The Foreign Interference Federal Election - Week One
Special Edition: A view from out west, with one eye on the demolition next door
My Scottish/Irish ancestors arrived on the east coast of so-called “Canada” in the early 1800’s and were part of several waves of genocidal colonization of the Indigenous people who were already here. They arrived uninvited on the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkewiyik (Maliseet) whose ancestors along with the Mi’Kmaq / Mi’kmaw and Passamaquoddy / Peskotomuhkati Tribes / Nations signed Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown in the 1700s. I like to start every new post by explaining my family’s history and keeping this foremost in my mind (and my writing) at all times. I know I have benefited as a result of colonization, and I find the history deeply troubling. It is what motivates me to understand the true history and advocate for real reconciliation. As a child in the 1970’s, I moved west with my family and am grateful to be writing this newsletter now in Moh’kinsstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. This territory is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. I recognize that the land I now work and live on was stolen from these nations (truth) and I support giving the land back as an act of reconciliation. Lands inhabited by Indigenous Peoples contain 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and knowledge systems are key to designing a sustainable future for all.
Sunday, March 23: Friends and enemies
After only nine days in power, Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the Governor General Mary Simon on Sunday, March 23 and asked her to dissolve Parliament, signalling a federal election on April 28.
At only 36 days, the shortest campaign allowed by law, this could be one of the most nerve-wracking federal elections in years, maybe in decades.
Sitting at home with a head cold and feeling miserable, I was doing my taxes to try to forget my illness, and distract from the feeling of dread that was sweeping over me.
In the United States, the convicted felon in charge, Donald Trump had spent his weekend lashing out at a long list of “enemies" by issuing two executive orders (EO’s) - one stripping a number of his political opponents (and others) of access to classified information and security clearances. The list included Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, who have done nothing wrong by the way, and it probably should have included National Security Advisor Mike Waltz for reasons that will become clear the next day.
One observer on Bluesky wrote: Nothing convinces me that Stephen Miller uses EOs to give the Commander in Thief regular dopamine hits so he feels he is in charge like the serial stripping of security clearances. (@emptywheel)
Adam Kinzinger, former Republican congressman and outspoken critic of the president, quipped on social media: “This means I now have negative 4 security clearances.”
The second executive order essentially warned law firms everywhere not to challenge the administration in court or suffer the consequences. Several law firms have already experienced his wrath and more are probably also on the revenge list. The list must be growing longer every day as the government is being challenged in dozens of court cases, losing some of them already. In fact, this second order directed the Attorney General to review any litigation over the last eight years to identify “misconduct.” Buckle up big law!
These orders followed a harrowing week of blows levelled against the US by an administration that seems hell bent on destroying everything good, fair and inspiring about the country. It’s much like watching someone take a wrecking ball to your neighbour’s house. I’ve been observing with wide-eyed disbelief and let’s be honest, dumbfounded shock at how little resistance has been mustered.
Perhaps I’m not alone and maybe other Canadians have been watching in horror while trying to avoid the flying debris too. Having a federal election at this moment in time seems both regrettable and necessary.
We know it has to be done because we can’t have a leader who’s not been properly elected at such a critical time, but mostly, we just want to get it over quickly so we can - depending on the outcome - build up a wall of protection from the carnage next door.
As I sniffled my way through an online tax program, I kept glancing nervously at social media as the story broke about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s interview with Breitbart weeks earlier.
“The longer this (tariff) dispute goes on, politicians posture, and it seems to be benefiting the Liberals right now,” Smith said. “So I would hope that we could put things on pause is what I’ve told administration officials.
Wait, what?!? So, as we know now, Smith told Breitbart she basically asked the US administration to chill out with the tariff threats until after Canada’s federal election because she felt it was helping the Liberals gain traction over her favourite candidate, Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre.
Smith also suggested that Poilievre would be more aligned with POUTIS. When a reporter asked about it, Poilievre did not answer, pivoting quickly to attack the Liberals, a move he has pretty much perfected.
“So I would think that there’d be, there’s probably still always going to be areas that are skirmishes or disputes about particular industries when it comes to the border, but I would say, on balance, the perspective that Pierre (Poilievre) would bring would be very much in sync with, I think…the new direction in America. And I think we’d have a really great relationship for the period of time they’re both in (office).”
Danielle Smith to Breitbart
Doing my income taxes suddenly felt like a welcome distraction on Day One of the election campaign.
Monday, March 24: How not to use Signal
The work week started out with The Atlantic reporting their editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg had been added to a group chat on Signal by US National Security Advisor Waltz. Incredibly, no one noticed that he had been added to the chat as the conversation revealed top secret information about a military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen…two hours beforehand.
Goldberg said he thought he was being pranked until the strikes happened exactly as described two hours later. That’s when he started calling around to colleagues and contacts in the national security realm to see if it was real.
