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You forgot:
- Military
- Border control
- Immigration
- Foreign affairs. Operating embassies abroad isn't cheap!
- Capital spending on things like LRT and highways
- Interest on the federal debt
Or did you think we wouldn't inherit Alberta's share of the debt?
Jason Nixon (and many others) are trying to make the case that Albertans receive good value from Ottawa for all the money we send there.
This year alone, Alberta taxpayers (citizens and businesses will send the following money to Ottawa:
Income Tax: $30 billion
Corporate Tax: $12 billion
GST: $9 billion
CPP & EI: $10 billion
Misc. fees: $8 billion.
That's a whopping $69 billion..... which by the way, is equivalent to 80% of our provincial budget.
We get back the following in transfers and direct services:
Health transfers: $13.3 billion
Equalization: $0
CPP & EI: $7.5 billion
OAS: $3.5 billion
For a measly total of $24.3 billion.
The difference is $44.7 billion.
Are you happy with the "services" you're getting from Ottawa for that $44.7 billion (military, coast guard, embassies, border security, museums)?
I'm convinced we could do better on our own.
For context, most western governments run on budgets equivalent to 30-40% of their county's GDP.
Alberta's GDP was $360 billion in 2025, so as a independent country, it would be quite normal for our government to spend $105-$144 billion per year.
Alberta's spending last fiscal years was $81 billion. That means that as a country, we need to replace $24-$63 billion.
It's 100% doable. Would we save a lot of money in the near-term? No. But that's not the driver. An independent Alberta will unleash it's prosperity, and preserve its culture.
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Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Apparently, wind turbines are ugly but enormous open-cut coal mines are beautiful. Funny how that works. Meanwhile, wind power advances at extraordinary speed, generating 8.5% of global electricity. The technology, economics & hypocrisy need a closer look.
evcurvefuturist.com/2026/10/…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
The UCP insisting on free speech on campuses while imposing NDAs on members of its own party should be the height of hypocrisy. But it's early.
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Peter Lougheed fought back against companies wanting a sweetheart royalty scheme. He won a deal that benefited Albertans (who own the oil) for generations.
Danielle Smith is rolling over and selling out for pennies on the dollar.
Utterly pathetic #ableg
cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Shocker
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Alberta is fed up with the incompetence of the Danielle Smith government. Dr. Raj Sherman and Dr. Paul Parks may be from different parties but they are united that something has to change. @RajSherman @PfParks @DonBraid
calgaryherald.com/news/braid…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
The Guardian is absolutely brilliant, without doubt the best in the world for covering climate amongst the mainstream media.
I just think they need to find scientists explaining what this means i.e. hundreds of millions if not billions of people are going to die.
The world is going to be a colllapsing shit hole dominated by war, instability, famine, floods and other disasters, disease and violence.
theguardian.com/environment/…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
EV batteries are lasting longer than expected.
Remember when we were told electric car batteries would need replacing every 3 years, or that they only last 5 years?
Well, the science and real world tells a very different story…
A fascinating new article from Chemistry World reveals that electric vehicle batteries are lasting 20-40% longer in real-world conditions than laboratory testing had suggested.
Real-world driving is actually kinder to batteries. Research from Stanford University found that normal driving patterns, including accelerating, braking and stopping at traffic lights, could extend battery life by up to 38% compared with traditional laboratory predictions.
Battery degradation slows down. Although batteries can lose some capacity relatively early in their lives, that initial rate of degradation doesn’t necessarily continue. Long-term data is showing that batteries can retain their capacity far better than previously expected.
200,000 miles and still going strong! Tesla reports that some of its vehicles retain around 80% of their original battery capacity even after 200,000 miles.
The technology keeps improving. Scientists are discovering new ways to reduce degradation, improve battery chemistry and potentially extend battery lifespans even further.
And here’s something important…
A battery reaching 80% capacity doesn’t mean it’s dead!
It simply means it holds around 80% of the energy it originally did. It can still power a vehicle, and potentially have a second life in energy storage.
For me, this is fantastic news for the used EV market.
The batteries aren’t just meeting expectations. They’re exceeding them.
And we’re still relatively early in the development of this technology.
Imagine where we’ll be in another 10 years.
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
How bad is the UCP's gerrymandering?
@PIAlberta has put together a site that explains it all, with pictures and everything!
#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
fairmaps.ca/
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Weil das Thema bis heute immer wieder in den Kommentaren auftaucht, hier noch einmal die abenteuerliche Geschichte der Widerlegungs- und Diffamierungs-Versuche der “Hockeyschläger-Kurve” des Klimas der letzten 1000 Jahre!
scilogs.spektrum.de/klimalou…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
9 millimeters of front brake pad remained after 478,000 kilometers in this Model 3 standard range plus.
