Let’s start with England. I’m certainly no optimist, but I also don’t want to be a doomer. It’s a fine line, but looking at the current state of the Democratic Party, and also looking at the sorry state of the Labour Party in the UK, a possible outline of how the institutional Democratic Party could squander a mandate in 2028 is pretty obvious. Former LGM front-pager and sometime podcast guest Dave Brockington explains it in the latest LGM podcast.
I’m not an expert in British politics, but it’s clear that Keir Starmer is uncommonly politically ungifted, and Labour has done very little to materially affect the life of everyday Brits. Starmer came to power with a huge parliamentary majority, but was all on razor-thin wins for Labour, with around 34% of the votes cast. So, a mandate of sorts — certainly in the parliamentary system, they could have done whatever they wanted. But the real issue is that Labour did some incredibly unpopular things in the guise of stabilizing the Pound. Specifically, one of their first moves was to get rid of a Winter heating allowance payment for older Britons. Then, as far as I can tell, they’ve done very little that’s bold or notable, and now they’re in danger of losing to the right-wing Reform Party.
Again, not a British politics expert, but Starmer and Labour inherited a political situation were things were never going to be great — Brexit fucked the economy and made a whole lot of the day-to-day life in Britain harder and more expensive. The key point is that they had power to make change, and instead they reverted back to a combination of taking benefits away from ordinary people and incrementalism.
A deeply sclerotic center-left party that gets power after the previous party has done something dumb, in an environment where voters are intensely dissatisfied and hoping for change, yet does very little because they’ve been habituated to doing very little. I’m concerned that this is where the Democratic Party is headed. Anyway, if you know something about British politics, or if you listen to the podcast, and have a different opinion, I’d love to hear it.
Let’s move on to Canada. TBone sent in a piece from Press Progress on Canadian Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s role in a scandal surrounding the Alberta separatist movement. That movement’s goal is to pass a referendum requiring Alberta to separate from Canada (and probably become the 51st state, eh).
Alberta is the most conservative province in Canada, and Conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith notoriously flirts with being “Maple MAGA”. Smith is officially against separation, but her government has consistently worked to make it easier for the petition to succeed. The Conservatives in Canada took a real shellacking in the election that resulted in Mark Carney becoming the Prime Minister, and Smith is apparently trying to get the separatists to support her in Alberta, despite separatism polling around 70/30 against in her province. The most recent news on the separatist petition is that a judge threw it out on the grounds that it violates the treaty rights of Indigenous Persons.
A group called the Centurion Project are supporting the separatist referendum, and the application they wrote exposed the private data of Albertans. For example, you could type in someone’s name and get their address, which is terrible, for example for women who are hiding from their domestic abusers. Elections Canada, where the database apparently originated, embedded fake names in the data so they could trace it if a leak occurred, and they’re in an active investigation doing just that. The Centurion app has been taken down based on a court order. Apparently, Centurion got the data from the Republican Party of Canada, a pro-separatist party, and they aren’t cooperating with the investigation.
The Hoekstra connection runs through an app called 10xVotes:
The app, which [Centurion Leader] Parker described as the “10x slash the Centurion Project app,” targets low-engagement voters who may lean one way or another politically, but don’t reliably show up to vote. The app attempts to solve this problem by asking supporters to use their database to identify 10 politically-aligned friends, family or neighbours who can be pressured into showing up to vote.
First rolled out during the 2024 US presidential election, its backers tout 10xVotes as the secret weapon that helped deliver Michigan’s 15 electoral college votes to Donald Trump. Michigan Republicans are currently holding state-wide information sessions about 10xVotes in hopes that the technology will help send right-wing candidates to congress after this fall’s midterm elections.
A version of 10xVotes’ Michigan app reviewed by PressProgress has a substantially similar interface and functionalities as the Centurion Project’s app in Alberta.
[…]
Prior to being appointed ambassador to Canada, Hoekstra served as the chair of the Michigan Republican Party and was one of 10xVotes’ most vocal public backers.
During multiple 2024 rallies alongside Trump and his running mate JD Vance, Hoekstra explicitly called on crowds of Trump supporters to download the 10xVotes app in order to identify friends and family members to assist Trump’s ‘get out the vote’ efforts.
Hoekstra has no clear business relationship with 10xVotes, but it sure isn’t a good look for our Ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra is unpopular in Canada because he’s caustic, abrasive and generally an asshole, as well as clearly a Trumper.
Like Mexico’s US Ambassador “CIA Ron Johnson,” Hoekstra is another untrustworthy Trump appointee who’s helping to ruin a historically good relationship with one of our closest neighbors and allies.
