Not what I typically post about but I feel it's my civic duty to make a post about this:
If you voted in the last Alberta election back in 2023, your private info (name, address, phone number etc) has been leaked.
source
Reminder to:
be extra wary of scam messages and calls, etc. let unknown numbers go to voicemail - if it's important, they'll leave a message.
keep an eye on your banking and credit.
do not click links in suspicious emails or texts; report fraud directly to the business / bank, or to the police.
Additional Articles:
CityNews Edmonton: Alberta NDP, UCP pass blame over Centurion Project meeting where voter database allegedly on display (May 6, 2026)
CityNews Edmton: RCMP investigating Alberta voter info published by separatists, as injunction granted to shutter database (April 30, 2026)
CBC: Alberta voters list leak puts domestic violence victims on edge, organizations say (May 6, 2026)
CBC: Elections Alberta alerted to improper use of voters’ information in late March, journalist says (May 1, 2026)
Global News: Alberta voter list leak is a potential public safety disaster: Enforcement experts (May 4, 2026)
The National Observer: Alberta's voter data scandal demands a public inquiry (May 5, 2026)
The Tyee: Alberta’s Voters Data Breach Was Very Bad. And Inevitable (May 4, 2026)
At the time of posting there's very little recourse for Albertans whose data has been leaked, but you can certainly find out who your MLA is and demand answers.
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The "Third Way" in liberal politics involves saying things that working people love, but doing things that sociopathic plutocrats love. It works …right up until voters notice that you're not doing the things. That realisation breeds cynicism and fury and paves the way for fascist strongmen.
It's really ugly, and no one does it uglier than Canada's Liberal Party. Remember that time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched with Greta Thunberg to protest Canada's shitty, planet-wrecking climate policies?
Gee, Justin – it sure would be great if you could have a word with the fella who decided to bail out America's doomed tar sands pipeline and vowed to pump and torch 173,000,000,000 barrels of Canadian oil:
Trudeau's "Third Way" eventually proved so unpopular that he opened the door to an authoritarian takeover of Canada by an otherwise totally unelectable, Trump-aligned far-right maniac. The only thing that saved Canada from a fate dumber than Trump was Trump himself, who wouldn't stop promising to make Canada the 51st state, an idea that was even more repellent to Canadians than five more years of Third Way bullshit:
And boy did Canadians find a Third Way bullshitter to move into 24 Sussex Drive: Mark Carney, an austerity-crazed central banker who will endorse incredibly progressive policies…provided he never has to do any of them. When it comes to championing working Canadians while royally screwing them, Carney is the only Canadian politician capable of out-Trudeauing Trudeau.
But we shouldn't reject Carneyism due to the mere fact that Carney refuses to deliver Carneyism. The problem with Carneyism isn't Carneyism itself – the problem with Carneyism is Mark Carney.
Take Carney's policy promise to charge US tech giants a 3% tax, a move that would defeat their incredibly clever gambit of pretending to be Irish and thus not owing any tax, anywhere:
That was a good policy! So was Carney's "elbows up" policy of sticking it to America in retaliation for Trump's flagrant violation of CUSMA, the free trade agreement negotiated by (checks notes) one Donald J Trump:
Unfortunately, Mark Carney didn't get the memo from (checks notes) Mark Carney, and the very instant Trump arranged his face into his trademarked confused scowl, Carney dropped the tax, apologising profusely:
In the last days of the Trudeau government, the Liberals passed a bill that transformed Canada's Competition Bureau from the weakest antitrust regulator in the world into one of the strongest (on paper, at least):
It's impossible to overstate how useless the Competition Bureau was before this bill passed. In its entire history, the Bureau had only challenged three mergers, and had never successfully challenged a merger. Canada's do-nothing competition enforcers allowed the country to be captured by Made-in-Canada oligarchs whose ripoffs and abuses would make the Hudson's Bay Company blush:
If Canada was ever going to be a real country (and not just two monopolists and a mining company in a trenchcoat) it needed a serious competition enforcer. Nominally, it has one, thanks to the 2024 Competition Act. The only problem was Carney, who made sweeping real-terms cuts to the Bureau's funding. Thanks to Carney, Canada has a Competition Bureau with all the powers it needs to save Canada from its oligarchs – but it can't afford to do any of that stuff.
Monopolists rip Canadians off like crazy. We even have a guy who mistook Les Miz for an HBR case-study, and embarked upon the country's worst-ever price-fixing campaign, gouging the country on bread prices:
You don't have to be a monopolist to steal from Canadians. Ripping off Canadians is the game everyone can play! Consumer protection agencies are incredible value for money, saving the public hundreds for every dollar that we spend on them. Guess who just eliminated Canada's consumer protection agency?
