Free Republic

It was not a close call. Despite all the hand-wringing, all the reminders that the polls had gotten it wrong in Alberta before, in the end the province’s election unfolded precisely as expected: Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party won, handily. Just after 11 p.m. MT, the UCP led or had been elected in 63 of the province’s 87 ridings, with the NDP, diminished to opposition status after their single term in government, leading or elected in the remaining 24. The NDP looked set to hold nearly all of Edmonton, with the UCP sweeping much of the rest of the province....

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is asking President Donald Trump to grant a presidential permit to extend the Alaska Railroad into Canada, supporting a Canadian company seeking to blaze a new path for Asian-bound products. Linking the Alaska and North American rail systems, an idea more than a century old, would cut at least two days travel time for Canadian and Lower 48 cargo headed to the Far East because of shorter sea routes, supporters say. “To me it was a no-brainer,” said Sean McCoshen, chief executive of Alberta to Alaska Railway Development Corp., speaking to the Senate Transportation Committee late...

Alberta as our 51st state is not as far-fetched as it sounds at first blush.  The idea was written about by Peter Zeihan in Accidental Superpower (2014) and recently broached by Holman Jenkins, Jr. in no less than the Wall Street Journal.  Before diving into the politics and practicality of a Alberta leaving Canada, let's first review some background to see why such a traumatic event could even be considered.  Unlike the U.S., which is netted together with the world's best river system and a favorable geography and climate, Canada is the opposite.  Zeihan shows that three barriers split Canada into five largely autonomous regions.  They are the Rocky Mountains, the...

Some people know how to make an entrance, while others specialize in exits. On December 6th, 17-year old Jackson Racicot posted a video titled, “How I quit my job today,” on Facebook. As of today, the video has been viewed nearly 300,000 times. The teen quit his job at the Walmart Grande Prairie Supercentre in Alberta, Canada, by reading a prepared speech into a store-wide intercom system, Insider reports. “Attention all shoppers, associates and management, I would like to say to all of you today that nobody should work here, ever,” he said over the speakers. “Our managers will make...

We have third largest proven reserves of oil in the world and our pretty bird Prime Minister wants to keep locked up, even if every Albertans starves to death. Any takers?

Canadian oil prices briefly plunged as low as $15 per barrel last week, after a U.S. federal judge blocked the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Canada’s oil industry has lurched from pipeline crisis to pipeline crisis, with projects blocked at every turn. Just a few months ago, the Trans Mountain expansion – a proposed pipeline to be built from Alberta to the Pacific Coast – also ran into trouble and is now ultimately in doubt. The inability to build new capacity capable of shipping higher levels of oil out of Alberta has crushed Western Canada Select (WCS), a price...

A university professor chided Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for taking a DNA test to prove her Native American heritage, saying her action ultimately does more harm to Native Americans. Kim TallBear, part of the native studies faculty at the University of Alberta, said Monday that Warren taking a DNA test is “yet another strike — even if unintended — against tribal sovereignty.” In a statement, TallBear said Warren has refused to meet with Cherokee Nation community members who have challenged her ancestry claims.

If you ever doubted that progressivists have Christianity in their sights, go to western Canada. In Alberta, the prairie province run by the amusingly misnamed New Democrat Party, progressive intolerance is in full swing. The NDP, instead of wishing to see a healthy public space where differences can be discussed respectfully, seek to silence alternative viewpoints. In pursuit of their LGBTQ-friendly agenda, they are set on destroying independent schools which insist on retaining their Christian ethos. Around 34,000 Alberta students attend 61 independent schools. As required, the schools submitted their ‘Safe and Caring’ anti-bullying policies to David Eggen, Alberta’s Minister...

A former private security guard sentenced Wednesday to four years in jail for manslaughter claims that years of involuntary celibacy left him so frustrated he stomped a man to death two summers ago. Sheldon Bentley was employed as a security guard at the Lucky 97 grocery store in central Edmonton on July 31, 2016, when he and his partner encountered a man sleeping in an alcove off the alley behind the store at 107th Avenue and 97th Street. Bentley stomped on Donald Doucette, 51, who died within minutes from massive internal bleeding. At the sentencing hearing, a forensic psychiatrist and...

The fires raging in British Columbia aren't just confined to the province: a NASA satellite captured the smoke as it blanketed the skies over Alberta and Saskatchewan earlier this week. There are nearly 600 fires burning across B.C. which is in its third day of a province-wide state of emergency. Between Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon 36 new fires started, mostly sparked by lightning. NASA used two satellites to image the smoke: the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS on its Suomi NPP satellite and the DSCOVR satellite that launched in 2015. Smoke from the fires rises high into...

