The propaganda has cooked many brains in this province, including those of my loved ones.

It’s especially hard to meet my father once a year for Christmas to have the whole meal ruined because he just had to start praising Daniel Smith. As a trans person it’s incredibly frustrating to hear him repeat talking points he read on Facebook, especially misinformation about trans treatment, he literally watched me jump through hoops for more than a decade, but will repeat things that he must know are not true.

Watching him repeat talking points like that, knowing he has the ability to debunk them with his own lived experience with just a small amount of reflection, but because he’s always identified himself as a conservative, he choosing to indulge in the psychosis.

I see the same patterns from I went through suffering through psychosis, they can’t confront this pillar of his identity, something that was taught to them growing up but it’s been twisted. It’s always been a form of conditioning, I know growing up I always saw myself as conservative as well, and we used to have in-depth discussions about policies, he’s not stupid. Confronting this kind of confirmation bias is exceedingly difficult, it takes time and a conscience effort to accomplish.

MAGA is like a coping mechanism, they get you hooked on the reactions, the anger, the rage, then they push for catharsis through policy based on revenge, which is now showing itself to have addictive qualities. It’s a mental health crisis.

Long term, should the GOP remain unchecked in the US, Alberta’s chances are not looking good.

If the US military pulled up to the city limits of Calgary and wanted to force a Christian nationalist agenda on the people living here and to deport anyone who didn’t look right, they’d be asking how they could help, not asking questions about legality of their actions, or a thought of concern how it will impact the people they serve.

Fact is, our defence against an American invasion is to make Canada not worth the trouble to occupy. We can’t really count on anyone to actually stop them, especially police.

Given what happened in Venezuela, given there seem to be no checks on Trumps use of the American military, you have to assume Smith might be happy to help Trump gain that Canadian foothold, and at that point, what can the rest of Canada really do to stop them?

I can’t help but think of the Kenney’s illegal kamikaze campaign. The RCMP announced the investigation then four years later they announced they didn’t find any evidence.

It’s a common trope for people being investigated when connected to the conservatives.

I imagine the situation for Parker is the same, the police announced the investigation in order to give Parker a heads up to deal with any evidence and to stop the calls from concerned citizens asking for an investigation, this is so by the time they get around to collecting the evidence years later, it’s no longer available.

The RCMP announced an investigation into TBA last year and its funding for the membership drive it held to put Smith in as leader, which it refuses to disclose to Election Alberta.

They have yet to do move a muscle for the investigation, David Parker was even bragging on social media just before the holidays that he’d never have to worry about the RCMP.

We can’t count on the RCMP in Alberta, unfortunately, the situation with services like EPS and CPS is even more compromised.

To be fair, a Trump regime change is his best chance at actually ever becoming PM.

Many of his loyal base would welcome an American invasion at this point.

As an extension of the GOP, the CPC generally mirrors GOP propaganda in most things.

It’s not a coincidence, PP isn’t just acting like Trump, he answers to him.

In Alberta the UCP is mainly supported by the oil industry, but also consider that the current policy about lowering the minimum wage was a policy car dealerships across Alberta wanted.

Now, I only pay attention to this stuff in Alberta, because I live in Alberta, but I imagine this is going to be the same across Canada. Public transit is working against the profit incentive of an industry that has been lobbying its way into North American city planning for a century, making themselves a necessity.

I know the push in Alberta against bike lanes comes from a movement of people who have been trading their cars for bikes as the cities have made it possible to commute without a car. Something I imagine car dealerships and gas stations across the province are not exactly thrilled about, maybe at first it was fine but now it’s effecting their bottom line. So the Alberta government is taking a more hands on approach to ensuring transit is less affordable by withholding funds and interfering with things like the green line. They don’t want bikes being a viable alternative so they attack bike lanes, and thats also why they paint walkable “15 minute” cities as some kind of sinister conspiracy.

Just follow the money.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked someone about a bill presented in the house, and I’ll be directed to a canned statement on twitter that conflicts with the MP’s voting record, as if one cancels out the other.

Generally I read whats posted here, but the real trick is to just check multiple sources, it’s not so much that the underlying information is wrong per say, but that the framing and context could be leaving out important details. Even these sources, excluding the AI stuff, propaganda can be good at pointing out problems, it just likes to paint the solution as, other side bad.

The problem with foreign interference in Canada is the parties inability to put up a united front to tackle the issue. The LPC did at least make some half hearted attempts to get everyone on the same page, but there was issues with the CPC leader not wanting to get security clearance. That said, it’s a problem for all the parties, and we have the US, India, China, Israel all trying to influence different segments of Canadian society for different purposes.

When I see a new web page I haven’t seen before I open the main page and check the all headlines, looking for patterns or sensational language, anything that makes me think it’s painting issues as us vs them. A quick background check of the author is good too, do they have a degree in journalism, or are they part of a think tank? Check their past work, see how they’ve covered issues before, are they consistent, willing to put out retractions, stuff like that.

No 100% way to know for sure, but I hope thats helpful.

I certainly agree with you, I wish we did not have to invest in weapons.

All this money only really flows to the top and helps protect the interests of those at the top.

Instability in the world is tough to see. I think if we do need to build weapons we should be making investment to build them here in Canada. After all, should anything happen, having the technical skills at home becomes a vital asset.

I agree with your frustration, how hard would it be to vote for our representatives based on their voting record and policy proposals?

They’ll just use tribalism to screw us otherwise.

Judging from his connections (former PPC candidate and Western Standard) he’s a professional propagandist.

Juno News is directly linked to the CPC and has on multiple, occasion been responsible for spreading misinformation, and disrupting our national debates during a federal election.

That said, I agree with the poll.

This page is littered with misinformation, and AI drivel.

Honestly, it’s good to see what kind of propaganda is targeting Canadians, don’t think I’m trying to complain. Sometimes propaganda can point out things that are true, which foreign interference is a real issue, but we’re stuck with Pierre “Parallax” Poilievre. The CPC leader riding a wave of foreign funded disinformation trying to paint Christians in Canada as victims of oppression, which just so happens to be the narrative being pushed by Republicans as a justification for making threats against out sovereignty.

Where we need a united front, we have one LPC seemly cowering to the US, while the CPC tries to let them in the back door. Against such overwhelming force and money, it’s hard to know how to respond, but this is definitely not on, not on at all.

They’ll spend money on anything but paying more nurses and doctors to property staff an ER. We can’t actually have results that might undermine the privatization narrative, that would defeat the purpose.

I haven’t been following the leadership race, I hope they do well in the next election, they’re seemly the only party thats main priority has been passing policy thats good for Canadians.

Yeah, it’s a shame because thats the kind of leadership we need, especially now.

It’s a little on the nose that the leader of this MAGA movement is a known child rapist.

Nobody does accusation in a mirror quite like Christian nationalists.

Sometimes I think this homeless class of people is supposed to be an ever present threat. If you don’t want to engage with the capitalist economy, then you end up on the street, seen as less than by the majority of society.

I’ll always respect Singh for choosing the country over his political ambitions when he didn’t let the CPC trigger an earlier election. However it didn’t work out well for the NDP, this kind of political play looked bad but in reality they put country over politics, which was used against them again and again in the outlets owned by Postmedia.