TFK 🇨🇦

[The Breakdown @TheBreakdownAB]

“Anesthesiologists, and in some cases surgeons, have been preferentially assigned to work in chartered surgical facilities over public hospitals, including in response to political influence exerted by CSF owners.”

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli https://t.co/wTDWqRi4wo

[Barbara Larochelle 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 🇨🇦 @BarbLarochelle]

Any MLA who won’t come right out and unequivocally declare that they want Alberta to remain in Canada is either:

-actually a separatist
Or
-wanting to hang on to separatist support in their riding

Probably both. Spineless opportunists. 1/2

[Dr. Raj Sherman @RajSherman]

Activity Based Funding Alone Will Not Fix Alberta's Healthcare Crisis:

Alberta is moving forward with Activity Based Funding (ABF), where hospitals and surgical facilities are paid according to the number and complexity of procedures they perform.

Let's start with an important point: this is not inherently a bad idea.

When properly designed, Activity Based Funding can improve efficiency, increase transparency, reward productivity, and reduce wait times for procedures such as cataracts, hip replacements, knee replacements, and day surgery.

High performing healthcare systems in Australia and Scandinavia have successfully incorporated versions of ABF into their funding models.

But those same jurisdictions teach us an important lesson.

They do not rely on Activity Based Funding in isolation. They pair it with robust investments in primary care, prevention, home care, rehabilitation, assisted living, long term care, community-based services, and significantly greater acute care capacity.

These countries maintain approximately 3.8 to 4.2 acute care beds per 1,000 population. Alberta has approximately 1.76 beds/1000, less than half.

This capacity gap, combined with blocked patient flow, is Alberta's fundamental healthcare challenge.

After 35 years in the front lines, I can say with confidence that once Albertans gain access to care, they generally receive world-class care. Access is the problem.

Every day, sick Albertans sit in crowded emergency department waiting rooms wondering why the system is failing them.

Many assume the problem starts in the emergency department. It does not.

The emergency department is where the failure becomes visible.

For decades, Alberta's population has grown faster than its healthcare capacity. Our population is aging, chronic disease is increasing, and medical care is becoming more complex.

At the same time, hundreds of patients who no longer require acute hospital care remain in hospital beds because they are waiting for home care, rehabilitation, transition units, assisted living, or long-term care.

Hospitals are designed to treat acute illness, not to house patients waiting for the next level of care.

Healthcare is fundamentally a flow system and we have a major flow problem, especially in the Edmonton zone.

Patients enter through primary care, emergency departments, and ambulance services. They move through hospitals and, when ready, back into the community through home care, rehabilitation, assisted living, and long-term care. When any part of that flow becomes blocked, the entire system slows down.

That is exactly what Albertans are experiencing today.

Hospitals function best at approximately 85% occupancy. Above that level, delays increase, flexibility disappears, and patient flow slows. When hospitals routinely operate at 100-110% capacity, they do not become more efficient, they become less safe.

The consequences are predictable and preventable.

Emergency departments back up. EMS crews wait to transfer patients into care. Admitted patients board on stretchers waiting for inpatient beds. Surgeries are delayed or cancelled. Patients may be discharged earlier than ideal because of bed pressures, increasing the risk of complications and readmissions.

Most concerning, the risk of medical errors rises when healthcare professionals are forced to work in overcrowded, high-pressure environments for prolonged periods.

Chronic overcrowding contributes to burnout, moral distress, absenteeism, staff turnover and less efficiency. Asking healthcare workers to function indefinitely in crisis mode is neither sustainable nor safe.

Public hospitals managing complex admissions, emergencies, and Alternate Level of Care patients cannot fairly compete in a pure activity-based funding model against facilities focused primarily on lower-complexity elective procedures.

Changing the funding formula will not solve these structural issues.

If Alberta is serious about improving access and reducing wait times, our priorities should be clear:
1. Retain, recruit, and support healthcare workers.
2. Expand acute care capacity, particularly in Edmonton, which serves a vast and underserved northern region.
3. Move Alternate Level of Care patients to the appropriate level of care within 24-48 hours whenever possible.
4. Expand home care, rehabilitation, transition units, assisted living, and long-term care.
5. Strengthen primary care, prevention, and community-based services.

The single most important performance measure in healthcare is not the number of procedures performed. It is how quickly patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

A patient who requires admission should move from the emergency department to an inpatient bed within six to eight hours, 90% of the time.

Even in the middle of summer, many Edmonton patients are waiting four to six hours simply to be assessed by a physician. Another respiratory virus season is only months away.

Activity Based Funding may improve surgical efficiency and deserves a fair evaluation. But Albertans should not mistake a funding reform for a healthcare solution.

