Albertans Need Team Canada

 Federal Opposition and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is incapable of championing Canadian unity in Alberta’s upcoming referendum. Having spent years insisting that "Canada is broken," he can hardly pull off a credible pivot to defend it. Worse still, he is weighed down by a caucus of weirdos that includes figures like JD Vance's best friend, Jamil Jivani, and David Bexte, father of Keean - the latter of whom has been strangely quiet on whether his ultimate allegiance belongs to Canada or the United States.

 Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whom I first met in 1998, has fallen down the ladder of good judgment. She isn't driving this referendum to secure a victory for Canada; she is the reason why Canadians are facing this threat - she initiated the whole fucking thing because she didn't get her way on Canada's election night, April 28th 2025. Smith is playing a domestic political game to protect her rural, right-wing prairie base now after starting this referendum nonsense, and to survive another provincial election. In her political calculus, Canadian citizenship is conditional, not a shared commitment. Otherwise, why would she have unleashed this madness in the first place?

 Alberta has not had a 2-term Premier since 2006, when Ralph Klein was Premier. The wolves are running the chicken coop now.

 Worse yet, Alberta risks becoming ungovernable. Separatists have hijacked the United Conservative Party, turning the provincial apparatus into a hotbed of chaos fueled by fringe American influences and the "Maple MAGA" mind virus. Both Smith and Poilievre remain captive to a noisy ecosystem of convoy radicals, anti-vaxxers, and internet conspiracy theorists, championed by figures such as Craig Chandler, Artur Pawlowski, David Parker, James Bauder, Mitch Sylvestre, Kevin J. Johnston, Keean Bexte, Benita Pedersen, and Jeffrey Rath. Today, the provincial Alberta government acts as though it answers to Old Testament crusaders and anti-science misfits rather than the average Albertan.

 Add to this mix a hodgepodge of Canadian citizen weirdos who hang out at July 4th parties in Ottawa with Trump's U.S. Ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, and you end up with a far-right online echo chamber - almost all of whom had no smiles on Canada Day only a few days earlier. These crazies include Alexandra Lavoie and Ezra Levant from Rebel "News"; Georgeanne Burke, a part-time Canadian citizen from Syracuse, New York, and former Conservative Party insider who spends most of her time on AM radio criticizing Canadians; and Shannon Boschy, another religious activist and well-known anti-LGBTQ+ activist who failed as an Ottawa District School Board trustee candidate and ran provincially for the far-right fringe Ontario Party. I almost forgot the Convoy Kook, Tammara Litch, another attendee on July 4th...her Convoy organized the blockade of 7 Canada-US borders simultaneously back in February 2022 - why was she invited and what is she planning?

 So, what should Prime Minister and Alberta native Mark Carney do when evil forces are working from within to break up Canada as they try and turn us into the 51st state?

 I have family and lifelong personal friends who live in Alberta, and I keep hearing a common theme. Beyond continuing to govern for all Albertans, the Prime Minister must deploy a cross-partisan federalist campaign team that tours the province - one fronted by heavyweights like former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Alberta Premiers Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley. It could raise donations, run television, radio, and online advertising. Also, just as crucially, it needs to organize voter ID with tablets to ensure the "No" side wins big.

 Let's hope Team Canada gets its elbows up - because it's clear American Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, his boss, the American intelligence agencies, and the US State Department are watching...