What Can We Do?
A Holiday Plan for Restoring Alberta’s Democracy
The United Conservative Party has made 2025 the democratically darkest year in Alberta history. I’m not going to rehash the bleak details in full. (I’ll include an appendix at the end of this post, if you want a recap.)
Suffice it to say, routine abuses of the rule of law, stripping of human rights, removal of checks & balances, overuse of closure to shortcut debate, attacks on electoral integrity, the erosion of constitutional and civic norms, the dismantling of intermediary institutions, outright corruption… my Substack is full of examples of how the province is drifting further away from liberal democracy by the day.
Instead, I’d like to focus on what ordinary Albertans can do to reverse the trend. Starting today.
The Populist Illusion
Uprooting populist power means understanding its source.
Populists like Danielle Smith don’t just win elections or implement their far-right agendas by mobilizing their base. They win by convincing everyone else that their base is bigger than it is.
That’s the core of the populist playbook: take a relatively small, loud, aggrieved group and sell them as “ordinary folks” — the real mainstream — while painting everyone else as out-of-touch elites, special interests, or enemies within.
Make everyone think that the aggrieved group is too small to control everything but too big to resist.
This power play works because of two powerful social dynamics.
First, pluralistic ignorance: lots of people privately disagree with the government’s direction, but assume they’re in the minority because all they see are loud supporters and silent skeptics.
Next, the spiral of silence: the more people think they’re alone, the quieter they become. The quieter they become, the more universal the government’s support appears.
Stopping populists from pursuing far-right, illiberal backsliding requires puncturing that myth of overwhelming support.
Populists need people to believe “everyone” is on their side and that resistance is futile. To reverse our drift away from liberal democracy, democrats and pluralists of all stripes need to make it clear that this is simply not true.
That’s where you come in.
A Holiday Menu for Democracy
Think of this as a menu, not a homework checklist. You won’t do all of the things that follow. But you can do some of them. And you should do something. Now.
1. Make your dissent visible
Pluralistic ignorance dies in the daylight.
Say what you think about the Smith government’s assault on liberal democracy, out loud. Tell friends, family, coworkers, teammates, and fellow congregants when and how you think the government has gone too far.
And put it in your own words. Don’t simply re-post someone else’s thoughts. Use your own name when it’s safe. A short, measured post under your real identity (“I’m a lifelong Albertan and I oppose X because…”) counts for more than a dozen anonymous rants or “shares”.
Normalize disagreement. When people hear “I don’t buy this” from someone who looks and sounds like them, it challenges the populist illusion of unanimous support.
2. Lean on your MLA
Backsliding accelerates when elected officials think no one is paying attention, or when they only hear from their blindly loyal base.
Call, email, or visit. Announce yourself as a proud constituent and a potential (or past) supporter.
It works.
Ask your MLA where they stand on attacks on courts, minority rights, public institutions, or the latest salvos in the “culture war.”
Ask specific, on-the-record questions.
Share what you hear with your friends and the public. If they dodge, say so. If they show backbone, thank them publicly. Pressure cuts both ways.
3. Show up and be counted
Crowd size is a core status symbol in populist politics. If you want to shake their confidence, out-number them.
Go to rallies, town halls, and demonstrations that defend democratic norms, civil liberties, and pluralism — even when they’re not “your” issue.
Bring friends, colleagues, and family. A carpool is more powerful than a quote-tweet.
This next part is key: wear blue and wave Alberta flags. Don’t concede provincial symbols to a single faction. Populists love wrapping themselves in Alberta regalia; it matters when a bigger, more diverse crowd does the same.
Visible, flag-waving crowds of ordinary Albertans who oppose backsliding are kryptonite for populist narrative.
If there are no public rallies, do the same in your public / social media commentary. #WeAreAlbertan is a powerful countermessage to the populists’ #IAmAlbertan mantra.
4. Support people on the front lines
The UCP is deliberately targeting vulnerable groups they feel are unworthy of widespread support (or unlikely to receive it).
Believe and support trans kids, racialized communities, parents, physicians, migrants, public servants, educators, librarians, and others who find themselves at the sharp end of new laws or campaigns.
Ask: “What do you need from allies?” and follow their lead. Sometimes it’s amplification, sometimes accompaniment, sometimes just not leaving them alone in a fight.