I see a running-cost advantage that purchase prices miss.
Less friction braking means less wear.
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
How many sprawl communities did you vote yes on Dan?
Areas to cut are up for debate
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said there’s no way Calgary property owners want to see double-digit tax increases.
“A double-digit tax increase is unacceptable to Calgarians at this time when they can afford it the least,” he said.
McLean said he’d be targeting things like Calgary’s $35 million Safer Together funding, which he says duplicates police and fire work, and the $40 million in funding that fed the city’s downtown conversion programs.
“We’re throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at something the private sector can do,” he said of the latter.
“If you want to decrease the vacancy rates downtown, just knock that building down. They’re old, Class-C buildings. They should just be knocked down. Put a park or a Superstore there, not an ugly office conversion.”
livewirecalgary.com/2026/11/… via @livewirecalgary
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
If you want to dispute global warming, perhaps start by plotting actual global temperatures rather than misleading month-to-month changes.
Here's what the real NOAA temperature record looks like.
It's really not that difficult.
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
This is going to make some climate 'skeptics' real mad.
Sorry mendacious climate deniers. The #HockeyStick is longer and sharper now, as demonstrated by an independent group of ~80 paleoclimate scientists around the world: skepticalscience.com/print.p…
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Premier @ABDanielleSmith, let's set the record straight.
As Chair of Health Quality Alberta, I warned you and @FreeAlbertaRob in February 2025 about cardiac arrests in ER waiting rooms and the dark days ahead.
I have the text messages.
We also developed a plan to reintroduce Triage Liaison Physicians (TLPs), a crisis protocol studied by University of Alberta physicians nearly 20 years ago.
Under Premier Stelmach, AHS & Covenant Health implemented TLPs without the Premier or Health Minister micromanaging the process.
The program helped identify and treat seriously ill patients earlier and reduced the number leaving without being seen. It saved lives and ER doctors stepped up to help.
Fast-forward to 2026:
1. No spare ER doctors. TLPs require exhausted physicians to volunteer for additional, high-risk shifts.
2. Pay roughly 40% below normal clinical earnings. More responsibility, greater risk, less pay. Disrespectful.
3. No TLP can function safely without dedicated nursing support and examination space. You cannot examine seriously ill patients in a waiting room.
Why is the Premier & Minister micromanaging a single ER position?
This belongs with AHS, Covenant Health, their hospital administrations and frontline emergency physicians, not politicians.
I supported you in 2023. I'm still a @Alberta_UCP member, but my loyalty is to patients, not politicians.
Blaming Dr. @PfParks for delays in implementing TLPs is inaccurate & misrepresents the real issues: staffing, compensation and infrastructure. Dr. Warren Thirsk was ER section President at the time, not Dr. Paul Parks.
And please stop celebrating crisis protocols as healthcare reform.
TLPs are an acknowledgement that our healthcare system remains in crisis, in the fourth year of your premiership.
The warnings came months before the December 2025 ER tragedies.
What did your government do? Reorganized healthcare and created more bureaucracy while patients continued to wait.
Albertans deserve accountability, not political spin.
You cannot triage your way out of a hospital bed shortage.
@JMeddings @BradenMannsYYC @NightShiftMD @raghu_venugopal @TheBreakdownAB @ryanjespersen @cspotweet @Albertadoctors @nenshi @albertaNDP @UnitedNurses
ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/…
It's laughable that the Premier is trying to sell to ABs that I'm so powerful I can block her entire govt from implementing a critical intervention to save lives in our EDs!
It's even more laughable when facts are taken into account:
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Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
They’ve only been in power 7 years and having done nothing but cancel hospitals, pave over a super labs, have their private dynalife venture go bust, and fire 4 CEOs, all costing us billions with the worst health care service in ever
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
Study: EVs displacing 1.2 million barrels of oil demand a day, up 5X in 5 years share.google/bCtJZtNMNd4MYqk…
That compares to about 100 million barrels per day of global demand. Two wheeled EVs (scooters, e bikes) displace another million+ barrels/day if I recall correctly.
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
You could watch the news 24/7 & not know that:
Our planet’s at its hottest in 120,000 years.
Methane levels are their highest in MILLIONS of years.
CO2 levels their highest in 3 MILLION years.
We're in a climate crisis. Denying it won't solve the problem.
#ActOnClimate #climate #energy #panelsnotpipelines
Blair 🇨🇦 retweeted
At 8:04 this morning my EV was warming itself up, as well as the drive system for increased efficiency.
The neighbours were out scraping their windows and idling their cars.
But EVs aren’t better apparently.