Until we fix the bottlenecks at both the entry and exit doors of our hospitals, our emergency departments and inpatient wards will remain overcrowded and inefficient regardless of how hospitals are funded.

The biggest bottleneck in Alberta healthcare is not the operating room…It's patient flow…It's the hospital entry and exit door.

@ABDanielleSmith @nenshi @PfParks @JMeddings @raghu_venugopal @TheSGEM @TheBreakdownAB @RealTalkRJ @cspotweet @BradenMannsYYC @UCPCaucus @abndpcaucus

[Jason Scott 🇨🇦 @JasonOnTheDrums]

#ableg

One of Smith’s most BRAZEN conflicts of interest

The Ockeys’ private school foundation already got ~$2M from taxpayers this year

Now they’re lobbying her directly for millions MORE for a new school and rec centre.

This isn’t just “great convo”
It’s a MAJOR conflict 😳

[Richard B🇨🇦 @TheManagersBox]

You don't seem interested in anyone else's perspective. That statement is deeply condescending and dismissive of hundreds of thousands of Albertans who disagree with you.

If you genuinely cared about the perspectives of Alberta citizens, you would not have marginalized more than 400,000 of us. You would have had the integrity and courage to put this issue to a vote in the Legislature. But you didn't.

Why, Danielle?

What commitments or discussions took place during your visit to Mar-a-Lago? Albertans deserve transparency. When will you provide clear answers?

When will you fully account for the CorruptCare controversy? When will you take responsibility for the data breach to your insider friends that occurred under your government's watch?

Leadership means accountability. These issues have all unfolded during your tenure as Premier. If you no longer have the confidence of Albertans, the honourable course is simple: resign and let Albertans decide the future through an election.

[A_DifficultWoman 🇨🇦 @SomewhereInAB]

@JeromyYYC Mitch Sylvestre representing separatists is more than embarrassing to say the least.

[Jeromy (Pathfinder) Farkas @JeromyYYC]

Albertans deserve to know exactly what some of the leading voices behind separation are advocating: mandatory military service, citizenship based on birthplace, and a vision of society that belongs in the past.

At a time when Calgary is attracting talent, investment, and opportunity from across Canada and around the world, the provincial referendum decision is giving oxygen to a movement that creates uncertainty, division, and risk.

Our city needs more homes, more jobs, more infrastructure, and stronger ties with the rest of Canada and the world. Instead, we're being dragged into a debate that threatens investment, undermines confidence, and distracts from the real challenges facing Albertans.

Calgary's future is as a growing, confident Canadian city. We must be focused on building that future, not legitimizing a movement that puts it at risk.

[AJ Punk @SilentSnow89]

Danielle Smith needs to resign as Premier of Alberta. She is the single most corrupt, controversial, destructive person to ever occupy the office of Premier in our great province.

Think I'm exaggerating?

- Artur Pawlowski ethics breach: in March 2023, Danielle Smith improperly pressured the Justice Minister to drop all charges against the pastor with regards to the Coutts blockade
- CorruptCare: Smith tried to restructure AHS by awarding massive publicly funded contracts to private corporations, including MHCare. The former CEO of AHS, Athana Mentzelopoulos claims to have been wrongfully fired because she was investigating allegations of wrongdoing.
- Sweeping Attacks on Trans Youth: Bills 26, 27, and 29 ban transgender surgeries and hormonal therapies for youths under 16, force parental consent for school pronoun changes, and ban trans women from competing in female sports leagues. Danielle Smith used the Notwithstanding Clause, a constitutional clause designed to avoid national unity crises during times of emergency, to silence all debate and court challenges on these unconstitutional bills.
- Third Party Book Bans: Smith mandated that all third-party learning materials involving sex ed, orientation, or gender identity require Ministry of Education pre-approval.
- Her list of controversial comments and public acts includes:
- Claims that the unvaxxed were "the most discriminated against group of people in history";
- Comparing those who followed COVID policies were "followers of Hitler";
- gave credence to the chemtrail conspiracists;
- used victims of severe crimes as props for her own political claims.
- She has passed legislation which allows the government of Alberta to simply ignore laws she deems "harmful to Alberta's interests."
- She has tried to pull Alberta out of the CPP, with no plan to replace it aside from an independent APP.
- She has dismantled AHS in an effort to privatize Alberta's universal healthcare system.
- She wasted $70 million dollars on Turkish pain medication, most of which either was deemed unsafe for public consumption or simply never arrived.
- She has been seen many times at public events in the US hosted by MAGA or MAGA-aligned far-right activists and figures, many of whom, including Trump, have advocated for annexing Canada into the US by force.

