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Referendum Lite

TL, DW (too long, didn’t watch) The panel discusses Smith’s referendum for a referendum idea and called it “convoluted” “messy” “chaotic” “hokum” “bogus arithmetic” and “insincere threat”. They go on to discuss Carney’s meeting with Eby and hope that negotiations behind the scenes are more collegial than some of the public comments have been.

…The referendum question she proposed adding to the previous nine is a kind of exquisite annoyance. Here it is:

“Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

…Let’s look at how well Smith’s proposed question satisfies the interests of various Albertans.
Federalists: Probably dissatisfied. If you want Alberta to remain a province, you know this goal is best addressed by letting Alberta remain a province. No referendum is needed, certainly not from a premier who didn’t run on holding a referendum.
Separatists: Probably dissatisfied. If you want Alberta to separate from Canada, you’d like to get started. We will see whether the purported leaders of this movement seek revenge on Smith for thwarting them, and whether they have the cards, but I’m pretty sure they feel thwarted.
People who want to help Danielle Smith last longer as UCP leader than Jason Kenney: Probably OK with all this.

I’m just not sure the third group is as large as the first two. In fact I’m quite sure I ranked them correctly here, [federalists]>[separatists]>[fans of preserving Smith’s political hide.]

I can’t work up too much anger over all this. Even if it somehow led to a Yes vote to secession on some distant day… look, at some point, a country that could manage to step on that many rakes is one whose descent into bickering would be hard to mourn. But it’s a bit pathetic, isn’t it? This behaviour of Danielle Smith’s, I mean. All this stalling and hedging. A leader could have said, “I want no part of this pointless adventure. You want to take Alberta out of Canada and deliver it to the United States, you’re going to have to go through me.” A leader of a very different kind could have said, “To hell with this country, we’re out, let’s go.” The person who says, “Please just let me hang on for a few more months” is… not leading.

Regardless of Smith’s motivations, her actions are damaging Alberta. Her contempt for reconciliation is profound:

We also spoke with Treaty Six Grand Chief Joey Pete tonight. He says while the premier says this approach to a referendum may not violate Justice Leonard’s ruling, the Alberta government is still showing a “total disregard to First Nations.”
#Ableg

— Janet French (@jantafrench.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 8:33 PM

“Albertans are now seeing Danielle Smith’s government for what it is: undemocratic, authoritarian, and willing to bend to the whims of a loud, angry minority.”

Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation would also like a word.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

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— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 7:59 PM

“Now, all Albertans know what we have always known: you can’t trust Danielle Smith. She’s a traitor and a separatist.”

Mikisew Cree First Nation responds.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

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— The Breakdown AB (@thebreakdownab.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 7:55 PM

MAGA and the Trump administration will be delighted

On her What Now!?! An Alberta Politics Newsletter, Lisa Young asks

…So who wants this sad orphan referendum? Possibly Donald Trump, who can use it to poke at Canada on days when he loses interest in Greenland, Cuba, and Iran. Some bot farmers in Moscow, perhaps.

But Premier Smith has backed herself into a corner, so she will go on TV tonight to tell Albertans that 700,000 of them have signed petitions calling for a referendum (glossing over the fact that you wouldn’t want to put a random subset of that 700K in a room together, because it could get ugly).

And so it is that we are going to spend the next five months going through the motions of an orphan referendum, because it’s consequential enough that it can’t be ignored, but not truly consequential.

In Fly Straight, John Ivison writes

…Most polls show support for Alberta independence at between 27 and 30 percent. But when pressed, only about half of those people are committed secessionists – the other half are upset because they feel the province has been mistreated within Canada. Those people can be won back.

A sustained, patriotic Unity Rally, such as the one that attracted tens of thousands to Montreal in the days before the 1995 independence referendum in Quebec, would be the perfect antidote to the toxic cycle of negativity and half-truths that is already emanating from useful idiots like Jeffrey Rath, and his inciters in Russian military intelligence. Canadians from out of province should flock to this year’s Calgary Stampede and hug an Albertan.
I’m convinced, the Remain side will be lifted by its love of country, which is quite different from the narrow nationalism of the Leavers, who rely on hatred of shadowy enemies to motivate their voters.

But Canada is not Alberta’s enemy, no matter how much some Russian intelligence officer and his network of paid influencers try to make it so. Long may it live strong and free, within Canada.

