Sam Bird 🏔️🍁🇨🇦
@sambir.bsky.social
4.2K followers 850 following 1K posts
Geographer. Mostly harmless. Mountains > oceans. Permafrost is cool. Rivers and lakes are pretty nice too.
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Reposted by Sam Bird 🏔️🍁🇨🇦
kikkiplanet.bsky.social
Oh, #ableg & #cdnpoli

I hope you’ve all seen this. If not, you should.

Eby is 💯 correct. This “pipeline” is more Danielle Theatre. It’s a means to eventually blame BC & Ottawa for her gov’ts failure. It’s a means to distract from the AHS scandal. It’s pandering to her base.

IT. IS. NOT. REAL.
hollyhoye.bsky.social
Danielle Smith loves to pick fights but if I were her I might have thought twice about picking one with a guy who is 6’7”, spits facts, and absolutely nailed the real reason she’s shilling for a pipeline.
sambir.bsky.social
Maybe a third post to summarize that because of uneven density, it is incorrect to say underpopulation is a climate catastrophe. These things are not the same.
sambir.bsky.social
2/2
0.003%of the population lives in the territories (40% of land).
22 ish million people are packed in a dense-ish southern ON/QC triangle.
The population is highly urbanized & the urban density is improving.

So the NUMBERS in the uneven density matter alot nationally & even within provinces.
sambir.bsky.social
Kind of but not really. Except for international myth spreading in bars, the national population density number is functionally useless & is misused ALL THE TIME. Telecoms are big offenders using CDN ignorance as cover for high costs but their coverage maps show the uneven population density well 1/
Map of Canada showing cell phone coverage for Telus. Spoiler, the VAST majority of people, and therefore coverage are concentrated along the southern border. Saskatchewan and Alberta are weird (surprising I know) because the coverage is over a much larger percent of the land area.
About 80%of the country has no cell coverage because there are too few customers in these areas to pay for cell towers... or power lines... or roads...
sambir.bsky.social
I didn't say there aren't times when a truck is the right tool for the job. Ideally evacuations etc are rare exceptions.
The observations are my own. I took note because the % of large trucks & SUVs seem much different than Calgary.
Is a small SUV a truck or a car? As they say, mileage may vary.
sambir.bsky.social
At the risk of besmirching a European explorer's vaulted name, Magellan did not circumnavigate the globe.

An impressive journey all the way to the Philippines... where he did not make friends & was killed. The expedition's navigator, Juan Sebastián Elcano commanded the rest of the way.

++PR though
sambir.bsky.social
Canadians don't know how to recycle properly either. I guess that means we should send every citizen for mandatory service in a recycling plant so they can get on board and can defend the planet?
sambir.bsky.social
No shortage of swords & such lying about the place but his collection is down at least a little after recently boosting Canada's swordy stockpile.

Kinda dumb for the US to be talking takeover while giving away their limited sword supply just as Canada is stocking up.

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Screenshot from CBC News. Title reads, "King Charles gives his Canadian attendant a sword as sovereignty threats intensify"
Photo in a palace room of King Charles, wearing a sharp dark suit, picking up a sword from an attending Royal Navy officer. A man with grey hair and beard and a lady stand waiting to accept the sword from the King.
sambir.bsky.social
As a rule of thumb, boring government is a sign of high success and should be a goal for voters. No news, no grandstanding, really is good news.

Outsource the boring hard work to competent elected representatives so that the rest of us can get on with doing the things in life we like doing! 😁
natefor8.bsky.social
LET'S GET BORING.

Elections are too often about slogans and big promises. But what about ideas and policy we can actually get done?

That's what Nate for 8 is all about.

I made a joke at a recent debate but it's true, and we have a full platform to prove it 1/

#yyc #yycc
sambir.bsky.social
How (not) to win friends and influence people!

Manufacturing divisions and new gripes to fuel rage bait for party fund raising is the goal. Danielle Smith knows how to execute that strategy to successful completion. It is not in her personal interest to build a successful Canada or even Alberta.
sambir.bsky.social
I'm sure adaptation to market forces is a factor (an underlying principle of effective carbon taxes or any sin tax) but this shows the practicality of alternative choices in the Canadian market. Whatever "need" buyers convince themselves for big vehicles, "winter" mostly isn't a real one.
sambir.bsky.social
Oh, and the canoeing is going to be very disappointing in that same time of the year... and for at least a couple months either side of real winter. Like, you have to be adaptable 😁 🛶🛷
sambir.bsky.social
Ok, a little qualification on the year-round fabulousness. November through February may be less adorable for some who don't want to delight in remarkably brisk cold air and short daylight days. But spoiler, this is actually what your puffy Canada Goose parka was made for.
sambir.bsky.social
Beside the practical & friendly citizenry, Yellowknife is beautiful & interesting summer & winter. You should definitely go there on vacation. It's not even terribly expensive.

