Jason Markusoff
@markusoff
I write and yak for CBC in Calgary. DMs open, Signal, WhatsApp, and such jason.markusoff@cbc.ca
I featured this graphic by separatist leader Keith Wilson in my latest article, but to prevent rabbit hole distractions I cropped out the astounding AI junk on the edge of this photo. Ottawa in…. New Brunswick? And what is that building? Sure not Parliament. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
On a family trip to BC, an Alberta family must make pilgrimage to where the next bitumen pipeline will end.
Responsiveness! Now there’s a “None” option on the drop-down menu. (Screenshotting a dropdown menu is a chore, don’t @ me)
This must be an older page on Alberta Transportation's website. It recommends segregated bike lanes as "your safest option while cycling."
Boy, the Alberta Transportation's new Barbaric Urban Bicycle Lanes Tip Line, and that drop-down menu sans "Other" field. www.alberta.ca/report-conce...
Younger one really captured my inquisitive side with his Father’s Day artwork.
Group photo of UCP board members at a big pro-separation rally last fall. Four are still on the board. When the party president saw pic on Facebook, he said he regretted he couldn’t be there, too. On the separatist senior organizers in Danielle Smith’s party: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
A UCP appointees to the weird Round 2 riding boundary panel lobbied the actual boundary commission to impose a hyper-ruralized seat map for Calgary with more hybrid ridings than the widely criticized minority report. Darwin Durnie's submission, page 65-262: www.elections.ab.ca/uploads/EBC-...
Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen declines to directly answer how he would vote in the separation referendum. The first minister I’ve heard dodge it, and criticize Ottawa instead. He does represent a very rural constituency, mind you.
Not all of this rail plan is long term. For instance, we could be only months away from an industry webinar for private-sector engagement!
Detail of map, with disclaimer: Note: map is conceptual and does not show exact routing or station locations, and new connections could emerge in the future.
At the Smith government’s passenger train plan release. All aboard to 2056!
Danielle Smith's senior Calgary aide vends in several disproven 2020 US election conspiracy theories here, including noncitizen voter fraud and rigged vote machines. As part of argument for putting Canadian citizenship markers on Alberta drivers' licences.
“From my standpoint, from the president’s standpoint, 51st state’s not coming back.” — US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, May 2025
A wickedly clever post. I remain, as ever, in awe of @carrietait.bsky.social
Youtube's AI transcription having a real one during the first 10 minutes of hold music before last Friday's Danielle Smith news conference www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuM8...
Across age, gender, region, education, income level, and political affiliation, only two subsets in Alberta would vote against staying in Canada: 1) UCP voters 2) Federal Conservative voters
Separatist leader/lawyer Jeff Rath’s open letter to Danielle Smith, demanding she “please resign”: Says she’s lost her ability to refer to herself as “Right Honourable” — which she never was in the first place. That’s a prime minister’s title, not a premier’s.
HUGE: Alberta judge quashes the separatists' referendum petition, in major victory for Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Blackfoot confederation. Justice Shaina Leonard: "the Crown failed to meet its duty to consult"
Urban nerd win: led my Jane’s Walk, “The Calgary That Could Have Been” this morn. Among the 50ish walkers, one woman brought along her original copy of the 1914 Mawson Plan that pitched Calgary as a “Vienna on the Bow.” She found it at an antique store in Aberdeen, Scotland, for £20 in the 1980s
Organizers of next week's Christian political conference that Danielle Smith is headlining has quietly changed its name from "Premier's Annual Christian Summit" to remove "premier" from it. Spot the difference!
NEW: Separatist group behind the petition drive distances itself from separatist group ordered by court to take a list of every Alberta voter from its activism website.
RCMP confirms they're investigating the leak of most Albertans' names/home addresses to the Centurion Project separatist group. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
The Republican Party did not file its own year-end financial report with Elections Alberta for 2025, the first year of its existence. Cam Davies is a longtime political backroom guy.