A referendum on Canadian unity is divisive enough. Holding a referendum to have another referendum will divide us and will kill our economy. It is now more important than ever that all supporters of #ForeverCanadian sign up at Forever-Canadian.ca so we can stop this insanity.

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— Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk (@lukaszukab.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 8:30 PM

Edmonton mayor Andrew Knack has issued a statement on the referendum referendum (no, that’s not a typo), calling it “reckless” by the provincial government. Excerpt:

“Premier Smith and the UCP Government’s separatist agenda is catastrophic for Edmontonians, Albertans, and all Canadians… ” #AbLeg

— Janet French (@jantafrench.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 8:16 PM

Farwell to Stephen Colbert

Watch Stephen Colbert’s show and then never watch CBS again.

Make em feel it.

— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 9:40 PM

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Next, how about those San Francisco Giants!
In the 8th inning, they were down by a score of 9 to 1 against the Washington Nationals. Then they won the game 11-10!

Next, the World Cup is starting this week.
I wish I could get more excited about it but Trump and his CBP Gestapo have sucked the joy out of it for millions of people. 

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Meanwhile, in the “home of the brave”…

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The US isn’t going to get any respect:

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Some of the team photos are amazing:

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And in Somalia

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This is just shameful – Infantino whines “…we try to do our best…”

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Finally, I thought this was helpful, for all of us who never played soccer and know little about it:

Feeling left out during #WorldCup or soccer conversations?

While Savannah Ridley can’t turn you a total soccer buff, she just might be able to help you fake it. ⚽

trib.al/gUOMZpT

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— Toronto Star (@thestar.com) June 10, 2026 at 11:01 AM

Epstein-Gate Update
The New York Times dropped a major article today

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Here is a gift link to the New York Times article, by reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

On July 17, 2025, at around 6 o’clock in the evening, President Trump’s top officials filed into the White House Situation Room — the secure bunker where classified and high-stakes national security matters are discussed and decided. This was where President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the president’s national security team, watched the raid that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Now, however, Trump’s most senior advisers had gathered — without him — to figure out how to gain some measure of control over a very different kind of crisis threatening to engulf the presidency: the Epstein files.

Ten days earlier, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. had jointly released a memo that bluntly stated that their review had found no “client list” of powerful men for whom the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had allegedly procured underage girls and young women. Intended to put to rest years of speculation and end the pressure campaign to release the voluminous material in the department’s possession, the memo instead had the opposite effect, setting off a backlash that was notably loud among the MAGA base.

And it was about to get worse: The Wall Street Journal was preparing a damaging article about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. The president’s desperate attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now had to get everyone onto the same page about how to counter the growing swarm of attention. They needed a gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but also a way to convey the message that the president was sympathetic to his supporters’ concerns. Which itself was a problem, because he clearly wasn’t….

Later on, the story explains Trump’s “nipples” scandal:

… In the emails, Ransome claimed that she knew a girl in Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring named Jen, who said she had sex with Trump. Ransome also claimed that Jen had told her that Trump had a predilection for nipples and that he had aggressively flicked and sucked hers. Ransome wrote that she had seen evidence when she shared a bathroom with Jen. “They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them,” she wrote.

…Some of Trump’s advisers in the Situation Room had never heard of the nipple claim; those who had seemed to have only a passing familiarity with it. Many in the room thought this was all just discredited nonsense. But it might not matter.
… One official would later describe it as a “surreal” experience to be discussing nipples in the White House Situation Room.

This was, in miniature, the entire problem the White House had with the Epstein files: Piles of accusations were impossible to disprove and equally impossible to make go away. Every door they opened led to another room, and in every room were more claims from more women…

In a sidebar article [gift link], Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan summarize their main points:

… The government’s national-security bunker became an Epstein war room…
The president wanted the whole thing buried…
Vice President JD Vance wanted to release all the files — even the unsubstantiated material about Trump…
Expletive-laden blowups fractured the top of the Justice Department…
Advisers found themselves having a surreal debate over an unverified allegation about Mr. Trump…
More than a year later, the files were still damaging the president…

Trump’s staff meeting in the Situation Room about the Epstein cover-up is like a fire drill where everyone brought gasoline just to be safe.

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— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@sundaedivine.lol) June 11, 2026 at 2:04 AM

Moving on, today’s least surprising news story is that Trump says he doesn’t want to continue CUSMA.
Canada responds …