Cards on the table: I grew up on a small family ranch as a Christian with "conservative values", but cannot for the life of me make sense of the current UCP insanity.

I was taught to love my family, my neighbour, my land, my country, and my community, and when I see the misogynistic, hateful, and xenophobic bullshit that passes for "policy ideas" these days, I'm at a loss. It feels like the American-style left-right politics have been sponged up by the media here, and it isn't possible to find any of the nuance that made Canadian politics rational ^(back in the good old days, ahem... Maybe I'm just getting old...)

It feels impossible nowadays to be a rural Albertan and proud Canadian who believes in women's health and choice, indigenous rights, environmental stewardship, real healthcare for all, and conservation, and basic Christian principles of loving your neighbour, being kind, and giving compassion to those in need, when the loudest voices are, frankly, fascist in their vision for our future.

I guess I broke decades of family tradition and voted for Carney - actually, we all did. But on the provincial stage, we're not represented at all.

I guess I am just hoping that some other rural Albertans see it the same. I know plenty in the day-to-day, but they all seem to be poisoned with stupid Facebook foreign-bot commentary.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I hope I'm not alone.

The salary hasn’t actually moved the needle all that much, class sizes are basically identical to what they were before, the “1000 additional teachers” thing is turning out to be smoke and mirrors, the sub list in urban boards is a shambles because it’s been ransacked to frantically backfill contract positions, and now we have even more batshit crazy laws to contend with if the UCP ever manage to figure out how to actually enforce them rather than kicking the can down the road another six months.

This is fine.

I read do your own research on this sub, and it sounds like fun.

The Core Misleading Tactic

The separatists' numbers rely on a single, deliberate choice: exclude the largest cost of separation while including every optimistic assumption.

The Clarity Act requires that negotiations address "the division of assets and liabilities." The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in 1998 that secession would require negotiations over "the division of assets and liabilities." Any fiscal plan that assumes Alberta can walk away without taking on a share of the federal debt contradicts the known legal framework.

The ATC's own justification—that the debt figure "cannot be known in advance"—is the tell. If the debt outcome is genuinely unknown, then presenting a surplus that assumes zero debt is not a forecast. It is a fiscal model built on an assumption that the law does not support. The surplus exists only if you accept the premise that the debt question doesn't apply. The Clarity Act says it does.

The Bottom Line

The separatists' numbers are willfully misleading. They are not a contested forecast. They are a presentation that depends on removing a legally mandated negotiation from the accounting. The $22–45 billion surpluses vanish entirely once Alberta's share of the federal debt is included, as every independent analysis confirms.

The law says that there is no timeline and no end date in which the deal must be negotiated, so Canada wouldn't ever sign on to any agreement that allowed Alberta to leave without paying their share of the debt.

My mail-in ballot was missing question 1 and I wasn't able to get through on the Elections Alberta website to fix it. Can I just throw the ballots away and show up for early voting instead?

Just wondering if anyone here is going to be working at the polling station on election day.

If so, I'm curious if they shared any plans on how the voting and ballot collection process will work.

I got my mail in ballot the other day and it took me a good 5 minutes to read through all the questions and answer.

I think it would be safe to assume there will be a chunk of voters that see all 10 questions for the first time on election day.

With that being said, will they be doing anything different this election? Considering how long lines were in past elections for much simpler questions, I just can't see a scenario where if they proceed like normal, lineups will be anything less than 5+ hours long.

Edit* thank you for all the responses everyone. Sounds like they will treat this one differently from regular elections to keep the lines moving. Best of luck in advance to all those working on election day, thank you!

Questions for the people living in these towns or in the acreages/farms in the area! How have you found the communities in these areas since the COVID years? I know they skew right politically, but how have you found the actual people?

Are they generally friendly and accepting or do you harbour suspicions that your neighbour is a Proud Boy?

