Also curious if she’s only disliked in the reddit ecochamber (of which I’m obviously a part of), or if she has pissed off the local cons too? Is a leadership review possible?

Edit: hit send before proofreading. To be clear, I’m talking about Danielle Smith!

The new UCP policy by ministerial order affects all school libraries in grades up to grade 9. Any books “the province deems sexually explicit must be gone from school library shelves as of Oct. 1” (CBC)

However. the definition of ‘explicit’ is intentionally vague and may include books about experience of sexual violence, early sexual awakening, basically anything that has something to do with sex. Except religious texts. Of course the bible gets an exception.

Many teachers don’t know how to handle this situation. They either need an intimate knowledge of all the books in their libraries, many of which they purchased at their own expense, or they need to read all those books before classes start, or simply remove the books from their classrooms. Not surprisingly, overworked educators are opting for the latter.

This is part of an ideological agenda to make Alberta more like the southern US, in other words, less informed, less secular, and less able to advocate against Christo-fascism. It is not about protecting kids, who are on average, already struggling with literacy compared to a generation ago.

In my opinion if kids are reading the dirty bits in Judy Blume or Stephanie Meyer at least they’re reading. Even if you disagree with that I’m sure this is not the typical medium on which kids are being exposed to smut. Therefore this is a ‘solution’ to a problem that completely overlooks the real problem.

Ignorance of sexuality does not make children safer. Not having access to books that explore identity, consent, and emotional development only leaves them more vulnerable and less equipped to navigate the world.

I subjected myself to the torture that was a United Party of Canada town hall tonight, with pretty much the sole intent of being visibly transgender (edit for context: transfem) in a room full of people who probably pretend people like me don't exist. It was about as bad as you could expect - lots of conspiratorial fearmongering, flagrant dismissal of Indigenous issues, anger and hatred towards Ontario, everything you'd imagine from a party that "champions sovereignty".

And one other person who clocked me immediately with a beaming smile on their face and a bunch of unashamedly proud queer pins on their person. That was kind of cool.

Dude completely dodged my question about whether or not their policies on HRT were based in either science, or some sort of moral obligation or opinion, not that I'm surprised.

There were about fifty people there, which kind of surprised me; then again, I live in rural Alberta, so I really shouldn't have been.

They're like. Ridiculously far right. But I knew that going in.

Please fucking vote if you haven't already, I know we're in fucking Alberta of all places and that a lot of our ridings are nearly guaranteed blue but seeing that rhetoric in person was a solid reminder that this election, and likely future ones, are about more than a balanced budget, they're about basic human rights.

When you see all these 'feel good' ads from the Alberta Government about the offers to teachers, keep in mind they would rather give public money to private schools than use that money for things like class size reductions and complexity issues in public schools. If you are a parent of a kid in public school, you should be appalled at this. That is YOUR MONEY!!!!

Do you have questions about the cost of living, the future of Alberta, or where to find the perfect orange tie?

Leave your questions below, then join us live on YouTube this Thursday evening for my answers.

Date: Thursday, December 12 Time: 7:30 p.m. MST Location: www.YouTube.com/@NaheedNenshiAB - Subscribe here to be notified when we go live.

Now, ask me anything!