A pregnant woman was served a cleaning agent in a cup rather than the latte she ordered from a McDonald's in southern Alberta. Sarah Douglas was taking her son to a baseball tournament on Sunday morning when she went through a drive-thru at the McDonald's restaurant on University Drive W. in Lethbridge and ordered a latte. As she drove onto Highway 3, she took a sip. "I immediately had to put my hazard lights on and pull over and spit it out and rinse my mouth out with ... water," said Douglas, who is more than seven months pregnant with...

Don Ford's Victory a five-alarm warning for Alberta NDP DON BRAID, CALGARY Doug Ford likes pipeplines. That's the end of the good news for Premier Rachel Notley. For her, Ford’s success is a five-alarm warning that a populist wave could swamp Alberta in the election next spring. It’s been a strong possibility since Alberta’s conservative parties united. Now, the UCP has a potent role model. Leader Jason Kenney certainly sees the future in this new Ontario premier who wasn’t the ghost of a possibility three months ago. Ford didn’t even lead the fractured PC Party until March 10. He remains...

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says the decision by Kinder Morgan to halt all non-essential work and related spending on its Trans Mountain pipeline in the face of continued opposition to its construction is a “devastating” blow to the Canadian energy sector.

This woodland construction is the world's biggest beaver dam, which at 2,790ft is more than twice the length of the Hoover dam and can be seen from space. The mammals use trees, mud and stone to make a type of moat where they can use their swimming skills to evade any predators. The families live in lodges on the dams and spend their days adding to and repairing the incredible structures. The dam was spotted by experts monitoring the size and spread of the beaver dams in North America. It is located on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National...

Speaking of freedom of speech (or the lack thereof) and communism disguised as “liberalism” or “progressiveness” making a big-comeback in Western Europe, we just got word from B’nai Brith that a Canadian woman from Alberta was arrested in Germany. Her crime? Well, her crime is historic revisionism, i.e. a thought-crime. The thing is, in modern Germany (and other “democratic” EU countries, France comes to mind), it is forbidden by law to question the holocaust. The punishment for holocaust heresy can land the sinner for up to five years in prison. Speaking of the non aggression principle, in 2018 in Germany...

Humanities professors say organization evading moral, professional duties Dozens of humanities scholars cancelled their membership with their field's leading professional academic organization ahead of its annual convention, in retaliation for the group refusing to impose boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. The defecting professors wrote to the Modern Language Association—published in the days leading up to the conference being held this week in New York City—that they will not be renewing their membership, due to the organization "disgracefully" voting in June against BDS and in favor of a statement denouncing academic boycotts. Timothy Reiss, a professor emeritus of comparative literature...

An evangelical Christian couple from Alberta, Canada, said that their application to adopt a child was rejected by the government because they do not agree with gay marriage. The couple, who weren't named in the legal documents, have filed a discrimination case against Alberta, claiming that their religious views on marriage being a union between a man and a woman were targeted, CBC News reported. "The casework supervisor explained that our religious beliefs regarding sexuality were incompatible with the adoption process," an affidavit calling for a judicial review of the government's decision said. "The casework supervisor said this stance was...

A Christian couple in the Canadian province of Alberta have been told by local Catholic Social Services and the provincial government that they are unfit to adopt children because they accept Biblical teaching regarding the immorality of homosexual acts, according to their attorneys at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. The married couple, whose initials are given as “C.D. and N.D,” have filed a civil suit against the province alleging religious discrimination, and calling the decision to reject their candidacy for adoption “unreasonable and void by virtue of arbitrariness, bias, bad faith, as well as breaches of procedural fairness and...

Man, a woman and a six-week-old baby were forced into a car against their will, RCMP sayKidnapping charges are pending against three people arrested in the buff after a collision Monday morning in Nisku. A man, a woman and a six-week-old baby were taken from a residence in Leduc County at about 9:30 a.m. and forced into a car against their will, Leduc RCMP said in a news release Tuesday. The man managed to escape from the trunk of the moving car, police said. The woman also escaped with the baby a few minutes later. A passerby offered assistance and...

Police and federal officials said Sunday that the man suspected of stabbing a police officer and plowing a van into pedestrians on Saturday night is a 30-year-old refugee from Somalia, who had been interviewed by the RCMP in 2015. Police and politicians urged Canadians to be vigilant, but called for calm and unity in the wake of a terrorist attack in Edmonton that injured five and led to the arrest of a 30-year-suspect who had previously been investigated for espousing extremist views. It is the second major terrorist attack in Canada this year, following January’s shooting at a mosque in...