These are just the most extreme examples of Danielle Smith's unfitness to occupy the office of the Premier of Alberta. She has done much damage to the reputation and the future of our province and our people. She will go down in history as the most corrupt, most destructive premier we have ever endured.

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

Wab Kinew on fact-checking Danielle Smith: "Somebody's got to stick up for Canada. And I love this country so much ... if there is going to be a referendum, I don't want fake news to be framing it up."

[The Walrus @thewalrus]

In late March, Alberta separatists said they were struggling to collect signatures. Days later, they claimed 300,000. No audit, no explanation—just repetition until the number began to stick. Political science professor @DrJaredWesley investigates: https://t.co/uuyEd53vSH

[Jason Pugh 🇨🇦 🏳️‍🌈 @TheJasonPugh]

🚨WATCH:

“Sorry, I’d like to respond. So I think we know that that is not correct. A lot of what you just said there, Premier Smith.” - Manitoba Premier @WabKinew

#cdnpoli @ABDanielleSmith

[The Breakdown @TheBreakdownAB]

WOW!

Rakhi Pancholi pulled zero punches in her response to Smith’s address last night!

“Cut the bullshit and call an election!”

(That’s a real quote)

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

[RobertFella 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 @Bonkavision5]

Too on point not to share. This is great, but too bad the Orange Felon’s enablers won’t let him see it.
This Australian's reply to #Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
- Tony Locke

[Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx @CraigBaird]

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Alberta have served Canada for over a century.
Many gave their lives for their country.
They fought for Canada. Let's fight against separation.

Vote for Alberta to remain a province of Canada on Oct. 19, 2026.

[Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk @LukaszukAB]

Bring home the #ForeverCanadian flame.
Free lawn signs for pick up at the grand opening of our campaign headquarters.
#aboeg #abpoli #cdnpoli

May 23 2PM - 4 PM in 16815-117 Ave NW, Edmonton
More locations soon.

[Richard B🇨🇦 @TheManagersBox]

3:40 AM.
I turn to my phone on the nightstand and confirm the time. I already know I’m not going back to sleep.

Not after another reckless act from a Premier who, by every measurable standard, appears completely off the rails.

So Danielle Smith can take comfort in one thing: she got through to us. Loud and clear.

Albertans understand now that something is deeply wrong.

Whether she is compromised by foreign interests, political extremists inside her own party, or simply by the pursuit of power itself almost no longer matters. The result is the same: a government willing to risk Alberta, risk Canada, and risk social stability to preserve political control.

And the hardest part is this: it feels abusive.

The endless pushing.
The endless escalation.
The endless chaos.
Albertans are exhausted.

We don’t need months of anxiety hanging over our heads because of some reckless October 19 referendum fantasy.

We do not need our province turned into a political powder keg while healthcare deteriorates, education suffers, corruption allegations pile up, and long-term economic planning is nowhere to be found.

This is not leadership.

Leadership lowers temperatures.
Leadership negotiates.
Leadership builds confidence.
Leadership protects institutions.

Instead, we see attacks on courts, attacks on vulnerable communities, attacks on public trust, and constant deflection from accountability.

And for what?

To distract from failures in governance?
To avoid scrutiny over corruption scandals?
To feed a movement built on grievance, anger, and permanent outrage?

I’m tired of short-term politics masquerading as vision.

I want a government thinking 25 and 50 years ahead.
I want honest stewardship of Alberta’s future.
I want competence, professionalism, and stability.

Most Albertans are not looking for revolution.
We are looking for adults in the room.

I’m a patriot. I will vote to stay.

And I believe millions of Canadians will stand with those of us who want no part of reckless separatist agendas or imported political extremism.

This province deserves better than permanent chaos.
It deserves leadership.

[Jen 🇨🇦🇨🇦 @TheJen73]

Here’s a petition to kick Pete Hoekstra the MAGA Canadian Ambassador out on his ass.

https://t.co/IJzM3OwRiO

#PeteHoekstra #CanadianAmbassador #CanadianTraitor #TrumpsPuppet

[Hon. Thomas A. Lukaszuk @LukaszukAB]

Alberta, let this sink in:

In Canadian history, only 2 premiers initiated referenda on separating from Canada:

- René Lévesque 1980
- Jacques Parizeau 1995

Both Quebec separatists who nearly destroyed Canada.

Today, Danielle Smith will join their ranks.

#ableg #cdnpoli

[Vicki Campbell🇨🇦 @merry123459]

UCP put out a retraction because they got caught. Not because their first release was put out in error. Alberta, you have big problems. Get rid of Danielle Smith and her government.

[Richard Knack @RichardKnack]

EVERY citizen in Alberta must watch this clip!!!!!

DEMOCRACY doesn’t exist with UCP!

PLEASE repost.