and loyalty. It meant protecting people who get targeted. It meant punching up, not down. Strength was never about being cruel to others. It was about responsibility. There is a quiet steadiness in Albertans. Most of us do not need to shout. But when ethics get tested, when hate starts getting normalized, when cruelty starts getting excused, silence stops being an option. And that is where I find myself now. When Donald Trump rose to power, something shifted. People felt emboldened to say uglier things out loud. Misogyny got louder. Racism got bolder. Hostility toward marginalized people became more normalized. That energy did not stay in the United States. It drifted north and started warping conversations here too. I am not someone who chases conflict. I would rather keep the peace. But this moment does not allow indifference. Staying quiet helps nobody. Being Albertan taught me that when something is wrong, you speak. You stand. You hold the line. Somewhere along the way, people tried to twist Alberta pride into something uglier. Cruelty got moulded as toughness. Hate got framed as honesty. Selfishness got dressed up as freedom. That is not the Alberta I know. The Alberta I know is tough, yes. Proud, yes. Loud when necessary, yes. But it is also generous, protective, and loyal. Rooted in the belief that if one of us is being crushed, none of us should look away. That is the pride I grew up with. That is the pride I still carry. And I am not letting anyone rewrite what it means. And let me be clear about one more thing. Separatism is not Alberta pride. Turning our backs on the rest of Canada is not strength. Storming off because we feel disrespected is not grit. Pretending we are stronger alone is not frontier spirit. The Alberta I was raised in believed in standing tall inside this country, not rage-quitting it. We challenged Canada. We argued with Canada. We demanded better from Canada. But we did not abandon Canada. Being Albertan is not about running. It is about staying. About building. About fighting for the whole, not just ourselves.

- The Kyle Jordan Project

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When the going gets tough, the tough get going
I'm out of Globe and Mail gift links for January, so I'll share quite a bit of this brilliant column by Andrew Coyne  Donald Trump wants to make an example out of Canada. How will we prepare?

... we are only one year into the Trump administration. They are bound to get crazier, as they have grown steadily crazier until now – literally, in Mr. Trump’s case – not only in the extremity of their ambitions but the fanaticism with which they pursue them. Domestically, they have brought the United States to the brink of civil conflict. Internationally, they very nearly provoked a shooting war with Europe over Greenland. They are halfway to establishing a dictatorship in the United States. We should not imagine they would shrink to impose their will on their neighbours.
Indeed, they have openly declared as much. Read the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, with its talk of enforcing “American preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere, of its intent to “reward and encourage … governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and strategy” and to “discourage” collaboration with other countries – and more broadly to “assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region.”
This does not necessarily imply the use of military force; almost certainly it does not. But neither should we imagine that our troubles are limited to the tariffs Mr. Trump has seen fit to impose on us, or that they would be over in the event that the USMCA is successfully renegotiated....
...Mr. Trump will seek to exploit our dependence on U.S. trade to extort all sorts of concessions from us, in matters ranging from defence and foreign policy to critical infrastructure to natural resources. And should we agree to pay the ransom he demands, we can have no assurance that he will honour any undertakings he makes in response – assuming he makes any.
Those, prominent on social media, who urge us to “be vewy vewy quiet” in response – to say or do nothing that might irritate His Orange Majesty, lest we put the USMCA talks at risk – are therefore not only craven: They are deluding themselves. The prize on which they urge us to keep our eyes is not self-evidently a prize at all. Of course, other things being equal, we would prefer USMCA to no USMCA. But other things may not be equal: It will depend on the terms. And if we want an agreement on terms that are remotely acceptable, we have to be ready to walk away from the negotiating table – to walk away from the USMCA, if it comes to that.
But supposing we dodge that bullet. Mr. Trump will still be in power, still out of his mind, still surrounded by fanatics with dreams of hemispheric domination. Between tariffs on the one hand, and military force on the other, the U.S. has a great many coercive measures at its disposal.
Our relationship, after all, built up over many decades, extends far beyond the mere exchange of goods. An administration that wanted to cause trouble for us could start by imposing restrictions on the flow of people. Indeed it already has: tightening border screening, limiting visas, targeting particular individuals for security reviews. Imagine how much more intrusive and punitive these could become.
It could do the same to Canadian businesses: targeting them for arbitrary and aggressive regulatory enforcement; launching frivolous antitrust actions, or discovering baseless environmental or safety violations. In ordinary times, such actions would be restrained by the limits of the courts and the rule of law. But we are not in ordinary times. The Department of Justice, under Mr. Trump, is simply an instrument of his personal rule.
Or if you really want to imagine the kind of havoc they could create, suppose Canadian banks were to suddenly find themselves shut out of the U.S. dollar settlement system. Suppose our internet networks were to come under assault. Or our electricity grids. Some people in this country talk about cutting off exports of Canadian energy to the States, as a means of punishing them for actions we dislike. They forget that the U.S. has far greater ability to do the same to us.
There has been much talk of what we need to do externally to give ourselves greater bargaining power – of the need to develop options, in trade, and allies, in defence and security matters. All well and good. But we need also to pay much more attention to strengthening our own internal resilience – our capacity to endure whatever the Trump administration might throw at us.
That’s not only or even primarily about military capacity. That’s about capacity generally: state capacity, to be sure, but more broadly, societal capacity. The point of the measures described above, especially in the havoc-creating end of things, is to cause pain, to induce panic, to sow divisions and, ultimately, to force capitulation. Our exposure in this case is not only a function of our proximity to the U.S., but our own internal weaknesses.
Addressing those weaknesses will require us to face up to some hard choices that we have preferred to put off until now. We have, for example, tolerated for many decades what most democratic countries do not: the proposition that the country can be forced to negotiate its own dismemberment at any time, by a simple vote of one of the provinces – with the result that we now face the possibility of such a vote in two of them.
Given the situation we are in – given the near certainty that any such vote will be the target of massive foreign interference and disinformation campaigns – is that something we can still tolerate? Why would we hand our adversaries the tools with which to divide and destroy us?
We are already divided, economically, by hundreds of interprovincial trade barriers – barriers that do not just weaken us economically, but contribute to our political divisions. Hitherto we have relied on the provinces to negotiate an end to these, with predictably derisory results. Is this something we can still tolerate, under the circumstances? Or is it time for the federal government to do what federal governments do in most federations, and knock down those barriers unilaterally?
Our transportation, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure is stretched thin, literally and figuratively: We are, as we have been called, a horizontal Chile, with obvious choke points and obvious vulnerabilities. Protecting these is clearly an imperative – but so is improving our ability to function in the event that these come under attack.
Can we, in a crisis, rapidly mobilize the materials and manpower needed to bring it under control? Can we, in so doing, reduce the societal cost of externally imposed shocks of this kind, signal to others our ability to endure them, and so make it less likely they will be tried? And if not, what do we need to do to make this possible?
We are in a lot of trouble, and we need to move fast. We have little ability to predict Mr. Trump’s actions, and no reason to confine our imagination to what is reasonable or even practical. It is not enough to hope for the best. We have to plan for the worst.