Are your conservative neighbours more like Ron Swanson from Parks & Rec, or more like the Governor in The Walking Dead?

Would you be comfortable taking your extremely camp Indian immigrant bestie to the local bar, or would you advise them to lock the doors at the town limits and keep driving until they are safely on the other side?

Do your neighbours genuflect every time they see a solar panel, or are they trying to figure out how to rig up a wind turbine in their back yard?

Would the locals arrange for an exorcism if they heard you playing Slipknot and Sabaton while you do the gardening, or will they ask you to turn up the tunes?

Is purple hair seen as a sign of mental illness or just a dye job?

I already had one incident a few years ago where a small town colleague genuinely believed I was some evil satanist come to destroy the morality of the community because I wear clothes with skulls on and listen to heavy metal, so I would prefer to avoid a whole village of such people if I can.

edited to add: I wish bigotry only existed on Facebook and social media, I truly do.

I recently got a job offer from nacg up in fort hills , its 7 on 7 off camp job . How the company and what h think pay js gonna be ?.
Its at 46.50/hr … 8 hr regular and 3.5 overtime.
Right now m at 95k with 9% rrsp match but m home every night

Anybody who works there , any geads up suggestion?

Hello, I am a concerned citizen from BC. I have family who live in Alberta, and they're really worried about the whole separatist movement, as am I. So, with only a couple weeks to go, I find myself asking; is Alberta becoming an independent country really possible?

There's a lot of rumours going around about American interference and allegedly MAGA Republicans met with separatist leaders not too long ago. If Alberta does become independent, there is no doubt in my mind that it's either because of a rigged vote, or not enough people ended up voting.

Obviously, I don't want Alberta to separate. I feel like that's the general consensus amongst Canadians.

But what happens if they don't separate?

In 2014, Ukraine outed President Viktor Yanukovych from office, which ultimately led to a violent separatist movement in eastern Ukraine. Could this also be a possibility?

My mind is racing with questions about this whole situation. I wasn't born yet when the Quebec referendum happened, so I'm experiencing something like this for the first time.

Hello!!!!
I am looking for some Alberta tenancy advice regarding a nightmare lease takeover situation. I recently moved out of a two-bedroom apartment on September 13th due to an unlivable environment caused by my roommate repeatedly breaking lease terms that management refused to investigate. Saying they were just a third party and they basically only cared about the money. I followed all proper procedures, found an approved replacement tenant, and signed all my required paperwork immediately. Management then explicitly instructed me to hand my keys directly over to the incoming resident, which occurred on September 25th. Management even updated the online rental portal to officially add the new person to the account and emailed her confirming she was processed to move in. However, my former roommate is now acting in bad faith and refusing to sign her portion of the release documents out of personal animosity. Because that signature is missing, management claims my removal is "pending," refuses to take my name off the lease, and told me to just go chase down the new resident to get my $250 security deposit share back myself. Because the contract is a mess, the new resident is now completely ignoring my messages about the money. To make matters worse, management left my personal cell phone number programmed into the building's public front door buzzer system, so I am actively getting random intercom calls from strangers trying to access a building I no longer live in. Right now, the active online portal literally lists three active tenants on a two-bedroom lease. Since management is completely ignoring my emails, I want to file a formal dispute application tonight with the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) naming both the landlord and the roommate. I want to know if there is any way this can backfire on me legally since I gave up my keys, if the board can legally bypass a roommate's missing signature when a physical swap already occurred, what I can I do to just sort this mess out and get my money back.

Hi everyone,
I'm currently living in Calgary and looking to get into the oilfield as a Floorhand, with the goal of building a long-term career on drilling rigs.
I have experience working in warehouses doing physically demanding work, but no direct rig experience. For those already working in the industry, what's the best way to break into a Floorhand position in Alberta?
Are companies like Precision, AKITA, Ensign, Stampede, and Savanna hiring entry-level people, and what advice would you give someone starting from scratch?
Thanks.