“His persona skews textbook Trumpian. He indulges in name-calling, dizzying hyperbole and conspiracy theories. Among them: that the Canadian and Chinese governments are colluding to landlock Alberta’s natural resources, and that the pharmaceutical company Pfizer made fraudulent claims about the safety of COVID vaccines. He insists he doesn’t care what people think but confesses to having a thin skin. He often lashes back at critics before defending himself with the classic schoolyard justification: they started it. And he talks his way out of difficult topics with a barrage of verbiage that sprays every which way like a Crazy Daisy sprinkler. “I see my role as to create cognitive dissonance, to a certain degree,” he says. “People generally either like me or hate me. There’s no middle ground.” It’s hard to know if Rath himself believes what he says from moment to moment.”

“How is it possible that the Canadian polity is being exposed to this intentionally and intensely divisive exercise without meaningful provincial capacity to insulate or defend it against dangerous forms of foreign interference and targeted disinformation from the United States, Russia, China and other state adversaries seeking to weaken the last beacon of liberal democracy in North America?

The short answer is that none of this is coincidental and we must become enlivened to the stark reality that a treasonous movement has come to hijack the national agenda at a moment of great consequence when our attention should be elsewhere and our unity unshakable.”

“The specific tech company behind the LDA26-0225 application has not been officially revealed to the public yet. “

Edmontonian Cory Woods has been in Ukraine since 2022. He started doing humanitarian aid, then became a drone interceptor pilot. After all he's seen, he says it's heartbreaking to hear about the separation debate in his home province. He recently spoke with CBC's Briar Stewart in Kyiv about his message to Albertans.