Coyne also discusses these themes in this interview:

TLDW: "We need to develop a self-defence culture...the charmed life we have lived for 150 years may be over, we need to understand the Trump government wants to control us, and they're not restrained by ordinary norms. That's the world we're in and we have to look at that with open eyes"

Here's a good description of why it is important to oppose Trump:

It really does, doesn't it?

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— gene (@genej101.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 4:26 PM

Short takes:
Some corporations are finding their spine and refusing to make deals with the US Homeland Security ghouls:

Companies finding a spine when they can see the tides have changed. SMH

— Mike D Treacherous Canadian- I guess. (@michaeldonaldson.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 7:36 PM

Turns out that you can simply chose not to sell your warehouse and prevent it from becoming a detention center www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

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— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 1:11 PM

Brutal column in the Kansas City Star about a local real estate company trying to avoid public scrutiny for selling ICE a property for a massive prison camp: www.kansascity.com/opinion/arti...

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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 5:34 PM

www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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— Rachel Maddow (@maddow.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 5:11 PM

About the revelations from Friday's Epstein Files drop:

Huh. This entire administration is an Epstein Island afterparty.

— Timothy Snyder (@timothysnyder.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 6:06 PM

every epstein file drop underscores how elite power operates through shared socio-economic networks, regardless of people's ideological differences, populist posturing, or public feuds

— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 5:58 PM

Now the Trump administration is arresting journalists: 

Don Lemon and three other independent Black journalists were arrested on Thursday. 

I think the Trump administration is now going after independent journalists because they think they already have the media corporations under control.

Source familiar with Don Lemon's arrest tells me DOJ went to a grand jury to secure an indictment (DOJ's effort to get a criminal complaint had already been rejected in court twice). This is ugly. More soon.

— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 9:24 AM

This is worth remembering:

Just like in Canada, Trump is now tanking right-wing politicians around the world:

The Canada effect seems like it is happening in a few countries

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— Clara Jeffery (@clarajeffery.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 9:36 AM

A fascinating article here about How Macron denied Trump on Greenland

And here's a good comment:

Moscow led a global superpower, got relegated to regional bully, and has been bitter about it ever since. Washington led a global superpower, and decided it’d rather be a weaker, more isolated regional bully.

— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) January 20, 2026 at 7:05 AM