Oh, to be a scammer in Mark Carney's Canada! Whatever Galen Weston doesn't steal is yours for the taking!
But again, the problem isn't Carneyism – the problem is Carney. Carneyism is great. Carneyism gave us that remarkable speech at Davos, where Mark Carney declared a "rupture" in the US-dominated global system of trade and politics, promising a future of "minilateralism" in which "middle powers" like Canada band together for mutual prosperity:
If only Mark Carney had been there to hear those stirring words! He might have understood what a fucking insane idea it is to turn over Canada's military to Palantir, the company that, more than any other, has fused itself with the Trump regime's domestic program of ethnic cleansing and its international program of extraterritorial aggression:
Carneyism isn't merely a rejection of the old international order. Domestically, Carneyism promises technocratic excellence, skilled leadership that delivers first-class services for the Canadian people. This is a great pitch! It got Mamdani elected, and Mamdani's sincere pursuit of governmental excellence thrills New Yorkers in new ways every day:
Here, too, Carneyism is entirely sound – the problem is Carney's vicious anti-Carneyism and his plan to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with AI chatbots. It's not just that chatbots are terrible substitutes for skilled public officials, they're also controlled by US corporations that are entirely beholden to the Trump regime:
Unlike Mark Carney, I support Carneyism. Carneyism promises protection for Canadians, from monopolists and mad emperors, petty thieves and potholes. But Carney himself ardently opposes these policies. This will only get worse when the AI bubble pops and vaporises a third of the US stock market, spreading contagion to global capital markets. That will be Carney's cue to roll out his favourite go-to tactic: austerity.
We cannot afford this. Austerity is how we lose the country. Austerity – more than any other force – drives working people into the arms of fascists:
The thing is, Mark Carney has shown his political opponents how to beat him: just embrace Carneyism. The things Carney says are incredibly popular. Now we just need to elect someone who'll do them.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
they set it on fire btw which is based as all hell
For further context: the Ford government passed Bill 5, which allows the government and corporations to ignore most laws and environmental regulations in the "Ring Of Fire" zones, which is in the heart of Treaty Nine territory. They are supposed to consult with the First Nations communities who live there first, before they do anything to the land, and so fucking air dropped a box of papers containing a "environmental report".
you can read the article about the KI community burning the papers here
and if you want to learn about Bill 5 and why First Nations communities oppose it, check out the articles here and here
if you want something you can do -- the organization who was bringing awareness to Bill 5 in that original video is called Matriarchal Circle, who is a local grassroots organization bringing attention to Indigenous issues!
They have a Ko-fi so (if you have the money) you should buy them a coffee!
i hope ya'll are ready for your IDs to be leaked online when the inevitable data breach occurs as it has in every country that has done this idiocy. identity theft who? well, soon it'll be identity theft you. yay!
and then it'll slowly expand. from social media to gaming platforms. want to play your steam games? now you need to sign up for a credit card. want to mess around with coding on github? hand over your government id, sucker! want to set up a profile on your brand new computer? oops, sorry, your operating system now needs you to doxx yourself.
to those who have been paying attention to how this nonsense has been shaping up in other countries, you know.
you have also been watching that happen.
to those who haven't, haha, where have you been?
also: this doesn't work. almost every browser has a VPN built in. most kids know how to trick face scans. (and some adults with babyfaces have to to be categorized correctly.)
a better way would be a "children on board" package offered by ISPs where they provide step-by-step instructions or programs for the parents to set up their routers to block certain sites, to set up their devices to provide daily updates on their children's activity, etc. those things ALREADY EXIST, but i guess my generation (millennials) are too stupid to figure it out?
alternatively, if they're so worried about the algorithms, pressure those companies to change it. after all, it effects adults too. or do we not matter? you know those kids will eventually become adults, right? and then they'll be effected by the almighty algorithm's evil evil ways? perhaps even more-so because they haven't been allowed to develop a tolerance to it.
you know you can teach children how to avoid that influence? kids are dumb. no one is born knowing things. education fixes that.
japan is the only country doing this right.
oh wait, no. we know this isn't about the kids already. silly me.
mr "AI for all" carney wants to provide these companies with your data. data is money after all. "but this is kinew, a NDP," you might say - sure. but carney has expressed similar sentiment about looking into forcing identity verification upon the average internet user.
and of course the sites will be using the same companies that routinely get hacked or breached.
it's a security risk. they want you to risk your privacy and security.
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