Charles Smith
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profsmithsask.bsky.social
Charles Smith
@profsmithsask.bsky.social

Teaching labour politics in Treaty 6 territory, the Paris of the Prairies. Co-Editor of Labour/Le Travail and President of CAWLS. Terrible guitarist. Even worse Pianist. Proud father of twins. Blue Jays nut. Fair weather runner. Opinions are my own. .. more

Economics 27%
Political science 20%

The Alberta 'separatist' movement is so clearly bought and paid for (or at the very least, willing to be).

"The movement is selling itself as pro-American in hopes of securing a C$500 billion loan from the U.S. government that would help facilitate Alberta’s “seamless departure” from Canada."
Canada Playbook
Alberta vs. Ottawa, for real.
www.politico.com

Western conservatives have some issues it would seem.
Pollara (Dec 2025, n=3800)

% who would vote for their province to separate, by provincial vote intent:

MB NDP 1%
MB PC 18%
SK NDP 8%
Sask Party 31%
AB NDP 4%
UCP 40%
BC NDP 4%
BC Con 21%

www.pollara.com/western-alie...

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

Has anyone in the private sector proposed a project or assembled the capital? Which pipeline are the feds ment to approve? Has anyone identified a market that could absorb more Canadian bitumen in Asia? Who is building the refinery? Where?

Or what? Give me a break with these arbitrary deadlines not to mention you still don't have support from the BC government, Indigenous nations, or anyone willing to pay for it.
Alberta premier demands pipeline approval by fall in wake of Venezuela conflict vancouversun.com/news/politic...

Read a book on labour, politics, unions, and with ties to Canada that was published in 2025??

Nominate the book for CAWLS' Leo Panitch book prize.
PRIZE NOMINATION FORM - Canadian Association for Work & Labour Studies
The Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) is an academic association for scholars interested in work, workers, and labour.
cawls.ca

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

Alberta premier demands pipeline approval by fall in wake of Venezuela conflict vancouversun.com/news/politic...

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

Pollara (Dec 2025, n=3800)

% who would vote for their province to separate, by provincial vote intent:

MB NDP 1%
MB PC 18%
SK NDP 8%
Sask Party 31%
AB NDP 4%
UCP 40%
BC NDP 4%
BC Con 21%

www.pollara.com/western-alie...

If the American labour (labor!) movement can't start organziing and organizing big time against the regime in this moment, they're not a movement. They need support and assistance to organize. That's what labour is suppose to be good at!

Tbh, we had a similar experience here in SK. It is bad on the prairies and neither of the governments seem to be doing much about it.

In the wealthiest province in Canada. This is a UCP problem, through and through.
Edmonton doctors call on Alberta to declare state of emergency as hospitals overflow
Physicians are raising alarms weeks after a man died at a local hospital while waiting hours for treatment
www.theglobeandmail.com

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

People don't realize how much corporations are collaborating with—and making possible—ICE's deportation machine

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

“If Canada “must build” a new bitumen pipeline to the BC coast, the pressure will fall on the federal and Alberta governments to pay for some or all of the cost, and over the strong objections of the BC government and First Nations.” www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...
A new pipeline is the wrong response to the U.S. takeover of Venezuela - CCPA
Immediately after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was apprehended by United States President Trump, the Globe and Mail editorial board quickly pivoted from condemning the action to promoting a new...
www.policyalternatives.ca

Of which he has none.

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

This is a man, a malignant narcissist, who may just be correct when he says, only two things can stop him: his mortality or his mind.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
‘I don’t need international law’: Trump says power constrained only by ‘my own morality’
President says morality ‘the only thing that can stop me’ in New York Times interview on limits to his authority
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

Trump does not view foreign countries as sovereign entities; he views them as real estate he doesn't own yet. The people who live there don't enter into his reckoning, except insofar as they aren't paying him rent. That is why it is a bad idea to elect a (failed) businessman to high office.

Unions in Greenland: Nobody buys the lies being told in Washington.
‘We are not for sale’: chair of Greenland’s top labor union rebukes Trump’s call for annexation
Exclusive: SIK leader Jess Berthelsen rejects Trump claim that the US needs Greenland for ‘national security’
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Charles W. Smith

SEUI speaks out.

Nothing to see here. Just massive erosion of the fresh water source for streams and rivers across western canada.
Western Canada glaciers suffered 2nd-greatest ice loss on record in 2025 | CBC News
"We have to understand that it's not a question of if the glaciers are going to disappear, they are going to disappear," warns Brian Menounos, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Northe...
www.cbc.ca
CNN @cnn.com · 1d
"Trump told the New York Times in an interview published Thursday there was only 'one thing' to limit his global power. 'My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me.' He added: 'I don't need international law,'" writes Stephen Collinson | Analysis https://cnn.it/3NCH8bG

I love how republicans are all about states rights and small government except when local government tries to hold federal agencies accountable for gross brutality or, as in the case of Minnesota, murder. The hypocrisy and brutality is real.

Saskatchewan's climate plan is apparently to release as much green house gas as possible, while dealing with the consequences of global warming. It is like leadership, but in reverse.
Sask. government says province is free of the industrial carbon tax. It’s still paying for it
A rate application from SaskPower reveals the province is assuming the burden of the industrial carbon tax.
ca.news.yahoo.com

AOC: What we saw today was a criminal murder a woman while she was trying to flee for her life. What we saw today was a manifestation of every American’s worst nightmare: their government turning into a tyranny.

I'll take that for $200 Ken.
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

Another day, another atrocity from the authoritarian in the White House.
Walz: "It's beyond me that apparently from the federal government, the Homeland Security director herself, has already determined who this person who, what their motive was, and they hadn't even been taken out of the vehicle. We're not living in a normal world."
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

Why we need better labour data.
At a time when official statistics are under political pressure elsewhere, Canada has an opportunity & a responsibility to strengthen its own commitment to open, reliable labour relations data. Adam King & I explain why:

theconversation.com/why-canada-n...

#cdnpoli #canlab
Why Canada needs better data on strikes, unions and other labour issues
Canada does a poor job of gathering labour relations information. In a period of rising inequality and renewed workplace conflict, stakeholders need better data.
theconversation.com
At a time when official statistics are under political pressure elsewhere, Canada has an opportunity & a responsibility to strengthen its own commitment to open, reliable labour relations data. Adam King & I explain why:

theconversation.com/why-canada-n...

#cdnpoli #canlab
Why Canada needs better data on strikes, unions and other labour issues
Canada does a poor job of gathering labour relations information. In a period of rising inequality and renewed workplace conflict, stakeholders need better data.
theconversation.com

"Trump’s promise to “run the country” for the sake of US oil companies signals the internationalization of one aspect of his regime – what has rightly been called the logic of the mafia state."
The Trump doctrine exposes the US as a mafia state | Jan-Werner Müller
The Venezuela incursion is in line with this logic, made even plainer as the US eyes Greenland
www.theguardian.com