Obvs there's #SpectacularNWT outdoor scenery but also great food, cool museums, history, & fun connections further north.
A traditional moose skin on wood frame canoe on display in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre museum in Yellowknife Canada.
The canoe is about 6 meters long and 1.5 wide.
A museum visitor is reading an information pannel about the impressive canoe. A rusty 1940's era truck with specialized mining attachments where the cargo tray would otherwise be sits amongst the overgrown grass of autumn under a sunny blue sky. Other old mining trucks and equipment are lined up, displayed along side. Part of the Giant Mine Museum's outdoor section in Yellowknife Canada. At the Giant Mine Museum in Yellowknife Canada, an indoor display showing the Yellowknife region's historical timeline. The display is a cream coloured background with a sine shaped wave used used as the timeline, changing colour through different periods. Information in text and pictures cover the board with lines to the appropriate points in time. Bright green northern lights against a deep blue night sky. Yellow autumn leaves on birch trees lit by the camera flash, frame three sides of the photo.
Fort Good Hope, NWT Canada in early September.
sambir.bsky.social
I finished high school and university in Calgary in the late 90's and early 2000's. At the time, most of my friends did not see a future for themselves in Calgary and left for opportunities in other parts of Canada and the world where their talents and presence were warmly welcomed and put to use.
sambir.bsky.social
I think these are good ideas.
Generally, young voters don't turn out in big numbers but older voters should care just as deeply about policies that make the city attractive for younger generations. Especially Calgary parents who'd like their kids & future grandchildren to stick around as they age.
jeromyyyc.bsky.social
I’ve been listening to young Calgarians — the message is clear: housing, transit, safety, and jobs matter.

My Built for Tomorrow plan responds with steps like a Youth Council, entrepreneurship spaces, and summer jobs.

Read more: jeromy.ca/policy-brief/youth

#yyc #yycvotes #yycyouth #yycstudents
Graphic with Jeromy Farkas logo and title: Policy Brief — Stronger Together, A vision for Calgary’s youth. Text: By 2029 Calgary will have two million people, and it will be young people building businesses, raising families, and shaping communities. As mayor, my goal is for Calgary to be the best city in Canada to grow up in — where young people are safe, supported, and heard. ourpathforward.ca. Graphic with Jeromy Farkas logo and list of commitments for youth: celebrate youth leaders and mentorship; create Youth Entrepreneurship Zones and summer student hiring; host youth hackathons and a Youth Fellowship in the Mayor’s Office; create a permanent Calgary Youth Council; explore a Safe Nights in the City program. ourpathforward.ca. Graphic with Jeromy Farkas logo and text: Visit the complete Policy Brief for my 10 commitments to building a great city for Calgary’s youth. ourpathforward.ca. Signed, Jeromy.
sambir.bsky.social
That's the effective beauty of a carbon tax. Alas, too many Canadians could not abide the thought of such blasphemy against the sanctity of the gasoline addiction.
sambir.bsky.social
The thing you notice in Yellowknife is that residents, whom, unlike most Canadians, have serious winters, predominantly drive normal CARS year-round. Capable & suitable.
In summer, they demonstrate that it's perfectly normal & practical to strap a 17' canoe to the roof a 14' car.
davidzipper.bsky.social
You might think that the mayor of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's vast Northwest Territories, would be a fan of giant pickups.

Nope. He's disgusted by car bloat.

www.linkedin.com/posts/benjam...
sambir.bsky.social
Also, the individuals are straight up assholes who get off on abusing other people and revel in the impunity and power they are allowed to flaunt in this evil LARPing. These losers are the wheels fascist leaders need to push their project forward. Without these conspirators the fascist plan fizzles.
Reposted by Sam Bird 🏔️🍁🇨🇦
hannahdaly.ie
The best guess of climate experts at this Overshoot Conference is that - in an optimistic scenario - we return to 1.5C (where we are now) in 7 generations time.

That's about the same distance from now as the start of the Industrial Revolution.
sambir.bsky.social
Don't print garbage lies in the paper.
I understand posting the clickbait is tempting but think a moment what a trusting reposter and reader thinks of you when everyone points out how stupid this transparently fictional nonsense is.

Gosh, I wonder why traditional media keeps losing trust?
sambir.bsky.social
The immediate benefit for Smith is that she can claim to be doing everything possible in a reasonable way to overcome bad-guy Ottawa AND has a new source of gripes and rage bait for fundraising. Actually building a pipeline does not matter, both the UCP & CPC will be using this for the next 20 years
sambir.bsky.social
Thanks. I hate it.

But for real, I appreciate that explanation.
sambir.bsky.social
I image 20 years of new conservative gripes and fresh rage bait fund raising campaigns. Pretty sure Smith knows that's what she's given birth to.
sambir.bsky.social
She just gave birth to a sustainable bottomless pit of fresh gripes for the next 20 years of predictable conservative rage bait and donation advertising. And all with tax dollars.

I think the traditional response is to send a congratulations card.

She is the worst. Most dishonest premier in Canada