When attacks come — online pile-ons, smear campaigns, bad-faith laws — counter-message and show solidarity, publicly and privately.
Per points #3 and #10: Make sure you identify the victims as real Albertans.
Back trans-rights activists, youth, unions, civil liberties groups, journalists, academics, watchdogs, librarians, school trustees, Indigenous organizations, and community advocates who are doing the slow, unglamorous work of resisting illiberal policies.
That can mean donating, volunteering, or simply showing up when they ask for support at meetings, hearings, or picket lines.
When the populist mob targets these groups, step in.
When they win even small victories — like forcing changes to bad policy or exposing abuses — amplify those wins. It shows that resistance works.
5. Support independent media and analysis
Populists work hard to discredit “mainstream media” and expertise. Don’t let them succeed by neglect.
Subscribe, donate, share. Support outlets and creators who do serious, fact-based reporting and analysis on Alberta politics.
If you have a subscription and want to share “gift” stories, make sure to encourage people to take out a subscription.
Add your own frame when you share. “As an Alberta parent/worker/rancher/student, here’s why this matters to me…” helps cut through the noise better than just dropping a link.
6. Practice pluralism in your own conversations
You can’t fight populism with purity tests. Especially around the family dinner table or at holiday parties.
Listen first. Many people are skeptical of the government but wary of “the left,” “the city,” or “academics.” Meet them where they are. Ask why they’re frustrated, what they want to protect, what they fear losing.
Look for shared values: fairness, honesty, security, opportunity, prosperity, dignity. Start there, even if you end up disagreeing on policy.
Remind them that there are pluralist parties across the political spectrum, and that populism is not the only alternative.
This is how you model a politics where disagreement is normal and opponents are not enemies.
7. Engage in party politics, not just elections
If reasonable people abandon party politics, extremists have a clear path to power.
Join a party (or stay in one) and push back against illiberal instincts from the inside. That can mean opposing conspiracy-laden resolutions or supporting candidates who respect institutions, courts, and minority rights.
Show up for nomination meetings and policy conventions. These low-turnout events often decide who gets a megaphone and what they’ll say into it.
You don’t have to agree on pipelines or tax brackets to insist on some basic democratic red lines.
8. Build pluralist alliances
This is bigger than left vs. right.
Most of the polarization we see today isn’t between progressives and conservatives. It’s between both of those groups (and moderates and other pluralists), on one side, and populists on the other.
Seek out genuine conservatives, centrists, greens, social democrats, moderates, and libertarians who share a commitment to the rule of law and pluralism.
Work together on concrete campaigns: defending academic freedom, resisting attacks on the courts, protecting civil liberties, safeguarding fair elections, pushing back on censorship and book bans.
When people see a farmer, a lawyer, a union member, a small business owner, a pastor, and a student standing together, it undercuts the idea that only “radicals” oppose illiberal policies.
In truth, the populists are the radicals.
9. Pace yourself for the long haul
Democratic erosion is a slow grind. So is rebuilding.
Set boundaries. You don’t have to doomscroll every development to be a good citizen. Choose a few actions you can sustain.
Find joy and community. Potlucks, music, pick-up hockey, faith gatherings, mutual aid — these are not distractions from politics. They’re the soil healthy democratic cultures grow in.
Keep reading positive and uplifting works, and consider starting a book club. Earlier this year, I posted a reading list to get you started:
10. Step up as an Albertan
This is worth repeating: one of the most powerful things you can do right now is to identify yourself as an Albertan.
Even if you’re not proud of Alberta at the moment.
Even if you don’t match the stereotype of a “real Albertan.”
Especially if you don’t.
When a diverse range of people — urban and rural, Indigenous and settler, new Canadians and families who’ve been here for generations — say #WeAreAlbertan, it punctures the myth that only one type of person belongs here, and only one political project speaks for the province.
That’s why “unusual suspects” matter so much. When a cowboy like Corb Lund, a sixth-generation Albertan rancher and country artist, stands up against coal mining and environmental damage on the Eastern Slopes, he helps clear the path for resistance.
His voice hits differently than mine. Yours will hit differently than his.
Show up in numbers. Wave Alberta flags at pro-democracy events. Change your social media bios and profile pics to show you’re Albertan, too. Claim the symbols and the story of this province for a broader, more generous, pluralistic vision.
This holiday season, don’t just reflect.
Talk. Organize. Show up. Act.
Because the illusion that “everyone” backs illiberal backsliding only survives if most of us stay quiet.
And we don’t have to.
Appendix: Alberta’s Democratically Darkest Year (2025)
Below is a list I’ve been keeping in preparation for some future publications. It’s likely incomplete, so if you spot something I’ve missed, please leave a note in the comments.
February 2025
Feb 6 — Auditor General launches a probe into health procurement in Alberta Health/AHS, following reporting and allegations of political interference. It’s one of at least six similar investigations, prompting calls for a public inquiry.
Feb 25 — Peter Guthrie resigns from cabinet out of opposition to the alleged corruption. He’s suspended and later expelled from the UCP.
April 2025
Apr 11 — Reported directive to route Auditor General interview requests through government lawyers. Critics framed this as chilling/obstruction; government framed it as coordination.
Apr 29 — Bill 54 introduced: a major package of election-law and democratic-process changes framed by government as “integrity” reforms.
May 2025
May 9 — Information & Privacy Commissioner finds the government’s FOIP practices non-compliant, raising concerns about systemic obstruction of access-to-information.
June 2025
Jun 11 — FOIP is replaced by ATIA/POPA, Alberta’s new access-to-information and privacy regime that severely limits transparency.
July 2025
Jul 4–10 — “Attempted book ban” controversy: Ministerial Order sets provincewide rules restricting/removing certain school library materials; the order is later paused/rewritten after backlash and reported removals.
August 2025
Aug 1 — Expense receipt disclosure rollback (reducing routine public reporting of government expenses and removing years of posted receipts); reversal came three weeks later, following backlash.
September 2025
Sep 15 — “CAN” citizenship marker on IDs announced (including “election security” framing); later followed by legislation to implement changes.
October 2025
Oct 27 — Bill 2, Back to School Act: back-to-work legislation and imposed settlement using the notwithstanding clause, alongside compressed debate/time allocation.
November 2025
Nov 4 — Elections Alberta funding request largely denied amid workload pressures around recall/initiative administration.
Nov 4 — Committee moves to begin searching for a new Auditor General amid CorruptCare investigation.
Nov 18 — Bill 9 passed: invoking the notwithstanding clause to shield anti-trans laws from court review. Like Bill 2, it is passed in the middle of the night with time allocation and the premier absent.
Nov 20 — Bill 13 passed: Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, constraining professional regulators’ governance/discipline and limiting certain mandatory training requirements.
Nov 28 — UCP AGM passes populist resolutions that threaten liberal democracy and rights.
December 2025
Dec 4 — Bill 14 introduced: tightening ballot access, reworking party/endorsement rules, and centralizing control over citizen initiatives and key justice/election guardrails in the minister/Attorney General. Amended but passed.
Dec 6 — Premier publicly dismisses judges as illegitimate democratic actors.
Jared, thank you for this encouraging directional overview.
We need it.
It is a very discouraging time to be an Albertan but we won't let this one group (UCP) beat us.
This is a civics course, that should be at all community centres! “How to participate in and protect your democracy”. I have often said that the best way to counteract the populist democracy strippers is to simply talk with the people at the local little league game sitting beside you in the stands while you’re watching your kids games. At the local charity where you help out with the food bank. At your church, where you work in the kitchen to prepare the Sunday dinner . First and foremost, you are already and always friends and acquaintances, and you have always shown respect to one another. Then instead of simply staying quiet, you just gently say I don’t agree with that sort of politics or I don’t buy that way of treating people or I prefer to see things this way. You don’t get angry. You don’t call names. You don’t even disparage the government or the policies that you are criticizing. You just say there is an alternative and that that is what you prefer. There is always space for that sort of discussion. You come across as reasonable, and it comes across as normal to have a different opinion. Then you go back it up at a rally or a public meeting. You go to City Hall and ask for your turn to speak if you are comfortable with that. Or you simply volunteer to help a group that is already organized to oppose a policy or a government you disagree with. That isn’t subversive. It is not radical. It is not nefarious. It’s simply participating in your democracy and it’s normal. And you don’t keep quiet about it you tell everybody what you’re doing. Make it normal. And invite people to come along with you.