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David Graham

@daviddbgraham.bsky.social
54 followers 46 following 120 posts

Free software advocate. Train and transport nerd. Small plane pilot. Avowed ruralist. Former MP. SubStack: www.davidgraham.ca

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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Conventional wisdom is that the United States would not attack Canada. Several people have said it to me since my recent essay warning us to materially prepare for the possibility of asymmetric war with our former ally. I disagree wholeheartedly with the view that we are safe from attack. The Un...
davidgraham.ca
The American Threat
Conventional wisdom is that the United States would not attack Canada.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
There are a lot of lessons for Canada coming out of this absurd and destructive war the United States is waging against Iran, many of which we should already have picked up from the remarkably similar war being waged by Russia in Ukraine. There are the obvious lessons, such as that the word of t...
davidgraham.ca
Lessons For Canada From Iran and Ukraine
There are a lot of lessons for Canada coming out of this absurd and destructive war the United States is waging against Iran, many of which we should already have picked up from the remarkably similar...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
For far too many people, “I don’t really follow the news” has become the survival strategy of our era. Who can blame them? I follow and subscribe to dozens of Substacks and other news sources and my days off are increasingly spent reading articles and essays by... www.davidgraham.ca/p/the-cost-o...
davidgraham.ca
The Cost Of Ignoring The News
For far too many people, “I don’t really follow the news” has become the survival strategy of our era.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
As he embroils the world in a vast and unnecessary international military conflagration, what is stopping Donald Trump from using nuclear weapons? Not much, it seems; there are no real remaining checks and balances. He has replaced most of the senior military leadership in his country for peopl...
davidgraham.ca
What Stands Between Trump And His Nukes?
As he embroils the world in a vast and unnecessary international military conflagration, what is stopping Donald Trump from using nuclear weapons?
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Canada never properly dealt with Brian Mulroney, even after he admitted to accepting $75,000 in cash from Karlheinz Schreiber while still holding elected office. As unprince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor joins a growing list of figures facing arrest overseas for various forms of corruption, we need ...
davidgraham.ca
Would Canada Arrest A Corrupt Leader?
Canada never properly dealt with Brian Mulroney, even after he admitted to accepting $75,000 in cash from Karlheinz Schreiber while still holding elected office. As unprince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
After 64 years of sanctions and blockades against Cuba, the United States are now trying to starve out the entire country’s population in an explicit attempt to force régime change — and Canada cannot sit on the sidelines. The US is preventing oil from reaching the country which depends on impor...
davidgraham.ca
Canada Must Act On The Cuban Oil Crisis
After 64 years of sanctions and blockades against Cuba, the United States are now trying to starve out the entire country’s population in an explicit attempt to force régime change — and Canada cannot...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Canada has published a Defence Industrial Strategy for the first time. The extensive documents released by Ministers McGuinty, Joly, and Fuhr spells out a vision for the country that uncouples us from the Americans… eventually. There is an immense amount of analysis coming out about it, but I wan...
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Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy and the Gripen
Canada has published a Defence Industrial Strategy for the first time.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Traditionally, when the portrait of a Prime Minister is hung in Parliament, it is deferred until their political career is firmly finished. It is fitting, given former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s irreverent legacy, that the hanging of his portrait last week was the occasion through which he r...
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A Portrait Of Harper
Traditionally, when the portrait of a Prime Minister is hung in Parliament, it is deferred until their political career is firmly finished. It is fitting, given former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
École Polytechnique, Dunblane, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and so many others in so many places over so many years, with Tumbler Ridge now joining this infamous list. School shootings are often seen as a tragedy, as a horrible thing that just happens, with no underl... www.davidgraham.ca/p/there-will...