I still can’t process how such a breach of protocol was possible. I worked for over a decade in municipal government and also for six years at government agencies where data security was over-the-top to the point of being paranoid. Every app had to be vetted, approved, and that was just standard practice for regular information-sharing, never mind sensitive information.
Witnessing this story unfold was like watching a structural support beam buckle and collapse on the neighbour’s house. It was hard to look directly at it, I recall closing the screen on my phone and returning to my taxes.
With the demolition proceeding rapidly next door, the federal election campaign in Canada became more serious, with accusations of foreign interference circulating on social media. Many people were posting that they had lodged complaints with Elections Canada about Smith’s statements.
The Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault cautioned Canadians in a news conference to be aware of “bad information about the voting process.” This is not a new thing with elections, but this time it seemed like the stakes were much, much higher.
"I encourage Canadians to use Elections Canada as the authoritative source of information about the federal electoral process. I also encourage Canadians not to let their social media feed dictate what they read."
Solid advice to start the campaign I thought as I went back to check my social media feeds. What?!
Perrault said he had reached out to X (Elon Musk’s mess) and TikTok (not yet owned by the billionaires, but soon) to "seek their support to making this election a secure election."
"We'll see what action actually takes place during the election. Hopefully they won't have to intervene, but if there are issues,
hopefully they will be true to their word"
Stephane Perrault
With Musk in control of the major social media site and the Chinese government owning the main video-sharing platform, what could go wrong?
Later that day, I decided to create lists of federal candidates in Alberta using Bluesky and perhaps not surprisingly, the results were dismal.
There are only three Conservative candidates that I could find on Bluesky - Matt Jeneroux, Greg McLean, and Michelle Rempel Garner - all incumbents. McLean has been quite active, Rempel Garner hasn’t posted for four months and Jeneroux hasn’t posted anything.
There are four Liberal candidates on Bluesky - George Chahal, Thomas Keeper, Eleanor Olszewski, and Lucia Stachurski - one incumbent and three newbies. Three of the four are urban and one is from St. Albert-Sturgeon River, which is outside of Edmonton. Only one, Stachurski, has posted anything yet.
There are three NDP candidates on Bluesky - Trish Estabrooks, Austin Mullins, and Sarah Zagoda - all newbies. Two are urban and one, Zagoda, is from the Airdrie-Cochrane riding on the outskirts of Calgary. All three have been actively posting and there is some good campaign action here if you want to follow along.
There are three Green candidates on Bluesky - Ashley MacDonald, Amber Murray, and Evelyn Tanaka - all newbies, of course. Murray, the candidate running in Lethbridge, is posting a lot!
Conservative candidates in Alberta don’t have to try very hard to win, but it always amazes me when serious candidates don’t make use of platforms like Bluesky that are available to them.
Feel free to follow these lists and suggest any names I may have missed at @jemphatically.
Tuesday, March 25: Security clearances for all, except Poilievre
At this point in the week, while the Signal chat story was blowing up in the US, I was “driving Miss Daisy” most of the day, delivering my mom to a medical appointment. This is no quick task since her appointments are mostly in Calgary which is about 60 km from where she lives out in lovely, peaceful, rural Alberta.
As everyone on Signal was hoping they would be added to a Pete Hegseth and J.D. Vance chat (DM me at JodyMacPherson_64) and/or renaming their secret chat groups “Houthi PC small group,” I was thinking “is it only Tuesday?”
But the detonations just kept going off next door, as the White House got busy issuing five new executive orders including instructions to move completely away from any paper financial transactions, opening up more contract opportunities for Elon Musk, no doubt.
Also ordered was the centralization of all financial transactions with the Treasury department, and a special order against the law firm hired by Robert Mueller for his investigation of the Trump.
With the media having a field day with the national security breach, they gave the president a Sharpie and told him to “have at ‘er” so he could feel in charge again.
Most concerning was an executive order “preserving and protecting the integrity of American elections,” which almost immediately resulted in another lawsuit.
Ironically, the order praises the Canadian practice of paper ballots “counted in public by local officials.” Federal elections in Canada do involve hand-counted paper ballots. For a country that Trump says is not real and “has given us nothing,” it sure sounds like he’s admiring something about us.
Trump is trying to limit the number of voters by introducing new identification requirements proving citizenship, and introducing limits around the timing and counting of mail-in ballots.
No one can deny the irony of this president showing concern about the integrity of elections after uttering this directive in 2020 to Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.”
Meanwhile in Canada, Poilievre woke up to new accusations of foreign interference in his Conservative leadership campaign by India. According (gift link) to the Globe and Mail, state-sponsored operatives organized support for Poilievre without his knowledge because, get this, he has refused to get national security clearance to see top secret reports that he could receive as leader of the Official Opposition.
