The Alberta Prosperity Project isn’t a gov’t. Yet it claims “cabinet-level” U.S. talks on independence. No names. No proof. This is theatre, not statecraft. Shadow diplomacy like this erodes trust and feeds disinfo. Democracy leaks by a thousand cuts.
Every story starts with a spark. For Pejorative: Echoes of a Nation, that spark was a question I asked on my blog, just a few “what if” scenarios about Alberta leaving Canada. At the time, it felt like speculative fiction. But the more I followed the rhetoric, the clearer it became that the lines between reality and fiction were blurring.
“Canada is broken.” “Project 2025 will save America.” “Memes are the new news.” Those lines have probably flashed across your feed in the last few months. They’re not just headlines, hashtags, or jokes — they’re weapons.
Dystopia isn’t arriving, it’s already here, just unevenly distributed. For some, it’s daily survival; for others, a new shock. This memoir fragment explores how silence becomes complicity, why endurance is not apathy, and how writing can stand as witness.
The road wound higher than I remembered, climbing through high hills with just enough guardrail to suggest safety. On one side, forested hills stretched into layers of green and shadow. On the other, a drop, sharp and unforgiving, reminded me of gravity’s patience. Above it all, a clear sky stretched like a promise.
Coffee in one hand, edits in the other, the rest of the cottage still asleep.