davidgraham.ca
There Must Be No More 'Thoughts And Prayers'
École Polytechnique, Dunblane, Columbine, Sandy Hook, and so many others in so many places over so many years, with Tumbler Ridge now joining this infamous list.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
While we listen to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper call on Canadians to “‘make any sacrifice necessary’ to protect Canada’s independence and unity,” we need only remember the letter he published in the Wall Street Journal attacking Jean Chrétien for keeping us out of the US-led war in Iraq. ...
davidgraham.ca
Jamil Jivani Following Stephen Harper's Example
While we listen to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper call on Canadians to “‘make any sacrifice necessary’ to protect Canada’s independence and unity,” we need only remember the letter he published ...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
One day, the orange popsicle will melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. It will feel like the end, but until the United States completes its reckoning, Canada will need to resist the very Canadian instinct to open our arms and offer forgiveness. Before the dust settles, much of the country — a...
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The End Won't Be The End
One day, the orange popsicle will melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Pierre Poilievre’s career-defending speech Friday night started with a telling joke, that he loved “seeing so many Conservatives in one place, but it must freak the Liberals out enough to invoke the Emergencies Act.” For the joke to work, the room had to acknowledge that the 2022 Ottawa convoy an...
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87.4% Of Poilievre Supporters Support Poilievre
Pierre Poilievre’s career-defending speech Friday night started with a telling joke, that he loved “seeing so many Conservatives in one place, but it must freak the Liberals out enough to invoke the E...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Nearly all the problems we are facing today share a common root cause: the role of money — and those who have too much of it — in politics. Canada’s electoral system is money-dependent, giving a natural and disproportionate voice to those who have money to spare. Even at small scales, the maximu...
davidgraham.ca
Private Money In Politics Is The Root Of Our Rot
Nearly all the problems we are facing today share a common root cause: the role of money — and those who have too much of it — in politics.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Canada is facing an existential threat from an unhinged neighbour intent on destroying our sovereignty to plunder our resources. The Alberta separatist movement is not some great defender of either; they are useful idiots to those who threaten our country. The province’s small but noisy separati...
davidgraham.ca
Make Alberta Great Again
Canada is facing an existential threat from an unhinged neighbour intent on destroying our sovereignty to plunder our resources.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
There is opportunity in this chaos. France and Ukraine ran a sting on the United States that showed the Trump administration was leaking classified data to Russia. We know that NATO, NORAD, and any other military alliance with the United States is no longer worth the paper on which it is printed....
davidgraham.ca
A Treatise For A Treaty On A New World Order
There is indeed something of a 'new world order.' We can go along for the ride, or we can take the lead in making it one in which we are happy to be a part.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Dear Americans: don’t apologise for your president, do something about him. For the rest of the world, Trump is the United States and the United States is Trump. We see the two as just as interchangeable as you see Russia and Putin.
davidgraham.ca
To The World, Trump Is America
Dear Americans: don’t apologise for your president, do something about him.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
When an armed group go door-to-door looking for people that look foreign and kidnap, assault, injure, and murder people in cold blood in the streets, all while hiding their faces behind masks, and doing so specifically to intimidate a population for political reasons, we would normally consider t...
davidgraham.ca
Designate ICE As A Terrorist Organisation
When an armed group go door-to-door looking for people that look foreign and kidnap, assault, injure, and murder people in cold blood in the streets, all while hiding their faces behind masks, and doi...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
The Trump régime wants control of America’s central bank and control of their interest rates, and he is willing to prosecute Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to get it. Powell, unlike Scotia Bank CEO Scott Thomson, is willing to push back. According to Powell, the Department of Justice served...
davidgraham.ca
A Tale Of Two Banks
When it comes to destructive American policies, the Federal Reserve is resisting — and Scotia Bank is openly collaborating.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
It is said that it is darkest before dawn. Unfortunately for us, it is not yet midnight.
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The Many Routes To War
It is said that it is darkest before dawn. Unfortunately for us, it is not yet midnight.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Pablo Rodriguez’s spectacularly short career as Quebec Liberal leader came to an abrupt end without him ever holding a seat in the province’s legislature. With the Phoenix-like rise of the Parti Québecois, it leaves us on the precipice at a most inopportune time. Premier François Legault has ind...
davidgraham.ca
Who Will Fight For Canadian Unity?