Perhaps Poilievre should ask if he can get on Mike Walz’s Signal chat to receive some national security intel - it evidently doesn’t require clearance.
Wednesday, March 26: A beautiful escalation
At mid-week, I had an opportunity to let the dust settle on the chaos in the US, forget about the election and spend the day with my grandson. We had a jam-packed day of Lego robots, Sunny Bunnies, ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, bejeweled monster trucks, foam bowling, and a sold out farmers market - all without leaving my condo.
Things slowed down with the toddler at the White House too, with only one executive order on Wednesday, a pardon for Devon Archer, who was convicted for committing fraud against a Native American tribe over about $60 million in bonds.
Apparently, Trump took a shine to Archer after he testified against Hunter Biden in 2023. He also has had sexual misconduct allegations levelled against him by two minors (unproven as of yet) so you can see how Trump might relate to the guy.
Milton had already served his one year in prison for fraud anyway, so the move was mostly designed to get under the skin of Biden, Sr. Last week, Trump also terminated Secret Service security protection for both Hunter and Ashley Biden, the former president's two adult children.
The New York Times analyzed the first 50 days of the Stable Genius’s presidency and found that he mentioned Biden’s name more than six times per day (publicly). He said “Biden” in more speeches than he said “America” apparently.
“It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all... may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”
Dr. Seuss
Except, I don’t think there’s redemption on this character’s horizon.
The federal election continued on the theme of foreign interference as the story broke (gift link) about another candidate with close ties to India. This time it was Liberal MP Chandra Ayra who had already been banned from running for the nomination in his Ottawa riding. A source with “top-secret clearance” provided the details to the Globe, because of course there’s no way Poilievre could have known.
On the other side of the fence, The Atlantic decided to release the full text chat about the Yemen military strikes after multiple high ranking officials either denied the story completely or claimed the information was not “classified.” Hegseth took direct aim at the journalist, claiming it was a hoax, a claim also repeated by the White House press secretary. So, who can blame them for publishing it?
Late in the day, the US president dropped (gift link) another tariff bomb, a 25% tariff on all foreign automobiles imported into the US.
“He escalated his attacks. And that’s what these tariffs are. They are attacks on Canada, but they are attacks on our workers,”
Mark Carney
As Trump has repeatedly said, “I say the most beautiful word in the entire dictionary of words is the word tariff, I love tariff, I can make anybody do anything through the use of tariffs.“
Thursday, March 27: Please remove us from the chat
Canadians weren’t the only ones left reeling at the auto tariff announcement. Apparently American automakers were “stunned” to hear of it, especially since the Trump had met with top executives in the industry earlier in the month and warned them against raising prices as a result.
According (gift link) to the Wall Street Journal, the warning left them “rattled and worried they would face punishment if they increased prices.”
Sources immediately started speculating that the tariffs would benefit Tesla, which builds all of its vehicles sold in the US, in US factories. It imports only a small amount of the parts and components from elsewhere.
Techcrunch wrote that “the new tariff regime comes at an auspicious time for Tesla. The company is dealing with the fallout of Musk’s promotion of far-right ideology and his involvement with the unpopular Department of Government Efficiency, which has sparked protests around the world.
Is that another wall I see crumbling across the fence? The house is tilting wildly off balance and I can’t watch. Back to my taxes.
Canadians facing a “foreign interference election” were likely feeling quite uneasy by this point and it makes sense that social media posts started appearing about strange texts they were receiving on their phones. The messages started out blandly enough asking them who they were voting for, but then things started to get weirdly specific.
The CBC reported that the polling firm ERG Research was asking people for their postal code and their names, which is not the norm. It turns out that ERG shares a mailing address and is linked through corporate registry to Elect Right.
Elect Right has worked for CPC leadership candidates in 2017, including Peter MacKay, Tony Clement and Maxime Bernier. At that time, Conservatives were criticized for using American instead of Canadian companies for campaign services and communication.
There’s no evidence that Elect Right is working for the CPC in this case and the company is registered with a Canadian domain, which requires a Canadian mailing address. The domain information is set to private - I checked - so we still don’t know.
Political parties often use various methods of narrowing down their massive lists, including ruling out voters they know aren’t voting for them in order to concentrate on winnable areas. Postal codes and names can help them do that.
Just a reminder to provide as little information as possible to people texting you. In fact, don’t reply at all or even type “STOP” as this just lets them know the phone number is valid.
If you want to let your local candidate know you support them, why not phone up or visit their office instead? Not only will it save them time in tracking down their voters and ensuring they cast their ballot, it will give them a boost of confidence to keep going.
As a journalist, I’ve decided not to belong to any political parties, but I’m comfortable declaring my support for any party that advances strong environmental policies, which are also by definition, strong economic and social policies, since everything is connected. Those who don’t recognize this, won’t get my vote.
