Albertans, as citizens, will be asked to participate politically frequently in the next few months.
SIGNING SIGNING EVERYWHERE A SIGNING
We will likely be asked to sign a Referendum Petition starting in August. Forever Canadian looks like it will finally get going around August 1.
It seems to me that they are going to miss the magnificent opportunity to capitalize on the Edmonton Heritage Festival because they won't likely have Elections Alberta credentialed volunteers by then.
Maybe they will be organized enough to infiltrate the world-famous Edmonton International Fringe Festival. Again, there is no communication about what's happening to gather signatures at such events.
The challenge of gathering 300,000 qualified in-person petition signatures in 90 days to help keep Alberta in Canada is daunting. Hope is not a strategy. What is the strategy?
Then there are the various Recall petition signatures that will be happening. ABResistance has been promoting a series of MLA Recall petitions for months, mainly in Calgary. Last I heard, they were pursuing as many as four constituencies for recall petition signatures of some UCP MLAs.
They, too, have a daunting task and are expected to launch in September, just as people are trying to start the new school year. That's also right in the middle of the Forever Canadian Referendum Petition efforts.
What possible confusion could that situation create?
THE ALBERTA NEXIT PANEL AND NDP WORKSHOPS
The remaining eight Smith Regime pro-separatist town halls will be in August and September. They will compete for media and citizen attention with the Forever Canadian and MLA Recall petitions.
The NDP has also announced a series of competing NEXIT countervailing province-wide town halls. These will add heat and perhaps some light to the Smith Regime Separatists' agenda. But again, there will be more competing efforts for that precious political commodity: public attention.
LOCAL ELECTIONS
On October 20th, citizens all over Alberta will vote in local council and school board elections.
The Separatists are trying to take over local councils with far-right candidates in political party structures. The radical fundamental evangelical Christians are trying to take over public education in the school board elections. Book banning is just the beginning.
Both far-right initiatives are organized, focused, funded, and committed. The progressive alternatives are scattered, unfunded, passive, and not passionate. They will have to get their act together if we don't want the MAGA North types to rule our province, as they do now, and also decide the future of our local governments and school systems.
THEN THERE'S THE TRUMP FACTOR
And we have the forever “flexible” and uncertainty created by the tirades on trade, tariff, and the tyranny to our economic well-being and even our future provincial sovereignty, caused by Mr Trump. That is overwhelming for many.
SMITH FLOOD THE ZONE STRATEGY
Ever since the Smith Regime got a majority government, she has followed the Trump-Bannon Playbook. That includes passing a myriad of complex, controversial legislation reflecting American Republican politics.
Under Smith's authoritarian political strategy, there is so much happening that we can't keep up. The continuous volume of devastating and democracy-degrading policy changes she has imposed keeps us scrambling to be informed and aware.
Her cunning capacity for diversion and deflection, from her corruption, along with her barrage of deceitful misinformation and disinformation propaganda, keeps us constantly confused and off balance.
Opposition and resistance efforts are difficult to keep focused and even harder to be effective against. The personal pressures of everyday life always make enormous demands on our time and capacity to engage in the political culture of our province.
I fear all of this is creating two kinds of Albertans. It's not about Left vs Right. It's about being an involved, engaged citizen in community action or a passive, indifferent, isolated, inert individuals.
A lot is being asked of us right now. Not everyone can engage in effective political action. But those of us who can must step up, show up, speak up, and act up to clea
n up our increasingly corrupt political culture.
I totally forgot the folks in Battle River Crowfoot have an additional challenge, the federal byelection on August 28. As if this comment there are 299 "registered candidates on the ballot. Candidates can still register until July 28. They can expect more confusing nuiscence csndidates That will make it hard for voters to find the real independent Candidate they want to vote for.
In Alberta this is the old Republican play book and now project 2025 playing out. The idea is to flood the voters with so many ideas as fast as you can, so nobody has the time to delve into any of these ideas.