With the Donroe Doctrine threatening every aspect of Canada's sovereignty in a time of unchecked foreign interference, separatists smell an opportunity to break up the country.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Yesterday’s illegal and violent annexation of Venezuela should dispel any remaining notion that the United States is a functioning democratic country worthy of any form of respect on the world stage. This was Trump’s Czechoslovakia and Canada is precariously positioned as his Austria. There are ...
davidgraham.ca
Venezuela, Canada, and the Donroe Doctrine
Yesterday’s illegal and violent annexation of Venezuela should dispel any remaining notion that the United States is a functioning democratic country worthy of any form of respect on the world stage.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
As a wild 2025 comes to a crashing halt, what have we learned? Much of the voting public cares little about corruption, is in large part far more interested in the ill-being of others than in the well-being of themselves, and democracy is far more fickle than my already cynical self had imagined ...
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2025: The Year Of The Grift
As a wild 2025 comes to a crashing halt, what have we learned?
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Interchange Canada is a little-known program in which corporations embed employees in the federal government while they stay on their sponsor’s payroll. There is precious little public information about who has participated in this program whose very existence raises serious ethical questions. ...
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Interchange Canada And Embedded Corruption
Interchange Canada is a little-known program in which corporations embed employees in the federal government while they stay on their sponsor’s payroll.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
The United States is considering requiring the submission of five years of social media history in order to apply for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization form, a de facto visa that many countries, including Canada, now require. There is no obvious reason to gather the vast quantities o...
davidgraham.ca
Eventually, There Will Be Another Nuremberg
The United States is considering requiring the submission of five years of social media history in order to apply for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization form, a de facto visa that many coun...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
I recently came across one of the most ridiculous headlines I have seen in a world full of ridiculous headlines: “Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy.” It is one of several assertions I have seen recently about consumer behaviour that underlines how ut...
davidgraham.ca
End-stage Capitalism's Meal Break
I recently came across one of the most ridiculous headlines I have seen in a world full of ridiculous headlines: “Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy.” It ...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
One of the anachronistic and unnecessary requirements of Canadians, Americans, and residents of many other countries at income tax time is the need to file their taxes. The information the government requires is, for the most part, already in the government’s possession. The tax code is excessive...
davidgraham.ca
Tax Fairness Starts With The Forms
One of the anachronistic and unnecessary requirements of Canadians, Americans, and residents of many other countries at income tax time is the need to file their taxes.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
One of the greatest and most realistic movies about Canadian politics is Guibord s’en va-t-en-guerre, a comedy about an indepedent rural Quebec MP who must cast the deciding vote in a minority parliament over whether the country goes to war. It is a reminder of the relevance and importance of loc...
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Guilbeault s’en va-t-en guerre
One of the greatest and most realistic movies about Canadian politics is Guibord s’en va-t-en-guerre, a comedy about an indepedent rural Quebec MP who must cast the deciding vote in a minority parliam...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Communism is a limit on wealth; socialism is a limit on poverty; capitalism is a limit on those limits; democracy is a limit on capitalism; and fascism is a limit on democracy. ...
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Congress's Bizarre Assertion On Socialism
Communism is a limit on wealth; socialism is a limit on poverty; capitalism is a limit on those limits; democracy is a limit on capitalism; and fascism is a limit on democracy.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) visited the Trump White House last week and went home with a deal to buy American F-35 fighter jets. In Canada, we are reconsidering our plan to do the same, and with good reason. ...
davidgraham.ca
It's Time For Canada To Get A Gripen
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) visited the Trump White House last week and went home with a deal to buy American F-35 fighter jets. In Canada, we are reconsidering our pl...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Donald Trump may reach his untimely political end over some of the emasculating relevations still to come in the Epstein files, but the dictatorship he has created is not about to follow suit, and there are serious implications for Canada. ...
davidgraham.ca
Epstein's Legacy: Trump to Vance, Poilievre to Jivani?