Friday, March 28: Diplomacy for schmucks
Most of us woke up Friday morning to a jolt from The National Observer who were working with the team at Desmog.com on an investigative piece about Danielle Smith’s Thursday trip to Florida.
Alberta’s premier had stubbornly insisted on flying to Florida using taxpayer dollars to help raise money for the right wing mob operating out of so-called PragerU, which is neither a university or college.
It produces and packages political ideology into videos they claim have received almost 10 billion views across YouTube and other platforms. And now Alberta taxpayers have funded their efforts by footing the travel expenses for Smith to headline the event.
Is the temperature rising here or is it just me?
The $1,500/plate fundraiser had to be held at a secret location as local activists were planning a protest outside the venue. Smith appeared on stage alongside podcaster Ben Shapiro, I’m assuming to provide a foil to Shapiro’s grating personality.
The journalists managed to obtain audio of the event and well, Smith’s argument that she was doing diplomacy is totally laughable. According to reporting, organizers announced during the event they had surpassed their $1million fundraising goal.
Shapiro told the audience at the event: “It is better for the United States to have actual solid allies running in Canada than to have some of the schmucks that have been running Canada over the past few years.”
And Smith was quoted at the event saying “I come in peace.” Was she waving a white flag?
Yesterday, Tantrump dropped several executive orders, including one odiously named “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order treats history as if it is simply a PR exercise of scrubbing and erasing things you don’t like.
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
He then goes on to demand the Smithsonian (including the National Zoo) review hundreds if not thousands of “public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”
He specifically singles out the American Art Museum’s exhibit called “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” the whole premise of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and plans the American Women’s History Museum had to celebrate women’s sports (for including ALL WOMEN).
This is where the dust from the rubble and destruction of the neighbour’s house next door starts to choke.
Saturday, March 29: Deeply dystopian and dodgy
On Friday, it was reported that Musk’s DODGY (did I get that right?) team is going to completely rebuild the database of the Social Security Administration. He’s also said after that, which they say will take a couple of months, he’ll be leaving DODGY behind to return to his failing businesses. Funny that.
The president told Congress he is shutting down the US Agency for International Development by July 1. Only Congress can legally do that but here we are. No one in Congress is going to even try to stop it.
A leader in vaccine advocacy and regulation at the US Department of Health has resigned, Dr. Peter Marks, saying that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”s wants only “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
And the Second Lady (I can barely type that without laughing) Usha Vance had to cancel her visit to Greenland, while she and her husband, Vice President JD Vance flew into the US Army base there for a brief tour instead. I’m sure it had nothing to do with this (link in caption):
I’ve decided to treat myself once per week to an actual paper newspaper, at least for a little while. Quite an indulgence, I realize. And I’m sorry for the trees lost, and the emissions generated by the delivery. I truly am. I will forego some other paper item and I already rarely drive any more. I promise I will make amends for this guilty pleasure.
I’m doing this to force myself away from the constant notifications and breaking news updates I’ve become accustomed to on my phone. Still, it is difficult not to notice the nearby dismantling brick-by-brick of perhaps the world’s most celebrated democracy.
Almost every day I read the eloquent summaries of US events by historian Heather Cox Richardson. Lately, they are tinged with sadness and regret. Her posts are getting increasingly dystopian.
In a Wisconsin election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, things are looking so bad for the Republicans that Musk is travelling to the state to personally deliver a million dollars each to two voters as part of a “contest” he ran to encourage people to vote. This directly violates Wisconsin laws.
One Democrat simply said, “Have some pride, America.”
It may be too late for that.
____
Best reads this week:
Signalgate: violating national security by Timothy Snyder
Selected Presidential Quotes on Canada - provided by the US Embassy & Consultes in Canada
Meet the 19 members of the Houthi attacks group chat
Planetary Eclipse: Former California Gov. Jerry Brown scores Trump’s assault on climate policies (Tesla would not exist if not for California - essay)
Letter from an American for March 28 by Heather Cox Richardson
Exclusive Videos Show Dr. Joe Mercola’s Dangerous Ideas Whipped up by Alleged Medium (CO2 enema anyone?)
The Senate Should End “National Emergency” Tariffs on Canada by the National Taxpayers Union
That’s Bait - Krist Noem and fascism’s sadistic eroticization of power by Jeff Sharlet
Alberta Prosperity Project event draws crowd of critics and supporters (51st Staters in Alberta gone wild)
Gift links:
We Underestimate the Manosphere at Our Peril
Visiting Greenland, Vance Finds the Weather and the Reception Chilly
My Day Inside America’s Most Hated Car
Other sources used:
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/danielle-smith-travelling-u-s-ben-shapiro
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss%27_How_the_Grinch_Stole_Christmas!_(TV_special)
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/hunter-biden-ashley-secret-service-trump
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-calls-georgia/index.html
Gift links: