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Alexander Dowsey

@alexanderdowsey.bsky.social
211 followers 212 following 320 posts

BA in Ancient and Medieval history, Archaeology, MA in Celtic Studies, general nerd, love politics, plants, and books!

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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Headed out to my families place in rural Yellowhead county this weekend, always an interesting view of the whole referendum debate 🤪 What I've found very interesting is the different verbiage used on the pro-independence(?) Signs, because I've noticed quite a lot of vagueness on them!
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Reminds me of the time the premier claimed that unvaccinated Albertans were experiencing the most medical discrimination in her whole lifetime. She then blocked me when I pointed out that Alberta had an active eugenics program until 1972 🤪
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Reposted by Alexander Dowsey
Ann Petersen-Kane @anniegirl.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We can't trust Elections Alberta with petitions. Not because the people working there are shady, but they are being thwarted by the UCP govt where referendums are concerned. Smith is using the referendums as a political propaganda tool, and the process and outcomes cannot be trusted. #ableg #abpoli
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Shannon Phillips 🇨🇦 @sphillipsab.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Five alarm fire for democracy in Canada. Not just Alberta. The whole country. Not hyperbole. When we take away effective representation, we no longer have a real claim to being a liberal democracy. If Alberta gets away with this, other provinces will follow.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Fundamentally undemocratic, blatantly partisan, wholly selfish, and entirely on brand for the UCP. They are only interested in preserving their power for personal gain, and will sacrifice anything and everything to guarantee that. #abpoli #ableg
An Edmonton Journal headline reading "Alberta to scrap new electoral map, launch expedited redraw to add more MLAs, the process would be overseen by a UCP-led committee of MLAs and would see the number of MLAs grow by four, up to 91"
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My letter to President Flanagan re: the removal of equity, diversity, and inclusion against the wishes of GFC, and his decision to pass that judgment through the premier's office before publicly announcing it. #abpoli #abpse
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David Shepherd @dshepyeg.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Frustrated with Danielle Smith & the UCP? Their corruption, refusal to listen & stoking of separatism? Wondering how you can help bring ethical, competent government back to Alberta? Join me this Wednesday for the Edmonton-City Centre AGM! Register: www.albertandp.ca/edmonton-cit... #abpoli
albertandp.ca
Edmonton City Centre AGM
Join the Edmonton-City Centre NDP for our annual general meeting.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
A piece I wrote for the Rat Creek Press, cobtemplating the current state of Alberta politics and the places where we draw strength in seemingly hopeless times! #abpoli open.substack.com/pub/ratcreek...
open.substack.com
Community perseveres against hopelessness
Different is possible… even in Alberta politics
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
In typical UCP fashion, the UCP selected panel reached the UCP's conclusion, how utterly shocking. What astounds me is that the panel saw intense contention on multiple issues and decided "yeah we should go ahead with this".
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Make no mistake, cruelty is the point and at this point, and municipal governments that continue to enable these systems are just as complicit in the suffering of those affected or killed by these policies, despite their claims that they are supporting people sufficiently (cough cough yegcc).
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
The cities backwards approach to the crisis downtown has continued to spiral out of control (predictably) the cold weather response means nothing when it continues to allow the sweeping of camps in deadly weather.
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chris - sᴉɹɥɔ @newfangl3d.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
In January 2024 Edmonton's city manager (and smith lackey) did a camp sweep immediately before the coldest deepfreeze that we'd seen in 50 years. And council (most of whom have been reelected) let him do it. Not one of them did anything to stop him.
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Elaine Hyshka @ehyshka.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Edmonton has had a disturbingly high number of frostbite amputations the last two winters. With freezing temps on the way, both the City and the Government of Alberta must do more to prevent people from freezing in the cold. edmontonjournal.com/opinion/colu... #ableg #yegcc
edmontonjournal.com
Opinion: Edmonton doesn't have to be the frostbite capital of the world
Severe frostbite injuries are entirely preventable - together, let’s work towards a city where no one gets left out in the cold.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Equally applicable to here in Edmonton where conservative and "progressive" councillors alike, parrot the exact same lines around "safety concerns" when what they are really talking about is visible poverty, but villainising the poor is a longstanding tradition in Edmonton City Hall.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
It was stupid when the UK government accused them of being terrorists, which was then withdrawn, it's even more stupid now that Canada is doing the exact same thing. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Hip-hop group Kneecap barred from entering Canada for supporting 'terrorist organizations' | CBC News
The Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap has been banned from entering Canada over what the federal government says is their "open endorsement of terrorist organizations."
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Continuing the long tradition of using the NWC for garbage policies like preventing marriage equality, compensation for victims of the Alberta eugenics program, and so on, it should be an indication that the policy is, in fact, bad. Shocking I know #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Almost like the government put no thought at all into the potential knock-on effects of passing a deliberately vague and generalised ministerial order in July, whoever could have possibly anticipated that? Certainly not the government 🤔 #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
If you are uncomfortable with your child reading certain books, the answer is to have a level conversation with them about what you do or do not want them to be reading, not prohibiting everyone else from reading because you are incapable of parenting properly. #abpoli oop- who said that? 👀
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MondoAB @mondoab.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Agree with Wab on all points. "The premier said he would instead like to see the federal government remove tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles so that country would drop its duties on canola, "if we're in the business of removing tariffs." " www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
'Is this elbows down?': Manitoba premier questions Canada's removal of retaliatory tariffs | CBC News
Manitoba's premier is questioning the federal government's decision to drop most counter-tariffs against the United States, saying he doesn't want the prime minister to start taking an "elbows down" approach.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Ahh yes because America has shown that it's adhering to reason and interested in mutual partnership? You'd think we would have learned from history that appeasement doesn't work on megalomaniac dictators, but apparently, we haven't. #cdnpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
I'm not sure that overt gerrymandering is as tolerated by the Albertan public as the UCP seems to think it is, but then they haven't got the best track record of having their finger on the pulse of much of anything lately. #abpoli
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Dr. Young-Leslie {use alt-text, humans} ElbowsUp! 🇨🇦🚲 @ethnographer.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I'm donating to two Palestinian♀️in #Edmonton with families displaced in #Gaza. The goal: $10,000/month in recurring donations, to help 100s of people, currently scattered through Deir Al Balah, Gaza City, Jabalya, & Khan Younis / Al-Mawasi. Details here: chuffed.org/project/yegf...
chuffed.org
YEG for Gaza
We are a coalition mobilizing support for two Palestinian women in Edmonton who have families in Gaza. Since Israel began its intensified siege and genocide they have been supporting their immediate a...
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Canada making demilitarisation a condition of recognising Palestine while it is literally IN THE PROCESS OF BEING INVADED BY ISRAEL is so utterly stupid, and so on-brand. We actually can recognise Palestine without conditions that are clearly unreasonable, given the circumstances.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
If, after the last four years, you are running for city council or mayor in Edmonton and still propose doubling down on camp clearances and increasing police presence as a solution to the crisis on our streets, then I have serious concerns about your competence and critical thinking skills.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
I really don't understand all the nonsense arguments against the potential for another doctors' strike here in the UK, when we know that even with the 20% pay increase from the last strike, doctors still have lower real wages than in 2008.
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Andrea DeKeseredy @andiewinnipeg.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
🧵Last year @pinglamjoeip.bsky.social and I extracted public data on 35,828 research projects funded by eight SSHRC programs to debunk the Alberta govt's claim that federal funding agencies favor “left-wing” or “progressive” disciplines. We now take one step further to analyze the data.
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Ann Petersen-Kane @anniegirl.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Fot those concerned about housing affordability, here’s information on the goal post shifting from 35% of income to 50%. 50% of your monthly income to pay for your mortgage (or rent even) is dangerous and unsustainable.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
87 people died from drug poisoning in Edmonton in March, an all time record, but who cares! The real problem is obviously school library books 🙄 #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
While the gov't has begun to pursue a program of federal program spending reductions up to 15% by FY 2028-29 it's continuing to be clear that Canada (at all levels of government) is disinterested in doing much of anything to remedy a crisis which continues to spiral out of control. #cdnpoli #abpoli
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CPAWS Northern Alberta @cpawsnab.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
🌿 Phase 2 of the GoA's Engagement on its Plan for Parks is OPEN for comment until July 26th. Nearly 5,000 Albertans completed the first phase, and so much of your feedback is now in the draft plan. 📝 Get started with our survey guide (with @cpawssab.bsky.social) : cpawsnab.org/wp-content/u...
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
I'll be sad to miss this by just a couple weeks before I'm back in town, but I'm sure it's going to be a fun time! Check it out if you are in the area on Aug 30th! #yeg
A green circle on a white background with writing and a group of celebrating people. The writing reads: 94 street extravaganza, August 30th, 2025 112-114 avenue 94 street NW, Edmonton 11-5.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
I don't know why the government has made this decision, there's no indication that this will somehow guarantee good faith bargaining with the US, and a 3% tax on profits over 20 million is hardly a big ask from tech megacompanies. This is a bad choice #cdnpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
At no point in the last 16 years have I ever thought "gee, what's really missing from the #yeg core is a Katz-owned event park, that would really turn everything around". Not once. Ever. #yegcc #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Updated satellite imagery means I can finally update my pet project tracking unoccupied urban space, derelictions, and surface parking lots in inner-city Edmonton! 🟠= Surface parking 🔵= Empty lots ⚫= Derelict properties 🟡= Redevelopments! (reflections and caveats below) #abpoli #yegcc
A screenshot of a map portion covering several neighbourhoods in central Edmonton, Boyle Street, McCauley, Riverdale, and parts of Downtown, Alberta Avenue, and Cromdale. The map is dotted with coloured squares indicating different types of empty land and redevelopment, orange blocks concentrated around Boyle Street and Downtown indicate surface parking lots, blue blocks indicate empty land, and is dispersed across several neighbourhoods. Black blocks indicate derelict buildings which are also dispersed but with particular concentrations around the Western edge of McCauley and Southern Alberta Avenue, and lastly yellow blocks indicate formerly empty/derelict lots which have been redeveloped into new properties.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Congratulations @naheednenshi.bsky.social and @gurtejsinghbraryeg.bsky.social on your elections yesterday! 🧡
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
As usual, the programs on the choppping block are predominantly related to history, language, and culture. As governments across the UK adopt harsher stances to int students, the programs above are ironically often the first to go. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...
walesonline.co.uk
Cardiff University agrees sweeping cuts that will see entire departments shut
Cardiff University's council chair Pat Younge told staff and students the savings were 'painful but necessary'
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
I can't say I'm surprised, though it is astonishing how the UCP still pursues bad ideas like these despite their own surveys showing Albertans don't support them. #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Hear hear! Selinium leaching into waterways presents major threats to the health of communities and environments which rely on watersheads in the Rocky Mountains across the prairies. I hope the government takes this seriously! #cdnpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Making the best of a bad situation riddled with lawsuits.... by going ahead with a widely opposed project 🧐 I'm searching for sense and yet there's none to be found #abpoli #AbLeg
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
No matter which side of the Atlantic I'm on, I can't seem to escape universities whose administrations cut jobs while handing themselves juicy pay raises. Apprently keeping executive pay up with "market benchmarking" is more important that 200 jobs. 🫠 www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Bangor university boss gets pay rise while staff jobs cut
A trade union says vice chancellor's pay rise could have saved multiple university staff jobs.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
I'm getting flashbacks to the UCP's rhetoric around post secondary, something about wanting young people to sell used cars? They've got strange fixations 😂 But for real, if the premier genuinely believes this, the UCP has no interest in meaningfully dealing with unemployment. #abpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The upcoming by-elections would be a good opportunity to change this, if the party is serious about winning the next election then people do need a clear idea of where the party stands, and what sort of vision it wants to bring going forward. #abpoli #AbLeg
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The association of "lack of safety" with Immigration and asylum seekers is gross, and codifying anti-immigrant and anti-asylum rhetoric is in fact, not good. And neither is expanding the capacity for law enforcement to surveil vulnerable communities under the guise of "public interest" #cdnpoli
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
It definitely feels like the party has lost quite a lot of momentum in the time since the leadership race, and I'm not sure it's really internalised many (or any) of the reflections we've had on the recent elections in Alberta; it's felt a bit rudderless as of late. 🧵 #abpoli #AbLeg
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Jason Markusoff @markusoff.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
NEW Janet Brown/CBC poll: 28% of Albertans would vote to separate, 67% would vote no. *Number of ppl who feel Alberta would be better off separate hasn't risen in since 2020, but feeling has intensified. *More Albertans feeling attachment to Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
Poll finds Albertans' attachment to Canada has grown as support for separatism has hardened | CBC News
Support for separation remains steady at about 30 per cent, according to a new poll, but among that group, separatist sentiment has grown more intense. Meanwhile, the number of Albertans who feel more...
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
The UCP is just an amalgam of the fiscal corruption of the PC's and the unhinged social phobias of the Wildrose party, because they have nothing else going for them, they don't want to govern, they want control and money. #abpoli #AbLeg calgaryherald.com/news/local-n...
calgaryherald.com
‘Extremely graphic’ sexual content found in books at K-9 schools, province says
Books found in some school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton had “explicit sexual content,” said the provincial government.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Delton is fully residential, the bike lanes do not in amy way involve provincial funding, it's not "decreasing critical vehicle acces" and a lot more people than "military age males" use bike lanes. This is so inane it's quite astonishing really. #yegcc
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Fixing healthcare in 90 days amirite 🤪 #abpoli #ableg
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
As per usual, it's less about vibrancy, and more about protecting business profit margins. If the goal is increasing property values in perpetuity, then a downtown that is meaningfully affordable isn't ever going to be realistically achievable, but then again that's clearly not the goal here.
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Alexander Dowsey @alexanderdowsey.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Criminalizing the unhoused for being unhoused acomplishes nothing beyond inflicting harm on marginalized communities and re-asserting discrimination based on housing status. But of course, that's the point of these policies right? Looking at you Edmonton 👀 #abpoli
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