Donald Trump may reach his untimely political end over some of the emasculating relevations still to come in the Epstein files, but the dictatorship he has created is not about to follow suit, and the...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Interstellar travellers would have to check on Earth thousands of times to have a hope of dropping by in our era -- and if they arrived today, they probably wouldn't want to stick around. ...
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The Time Element Of Fermi's Paradox
Interstellar travellers would have to check on Earth thousands of times to have a hope of dropping by in our era -- and if they arrived today, they probably wouldn't want to stick around.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Nova Scotia MP Chris D’Entremont’s floor crossing last week has put the Conservatives into a bit of a tizzy. When the roles were reversed, they were positively gleeful. Unfortunately for them, floor-crossing is a strength, not a weakness, of Canada’s democracy. One of the most famous floor cross...
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Floor Crossing Is Part Of Democracy
Nova Scotia MP Chris D’Entremont’s floor crossing last week has put the Conservatives into a bit of a tizzy. When the roles were reversed, they were positively gleeful. Unfortunately for them, floor-c...
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Reposted by David Graham
Dr. Angelia Wagner @angeliawagner.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
I'd like to express my gratitude to ex-Liberal MP David Graham (@daviddbgraham.bsky.social), who regaled my first-year UAlberta poli sci students with tales from his term in office as well as thoughtfully answered their questions about current events and the future of Canada, U.S., and the world.
Former Liberal MP David Graham gestures as he speaks with first-year political science students at the University of Alberta on Thursday, November 6, 2025.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
While we consider mega projects to build up Canadian sovereignty next to a United States government gleefully starving its people, artificial intelligence and automation are driving us down the road toward an even greater cataclysm that we need to get ahead of. On Thursday, Tesla’s board, fearin...
davidgraham.ca
Unchecked Capitalism's Inevitable Conclusion
While we consider mega projects to build up Canadian sovereignty next to a United States government gleefully starving its people, artificial intelligence and automation are driving us down the road t...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Canada does not need a second 2025 election, but Pierre Poilievre desperately needs his third kick at the can this year. And he needs to make it Mark Carney’s fault, which will be a tougher sell after yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s first federal budget is bringing home...
davidgraham.ca
Poilievre Needs An Election
Canada does not need a second 2025 election, but Pierre Poilievre desperately needs his third kick at the can this year.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
With the United States government now shut down for a full month while Republicans take away food assistance and medicare from vast swaths of the American population, Donald Trump has a new distraction: nuclear weapons testing. Through the noise, you may have missed the announcement that the Uni...
entangledcuriosities.substack.com
Dry Humour at the End of Empire
How to Gift a Burial Crown and Call It Respect
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Donald Trump’s tax breaks to Americans add up to about $1 trillion per quarter, and overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest. It is no surprise, then, that the wealthiest are thanking him with relatively modest contributions to the new White House ballroom. There are numerous calls for the next pres...
davidgraham.ca
Keep The Ballroom
Donald Trump’s tax breaks to Americans add up to about $1 trillion per quarter, and overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest. It is no surprise, then, that the wealthiest are thanking him with relatively...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Doug Ford is playing a long game. He has, in the past, openly supported Donald Trump and, as with so many, discovered that the Leopards Eating Faces Party will eventually come for your face too. For him, though, there is opportunity to become a leopard. Ford has been positioning himself as a kin...
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Doug Ford's Long Game
Doug Ford is playing a long game.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Last weekend’s massive NO KINGS protest across the United States with shadow protests in several other countries is a funny one for us Canadians. We have a King, after all. A real hereditary king who adorns our money and in whose name all of our official documentation exists, from laws to corpora...
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America's Constitutional Monarchy
Last weekend’s massive NO KINGS protest across the United States with shadow protests in several other countries is a funny one for us Canadians.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
On Thursday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the “leadership of the RCMP is frankly just despicable when it comes to enforcing laws against the Liberal government.” Coming just weeks after the indictment of former FBI director James Comey south of... www.davidgraham.ca/p/poilievres...
davidgraham.ca
Poilievre's Descpicable Attack
On Thursday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said that the “leadership of the RCMP is frankly just despicable when it comes to enforcing laws against the Liberal government.” Coming just weeks af...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Prima facie, Maria Corina Machado is an excellent choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. But the more I learn about her, the more I realise Trump actually won this round. ...
davidgraham.ca
The Nobel Peace Prize's Big Miss
Prima facie, Maria Corina Machado is an excellent choice for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
This week’s visit by Mark Carney to the White House has brought sharp focus onto the collapsing empire to our south, and the bullet we so narrowly dodged domestically on April 28th. ...
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Canada Dodged A Bullet In April
This week’s visit by Mark Carney to the White House has brought sharp focus onto the collapsing empire to our south, and the bullet we so narrowly dodged domestically on April 28th.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Donald Trump twice referred to annexing Canada into the United States during a half-hour press conference from the White House yesterday, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sitting right there next to him. ...
davidgraham.ca
Again With The 51st State
Donald Trump twice referred to annexing Canada into the United States during a half-hour press conference from the White House yesterday, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sitting right there n...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Being a Canadian today feels an awful lot like being in Austria in the mid 1930s, in the years leading up to Anschluss. After watching last night’s performance by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump at Marine base Quantico, I am left wondering how this absurdity will... www.davidgraham.ca/p/how-will-i...
davidgraham.ca
How Will It End?
Being a Canadian today feels an awful lot like being in Austria in the mid 1930s, in the years leading up to Anschluss. After watching last night’s performance by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump at Mari...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
The root cause of the social dysfunction allowing the rise of authoritarian leaders is a fundamental lack of progressive ambition. ...
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Progressives Lack Ambition
The root cause of the social dysfunction allowing the rise of authoritarian leaders is a fundamental lack of progressive ambition.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Somewhere around 1000 detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz have disappeared. ...
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They're Disappearing Them
Somewhere around 1000 detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz have disappeared.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
In the year leading up to his bid for re-election, the president sought to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the voting machines and voting system throughout his country. Following his defeat, he planned a coup and his supporters attacked and ransacked the country’s national legislature. Now he ...
davidgraham.ca
Consequences Are Possible For Coups
In the year leading up to his bid for re-election, the president sought to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the voting machines and voting system throughout his country.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Poland invoked NATO Article 4 last week after Russian drones entered Polish airspace forcing a defensive military response. On the weekend, Romania reported a Russian drone violating their airspace, as well. As a member of NATO, Canada enjoys joint protection, but also shares in joint responsibil...
davidgraham.ca
Why We Need A Strong Military
Poland invoked NATO Article 4 last week after Russian drones entered Polish airspace forcing a defensive military response. On the weekend, Romania reported a Russian drone violating their airspace, a...
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
This week’s political assassination in the United States was not the year’s first, and the difference in reaction among right wing leaders is terrifyingly stark. ...
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Rhetoric And Assassination
This week’s political assassination in the United States was not the year’s first, and the difference in reaction among right wing leaders is terrifyingly stark.
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David Graham @daviddbgraham.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Last week, the United States Navy attacked a Venezuelan vessel in international waters, killing everyone on board under flimsy legal pretext. Like the January 6 pardons and the deployment of the National Guard on American streets, the purpose of the shooting was not so much to intimidate drug car...
davidgraham.ca
The Department Of War
Last week, the United States Navy attacked a Venezuelan vessel in international waters, killing everyone on board under flimsy legal pretext. Like the January 6 pardons and the deployment of the Natio...
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